A soft, hazy beam of sunlight funneled through the tree branches, forming speckles of sunspots on the forest floor where the waiting understory would quickly soak up the fleeting energy needed for photosynthesis. Patchy green, mossy logs lined the low-laying swamp as the leaves fluttered in union above in the canopy. If you looked closely, you could observe the intricate and detailed galleries where wood-boring insects chewed and tunneled patterns through the, now, still-standing tree stumps. The ecosystem and all its living and non-living parts were in harmony.
Except, none of it was real. This forest was a complete simulation, one that you could become immersed in within seconds of slipping on of a headset.
But why would something like this even exist?
I asked myself this when I attended a presentation series to learn more about this fake forest. As an avid outdoorswoman, the concept of woods that weren't real was unsettling, and I went into the talk with some skepticism and hesitancy. Was this going to be nature for the next generation? In a growing digital age, would a real forest become obsolete?
Aiden Ackerman, a professor at SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry, took the podium this past September to display his brainchild, and we, the audience, were whisked away into this virtual reality (VR). But, not without a blast from the past first.
An aged ABC commercial from 1991 opened up on the novel VR, showing blobs of green plants bursting from an orange earth and a poorly rendered dinosaur sauntering through a jungle, garnering chuckles from the room. The ABC newscaster posed the haunting question, "Will real life ever be the same?"
Thirty years later, we have become spoiled with the current quality of graphics and animation, but the question still holds some water, though maybe in a less dramatic way.
In a time of increasing greenhouse gases in the atmosphere which is contributing to climate change, it is important to consider the future and health of our natural areas. After all, forests are major ecosystems that remove carbon dioxide (a notorious warming gas) from the atmosphere.
"We have a huge role as humans in dictating the quality and spatial extent of our forests along with land management decisions and policies. We can do things to maintain, enhance, and grow our forests. How do you make these things possible for people?" - Aiden Ackerman
For New York State, most of the forests are privately owned, which means that land management decisions (if any) are made by different constituents. So, how can we convey to these many land owners ways to keep the forests healthy?
Virtual reality has provided a unique opportunity to learn from and teach about forests in a new way. We all watched in silence as a small sapling grew into a fully mature tree, each limb branching in new directions, sprouting leaves, moving. The way in which this tree was growing was driven by real research and data. The tree's branches forked in true mathematical ways based on how this occurs in real life. So, these fake forests could actually represent reality.
But, besides looking and acting like a real forest, what can virtual forests be used for?
Inspire stewardship
An accurate, simulated forest can be used for making informational videos for landowners to teach them how to take care of the forests that they own. Videos could be made to show what would happen if too many trees were removed from an area and how this would change the understory over time. Landowners could also see the future of their forests if they failed to do certain management practices and, ideally, be inspired to keep their forests healthy and resilient.
Improve teaching
Virtual forests can teach students about forest management. Students would be able to cut and graft branches, incorporate various planting schemes, and visualize how those trees would grow and respond over time to those strategies. This form of teaching could also prepare for in-field practices. We watched a video of someone walking through the forest, manually marking trees with spray paint to indicate removal for harvesting. In situations where there are invasive species or infected trees, students would be able to remove them and observe the forest stand response.
Increase persuasiveness
People believe what they see, and it has a stronger impact. VR could be a more powerful tool in decision-making, convincing policy makers to use your plans. For example, using real data, a student was able to show changes in acid rain in the Adirondacks, specifically visualizing the change in cloudiness/fogginess in the atmosphere which showed the decrease in sulfate deposition (which leads to acid rain). Over time, the atmosphere became more clear as mitigation efforts were put in place to reduce this acid rain. Being able to physically see this happen rather than look at numbers on a spreadsheet is far more compelling for supporting mitigation efforts.
Ackerman mentioned some other examples of current projects with this VR technology:
In Madrid, an area of land near a forest had undergone replanting, but it would take many years to see the effect of these efforts. VR technology can show the dramatic growth and future of the replanting as a way to celebrate the transformation.
In Syracuse, plans to remove I-81 are underway for various reasons, including reconnecting a community that was once torn apart by the construction of this highway. VR can simulate the current condition of the community surrounding I-81 and show how this would change post-demolition, converting this back into a flourishing urban corridor.
With the National Park Service, they are using old drawings and period-specific information to demonstrate how different management plans (pruning strategies, tree spacing, not disturbing the soil, etc.) would affect each apple species in an apple orchard. The results can be sped up to show which strategies would be the most effective.
Finally, Flight 93 memorial plans included planting a ring of 40 tree groves with 40 trees in each grove. However, the health of these trees are not all the same, and multiple trees have died. VR was used to build a digital model of the exact same groves with the same species of trees. The health of each tree was included in the model, and they used this technology to decide what percentage of trees should be removed in order to keep the groves from looking too disjointed (it wouldn't be a nice memorial if the groves looked sparse and patchy). By visualizing the groves through VR and experimenting with tree removal, this could save money, time, and overall energy if they did not need to do extensive replanting.
So, virtual forests have a lot to offer when it comes to educating people and protecting our real forests, and they aren't (as I originally had thought) an alternate/digital means for recreating in the woods. The many benefits of VR as a tool to improve our environment on both a broad and narrow scale (through specific, localized projects) are clearly demonstrated, and I look forward to seeing this implemented more widely across the country.
With that, it's time to lace up your boots and hit your local hiking trails!
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