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Building Future Forests: Politics, Ecology, and the Co-Production of Landscape in Southeastern Ohio

Law, Justine
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1275416406

Abstract Details

2010, Master of Arts, Ohio State University, Geography.
Southeastern Ohio, officially designated a part of Appalachia, was heavily dependent on coal mining from the mid-1800s until the 1970s. But despite the region’s history of resource extraction, its forest has largely returned. Interestingly, almost all of this reforestation occurred on private land owned by thousands of individuals. These private forest owners are often viewed as inadequate stewards of the land, and interest groups are constantly pushing governance strategies that would remake the forest to suit their own agendas. Thus, a struggle over this newly-mature forest, its resources, and its future has begun. Here I attempt first to show how local forests owners are actually knowledgeable, active, economically-savvy, and organized scientists navigating a complicated, power-laden space filled with stereotypes and competing interests. Second, I discuss the connections between soils, trees, nutrients, animals, interest groups, landowners, and economies on this landscape and argue that ecological and human processes are knotted too tightly together to ever be untangled. Finally, through linking human and non-human processes, I explore the possibilities of how southeast Ohio's forests could look years from now. Many of these possibilities are so drastically dissimilar from both each other and today's forest that they would certainly have significant repercussions on local landscapes, ecosystems, and livelihoods.
Kendra McSweeney, PhD (Advisor)
Becky Mansfield, PhD (Other)
Joel Wainwright, PhD (Other)
Geography
political ecology; forests; Ohio; Appalachia

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Law, J. (2010). Building Future Forests: Politics, Ecology, and the Co-Production of Landscape in Southeastern Ohio [Master's thesis, Ohio State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1275416406

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Law, Justine. Building Future Forests: Politics, Ecology, and the Co-Production of Landscape in Southeastern Ohio. 2010. Ohio State University, Master's thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1275416406.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Law, Justine. "Building Future Forests: Politics, Ecology, and the Co-Production of Landscape in Southeastern Ohio." Master's thesis, Ohio State University, 2010. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1275416406

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

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© 2010, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by The Ohio State University and OhioLINK.