Woodlots

Donna Lacey is a forester with the Saugeen Valley Conservation Authority

What will happen to all our guide books?

Recently and unintentionally , I’ve made a significant shift in how I look for help when identifying a new or unusual plant. For most of my adult life, I have enjoyed going to a bookstore to look at the selection in the Science and Nature Section. These two interest areas were often grouped together on the shelf and were occasionally accompanied by Gardening. It seemed that new tree identification and forestry books didn’t come out very often. When I found a new book, I hoped to buy it which is a fact that would surprise every teacher that had to try to work with me. Simply put, these books interested me. Over the years I have amassed a decent library of both recent and historic forest and nature-related reference books. It’s a library that I am quite proud of. Now I am wondering what will happen to it – and others like it – in the future. Early in my career, when you wanted to identify a plant species and an experienced person wasn’t available, you needed multiple guides to identify anything that was not in flower. Wildflower guides gave you the answer to a plant in flower. But I also needed medicinal, edible, wildflower, and horticultural plant guides in hopes of finding the answer. Now, I frequently Google the answer. Which makes me wonder what will happen to true knowledge. Will anyone be an expert or just the fastest at getting the answer from a screen? Up until 2013, when I walked a forest with landowners and pointed out the species that I observed, I always thought that they believed me. Why wouldn’t they? In 2013, I remember walking a landowners’ forest with his entire family and a couple of friends, as none of them had any knowledge of nature or forest management and wanted to learn. I got to show their children a Jack-in-the-Pulpit for the first time. A bird called out and I identified it for them to include in their Managed Forest Tax Incentive Plan. We continued a little further and I heard the bird again. Then one of the landowners said, “You were right. It was that bird.”’ She played the call again on her phone. It was nice to be reassured that I knew my bird call identification, but blew me out of my boots to see how easy it was for this person to get this information. In 2013, I was still using a flip phone and had never used an app. I now carry a smartphone and

thought I would download some forestry-related apps. I downloaded three identification apps, two mapping apps, and three forestry calculator apps. Of these eight apps, I have used one of them just enough to learn what a great tool it is. I haven’t gotten on to any of the identification apps as I get frustrated in the organization of the information. In any field guide, keys are used to determine the specimen that you are working with. To use the keys you must understand the defining characteristics of flora or fauna. For example, is the leaf edge (margin) serrated or smooth? The apps that I have looked at are more simplified, as in take a picture and the app will identify the plant. The difficulty that I have with this form of identification is that the user must be able to determine if the app is correct and should not rely on identification that hasn’t been proven. The app doesn’t know that it is giving a false identification any differently than an amateur naturalist would without working alongside a knowledgeable associate. Of course, a book is no different for ensuring accuracy. However, it was explained to me that the drawings in identification guides are of greater value than photos as our interpretation of the drawing will be broader as it is not a true picture of the specimen. When looking at a photo we assume that the subject within the photo appears exactly as pictured, when in fact all living things can vary greatly in appearance even within the same species. For this reason, I still prefer field guides that have drawings over those with photographs. A perfect example of the effects of pictures versus drawings can be experienced when looking at a photo of Avenza maps is a free app which is widely used and something that makes recommended by forestry professionals as a mapping and you uncomfortable as navigation tool. opposed to a drawing. I