How Dead Wood in the Forest Decreases Relaxation? The Effects of Viewing of Dead Wood in the Forest Environment on Psychological Responses of Young Adults

Abstract

The intensity of the neutral environment impact on humans may be determined by specific features of space, including dead wood occurrence. Dead wood is claimed to be disliked by the public because it reduces the scenic beauty and recreational values of the forest. The attractiveness of a forest with dead wood may be determined by its variants. Much is known about the preference for landscape with dead wood, but there is little information available about how such a landscape affects a person’s mental relaxation, improves mood, increases positive feelings, levels of vitality, etc. Hence, the aim of our research was to investigate the psycho-logical relaxing effects of short 15-min exposures to natural and managed forests with dead wood. In the study, three areas within the Białowieża Primeval Forest were used to measure the impact of different types of forest with dead wood (A: forest reserve with dead wood subject to natural decomposition processes; B: managed forest with visible cut wood and stumps; C: man-aged forest with dead trees from bark beetle outbreak standing) on human psychological relaxation in a randomized experiment. The participants of the experiment were forty-one young adults aged 19–20. Each respondent experienced each type of forest at intervals visiting it. Four psychological questionnaires were used in the project (Profile of Mood States (POMS), Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS), Subjective Vitality Scale (SVS), and Restorative Outcome Scale (ROS)) before and after the short exposure to the forest were evaluated. The results show that a forest landscape with dead wood affects the human psyche, and the relaxing properties of such a landscape are better in a protected forest with natural, slow processes of tree dieback than those obtained in managed forests