Aesthetic preferences for deadwood in forest landscape: A case study in Italy

In the last decades, the structural and functional role of standing dead trees and lying deadwood in forests has been widely recognized by scientific community and forest managers. However, a large amount of deadwood in forests can have negative impacts on recreational forests by reducing the aesthetic value and site attractiveness. The aims of the present study are to investigate whether deadwood in forests is truly perceived negatively by people and whether socio-demographic characteristics influence the respondents’ perception. To achieve these aims, the study was implemented by submitting an online questionnaire to a sample of 1292 Italian citizens. The results show that 73.4% of respondents have previous knowledge of the concept of deadwood in forests, while 26.6% have never heard this concept. For most of the respondents, standing dead trees and lying deadwood have a negative aesthetic effect on the landscape (52.2% and 42.9%), while for only 7.5% and 23.0% of respondents standing dead trees and lying deadwood have a positive effect on forest landscape. The results show that for all six forest stands proposed (Old European beech coppice, Mediterranean maquis, Norway spruce high forest, simple sweet Chestnut coppice, European beech high forest, black pine high forest) the respondents prefer the situation without deadwood. Finally, the results show that deadwood – both standing dead trees and lying deadwood – in forests is on average more appreciated by male (rather than female), young people (rather than old people), and people with a low level of education (rather than people with a high level of education).