Forest as a specific place for girls and their green criticism

The relationship between girls and a forest promotes environmental activismThis research is based on the idea that place is dynamic, open and more-than-human. This particular study explored what a forest -- as a specific place -- means and does for girls.

Data for this study were drawn from thousands of letters written by young girls (age 9-12) to the President of Finland during a twelve-year period (2000-2012). Most of the girls are native-born Finns and live in rural, remote parts of Finland. The letters reveal a “division of the ‘rural’ and the ‘urban’, i.e. the environments where the letters are composed.” The letters also describe how place is experienced by the girls and how place and self activate each other. The girls’ descriptions of place become integrated with the politics of place, as the forest motivates them to write a letter to a politician.

Some of the letters call for action to save the forests. One girl insists that birds should have trees to build their nests and nurture their young. Some letters highlight ways in which forests serve citizens as places of retreat. The girls call attention to some of the benefits that forests provide, such as opportunities to pick berries, build huts, and listen to birds. Some of the letters reveal a “secret relationship” or a “mystic relationship” between a girl and the forest or elements of the forest, such as animals.

This research contributes to the literature by encouraging a “rethinking of people’s experiences in relation to specific places.” Data from the letters indicate that the “forest enters actively into the constitution of girls and shapes their ways of being in the world.” The self and the forest became enmeshed, entangled, and intertwined.