Landscape Aesthetics (AH 701-m) - Background and History (Appendix G)

A discussion of scenery management that begins with implications in 1891, and the first documented application of scenery management when marking a timber sale in California in 1908. Discusses Forest Service professionals that developed and used scenery management principles. [AH 701 pages 159-169]

"High quality scenery, especially scenery with natural-appearing landscapes, enhances peoples lives and benefits society. The Scenery Management System [SMS]presents a vocabulary for managing scenery and a systematic approach for determining the relative value and importance of scenery in a national forest. This handbook was written for national forest resource managers, landscape architects, and others interested in landscape aesthetics and scenery. Both students and the general public, our "constituents," will benefit from the straightforward approach of [this] system to a complex art and science. Ecosystems provide the environmental context for this scenery management system. The system is to be used in the context of ecosystem management to inventory and analyze scenery in a national forest, to assist in establishment of overall resource goals and objectives, to monitor the scenic resource, and to ensure high-quality scenery for future generations." [AH 701 Abstract]

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