The Sealy News (Sealy, Tex.), Vol. 107, No. 44, Ed. 1 Thursday, January 5, 1995 Page: 28 of 38
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Page 14
Gulf Coast Farmer-Rancher
January 1995
Humans are attracted to landscapes
Continued from Page 11
Gramann said the study
ended up being good news for
the Ouachita National For-
est, because its findings sup-
ported the forest's main
management goal: learning
how to grow and perpetuate
a mixed pine-hardwood for-
est while also maintaining
commercial supplies of tim-
ber. Pure pine forests are
more desirable from a timber
production standpoint.
One implication of the
study is that in outdoor
recreation sites and other vi-
sually sensitive areas, such
as hi
could
ghway corridors, it
be beneficial to man-
age forests to have more
mixed pine and hardwoods.
Gramann had conducted
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studies in the past dealing
with the number of oaks and
other East Texas hardwoods
as they related to scenic
beauty. For this study, he
and Yhang focused on color,
important because of its po-
tential economic impact on
tourism in the Ouachita
mountains, where many visi-
tors come to view foliage in
the spring and fall.
"This gives us a chance to
look, over a fairly long pe-
riod of time, at how forests
regenerate and how they
impact- scenery in a con-
trolled situation," Gramann
said.
The researchers took color
slides of 20 experimental
plots in different landlords
(including varying slopes
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and positioning on ridges)
and different seasons. The
plots also differed in the
proportion of hardwoods
they retained after harvest-
ing for timber.
Harvesting left each plot
with 60 square feet of pine,
with pine measured at the
base of each tree.
One of four different pro-
portions of hardwood were
in each plot: 30 square feet
per acre, 15 square feet per
acre in a grouped arrange-
ment, 15 square feet per acre
in a scattered arrangement,
or no hardwoods.
Students in four Texas
A&M classes rated a total of
340 slides on a 10-point
scale, with raw ratings
transformed into what were
called scenic beauty estima-
tions.
Three trained judges sepa-
rately rated each slide for
the visibility of green, yel-
low, blue and brown, and
these ratings were trans-
formed into "color visibility
estimations."
An equation relating the
two found that greater green
visibility was associated
with higher beauty evalua-
tions, while more brown was
associated with lower
beauty evaluations. Yellow
enhanced beauty ratings,
while blue detracted from
the ratings.
"The impacts of green and
brown on scenic beauty were
consistent with biophilia
and biophobia hypotheses,"
Gramann said. "These pre-
dict that, because of evolu-
tionary processes, humans
will be attracted to natural
landscapes containing mostly
green vegetation because
these promise food, water
and other basic survival
needs.
"However, they will be
repelled from scenes contain-,
ing mostly brown vegetation
because such scenes do not
signify fulfillment of basic
needs."
The degree of harvesting
did not affect green or brown
visibility, but plots with
more hardwoods did increase
yellow visibility -- and thus
beauty ratings -- in the fall.
Plots with fewer hard-
woods also tended to have
more blue visible because of
less screening of the sky by
forest canopy, and those
plots tended to have lower
ratings.
The findings regarding
yellow and blue were incon-
sistent with the researchers'
initial hypotheses.
They had expected yellow
to decrease beauty ratings
and blue to increase them,
based on the bio-
philia/biophobia hypothe-
ses and other studies of color
preference.
However, Gramann said,
predictions regarding the ef-
fects of blue and yellow were
based on laboratory studies,
which apparently do not
apply to human response to
color in natural environ-
ments.
He added that scenic
beauty ratings were likely
far more impacted by hard-
wood removal and greater
amounts of downed woody
material in the slides with
greater blue.
More yellow slides were
associated with fall and
changing colors of leaves,
which are considered a
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strong attraction for people
in many regions, Gramann
said. \
The study also leaves
other intriguing questions,
Gramann said. For instance,
forest type may also be an
important factor in per-
ceived scenic beauty.
"Models developed in pon-
derosa pine forests in north-
ern Arizona have been found
to be less effective at pre-
dicting beauty ratings for a
similar forest in Colorado,"
Gramann said. "It could be
that our study's model has
geographic and ecological
limits."
More studies like the Oua-
chita effort, using other ar-
eas and perhaps focusing on
a broader range of colors,
could provide useful data to
researchers, he said.
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Petrusek, Wilma. The Sealy News (Sealy, Tex.), Vol. 107, No. 44, Ed. 1 Thursday, January 5, 1995, newspaper, January 5, 1995; Sealy, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1702742/m1/28/: accessed July 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Virgil and Josephine Gordon Memorial Library.