Last week environmental theory took me to a place that I never expected I would visit: Douglas County, Oregon. Specifically the town of Roseburg. The point of the visit was to get a feel for the place, the people and the history of Roseburg and the county as a whole since it where our praxis projects for this class will be locationally situated. Before the visit we all proposed some potential project ideas we had, I was initially interested in looking at energy in the county and policy surrounding it. We were instructed to keep an open mind and be aware of “taken-for-granted” objects around town or TFGOs and I have so affectionately decided to refer to them.
At first, I was pretty confused about what TFGO was and how I was supposed to identify one having little background on the history of Roseburg and Douglass County. While scampering through the Douglas County Museum with our eccentric tour guide, I certainly noticed a lot of objects but were they TFGOs?! We eventually arrived at the logging-themed room of the museum, a very crucial part of the County’s identity. Douglas County is located among some of the most productive forests in the world and a significant amount of governmental funding comes from the cut that they receive from each tree felled within County limits. The timber industry is one of the largest job providers and controversy-creators in the region. So, what would be a good TFGO to represent that identity… a tree?
As I was thinking I saw out of the corner of my eye that someone was watching me. I turned slowly to see who it was and was face to face with the biggest, fuzziest, friendliest, TFGO a girl could ask for: Smokey the Bear! As I learned in an (Un)Natural Disasters class last semester, Smokey has a very sordid past. He used to save little animals, was used to support the war effort in the 1940s, and has even been known to show up on doorsteps and dole out hugs; he’s quite an interesting character. And now, he’s shown up here at the heart of the American timber industry, I wonder what role he plays here.
At this point, I’m still looking into what kind of questions I want to be asking about Smokey but I know that my project will address four main topics/areas of study. Like situated research, this praxis project is meant to bring a fuller understanding of a concept, object, process, or situation by situating it in broader themes. The difference is, instead of solely focusing on binaries like global/local or natural/cultural, my research will address epistemology, ethics, ontology, and politics.
What are those you ask? I’m not exactly sure but I’m planning on finding out in the next two weeks. Stay tuned and always remember to put out your fries!
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