JULIA SMACHYLO, Doctor of Design candidate, Graduate School of Design
Silvic Stewards
Forest Management as a collective spatial Praxis
Privately owned productive forest cover in southern Ontario is not heavily regulated. Some municipal governments have tree cutting bylaws, but otherwise forest management is a voluntary practice. This installation focuses on the Managed Forest Tax Incentive Program, a program that is somewhat unique in that it incentivizes the active management of forested lands, with the resulting landscape mediating both institutional and landowner values as well as scientific and local knowledge. Within this program landowners participate in forest stewardship activities, which may include: habitat management, environmental protection and restoration, tree planting, maintenance and commercial harvesting, and the development and preservation of trails.
This installation explores the various geographies of forested landscapes in this provincial incentive program, understood through the interaction of policy, labor, and non-human nature. In bringing together the landscapes resulting from these programs, as well as the landowners involved, the project foregrounds the various relationships between forests and their stewards at different scales within the urbanizing landscape of southern Ontario.October 15, 2020
1:00 pm – 2:00 pm