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Paper short abstract:

What does it mean to write forest history when much literature is tree-centred? This paper proposes a more-than-tree approach to forest stories, accentuating neglected and stigmatised beings that are just as much interwoven in those histories. This diversifies ideas on temporality and entanglement.

Paper long abstract:

The forestry archives of Victoria, Australia, contain extensive reports calculating the value of tree stands and species. Likewise, forest histories can often focus on those trees reconceptualised as ‘resource’.

What of other beings that make up the forest? What does it mean to write ‘forest’ history when much literature is tree-centred? This paper proposes a more-than-tree approach to forest stories, accentuating the neglected and stigmatised beings that are just as much interwoven in those histories.

Where can we find traces of historical more-than-tree beings? Forestry archives document tree disease and decay, illuminating a backdrop of insects, fungi, and microbes. Forest immersion enables physical encounter with otherwise-invisible beings, animating reflections on how past interactions have transformed the present landscape. ‘Natural’ archives, such as paleoecology, can divulge historical more-than-tree assemblages. Engagement with relevant Indigenous cultures, knowledges, and creation stories further enriches and emplaces the emerging stories. Bryophytes, ferns, orchids, and lichens, among others, come into view as dynamic forest actors.

How can more-than-tree beings transform how we understand forests and write their histories? A more-than-tree approach centres curiosity and humility. It encourages being counterintuitively drawn by areas that do not grab one’s attention, and relearning stigmatised narratives as guided by the neglected beings themselves. This cooperation fosters more diverse comprehensions of temporalities, dynamism, and entanglement beyond the well-analysed tree perspective. It queries what forest histories would look like if they foregrounded the invisible being’s life. Overall, this approach can aid transitions toward reciprocal socio-ecological relations with present forests and landscapes more broadly.