Northern California Botanist 2022 Research Grant Awardee, Brook Constantz, is a doctoral student at UC Santa Cruz, whose dissertation is entitled, Long-term Recovery of Restored Forest Overstories and Understories along the Sacramento River, California. As a part of his research, Brook is requesting input via a survey that he created to collect data about what, exactly, makes a restored landscape attractive!
In Brook’s words,
Visual beauty increases acceptance of habitat restoration within the local community, although it is often overlooked. In fact, many restoration projects have been delayed, have increased in cost, or have even failed because of a lack of community acceptance. Unfortunately, what community members find visually attractive about restored landscapes is not well understood.
This survey seeks to better understand community members’ visual preferences by asking them to pick between pairs of landscapes simulated from real floodplains. In separate questions, participants will pick the landscapes that are more natural, cared for, disturbed, complex, and preferred. These landscapes vary in their tree clustering, tree size, understory thickness, and terrain. This data will help me understand participants’ ideal floodplain landscapes and how key visual concepts factor in.
Read more about and take Brook’s visual survey at www.restorationvisualizer.com (Please note that, if the server is full, you will receive a message that it is at capacity and be placed in a waiting room, where you can wait or choose to come back at another time.)
Take the survey, share with all your friends and family, and contribute to floodplain restoration efforts! ~Shasta Chapter CNPS
