[Ko Gyu-hong's Trees and People] A Forest Created by a Person Who Wanted to Become a Tree

<5> The Intermediate Zone of Nature and Culture

Where trees gather to form a forest, a natural ecosystem stirs. People who approach the forest cut down trees and establish habitats. This is cultivating culture. People do not only cut down trees to cultivate culture. Planting more trees is also a part of human culture.

However, in most cases, people cultivate forests not to restore ecosystems but to cut them down again?in other words, for human use. Nature and culture inevitably betray each other.

Robin Wall Kimmerer, a Native American and professor of Environmental Biology at the State University of New York, pointed out in her recent book Braiding Sweetgrass that "resolving the inevitable tension between respecting life and taking that life to survive is a condition of our lives." She means that balancing nature and culture to live as part of the ecosystem is a condition of our lives, that is, culture.

According to Professor Kimmerer, the 'Uljin Sogwang-ri Geumgang Pine Forest,' our representative pine forest, is a wise resolution of the tension between nature and culture.

During the Joseon Dynasty, trees were planted and strictly protected and managed. This was to build palaces. The Geumgang pine, also known as Hwangjangmok, was used for palace construction and royal coffin materials. At a time when building materials were scarce, nothing was more suitable than wood. To secure Geumgang pine as a building material, the 'Songmok Geumbal Jibeop (Law Prohibiting Pine Tree Cutting)' was enacted in the 23rd year of King Sejong's reign (1441). During King Sukjong's reign, 282 봉산 (bongsan, mountains where tree cutting was prohibited by the state) were designated and actively managed.

The Sogwang-ri Geumgang Pine Forest was thus preserved. Clear evidence of this is the 'Hwangjang Bonggye Pyo-seok (Boundary Stone for Hwangjang Area),' located near Janggunteo in the valleys of Sogwangcheon and Daegwangcheon in Sogwang-ri. This stone, designated as Gyeongbuk Cultural Property No. 300, states that "the Hwangjangmok restricted area was divided into four regions: Saengdalhyeon, Anilwangsan, Daeri, and Dangseong, and these areas were managed by a mountain keeper named Myeonggil." The Sogwang-ri Geumgang Pine Forest is clearly an artificial forest thoroughly protected by the state.

In fact, the long-lasting prosperity of pine forests goes against the natural order of ecosystems. In a natural state without human intervention, conifers like pine trees are inevitably displaced by broadleaf trees that grow faster. In Korean forests, species such as Quercus mongolica (Mongolian oak) or Acer mono (painted maple) naturally dominate in the final successional stage. In a natural state, pine forests would never remain. The natural order was betrayed to continue Joseon's culture.

Today, about 1.6 million Geumgang pine trees live in the Sogwang-ri Geumgang Pine Forest, managed as a Forest Genetic Resource Protection Area. Unlike before, large-scale logging has slowed, and various vegetation now coexist, evolving into a stable forest. Although it is a forest protected by humans, it remains the closest to a natural ecosystem. It is a forest where cultural achievements by humans have finally been realized close to nature?in other words, 'nature as a cultural result.'

Straightly growing Geumgang Pine tree trunk

Uljin Sogwang-ri Artificial Forest
A community of over 1.6 million Geumgang pines
Thoroughly protected by the state
Contrary to ecological order
Remains closest to natural ecology
A 'cultural achievement'

Today, it is difficult to find forests in a perfectly natural state without any human intervention. This is especially true on the Korean Peninsula, where a dense population occupies a narrow area. This is why, as artificial forests such as botanical gardens and arboretums are being established competitively everywhere, we are prompted to reconsider the meaning of the forests we should cultivate.

Michael Pollan, an ecologist and author who called gardens the 'second nature,' emphasized in Second Nature that we must break free from "our habitual perception of nature and culture as opposites."

Humans have spread across the entire Earth to such an extent that maintaining natural forests is impossible. Therefore, recreating a natural state is a futile dream. Ultimately, Pollan argued that the purpose of gardening is to "seek a balance between nature and culture." He also defined a garden as "a process of creation and discovery that awakens the specialness of a space and draws attention to energy, technology, and food close at hand."

According to Pollan's argument, botanical gardens and arboretums should not aim solely for forms of culture that serve human enjoyment. Pursuing only primeval forests (nature) without consideration for visitors is also undesirable. Of course, pursuing only primeval forests is impossible. The exquisite harmony of culture and nature should be the goal of modern botanical gardens.

In this context, we visit Cheollipo Arboretum, the oldest arboretum in Korea. Located on the Taean Peninsula in Chungnam Province, Cheollipo Arboretum celebrated its 50th anniversary and was designated by the International Dendrology Society in 2000 as "the most beautiful arboretum in the world." Currently, about 17,000 species of plants coexist there. This is not only the largest collection of plant species in Korea but also a considerable scale globally. It is truly a paradise of trees.

Planting trees in the Cheollipo area began in the 1960s, before the wounds of the Korean War had fully healed. At that time, the area was a barren sandy hill where not even a single blade of grass could grow properly. At that time, Carl Ferris Miller, an American who served as a Japanese interpreter officer in World War II and later permanently naturalized under the Korean name Min Byung-gal, came to Korea after the war ended. He was filled with the dream of creating a beautiful forest here.

Determined to create a "world where trees are the masters," he planted trees with a vision extending 300 years into the future. To recreate a natural forest, he intervened thoroughly and strongly in the barren land with poor growing conditions. His absolute principle in intervening with nature was not to use chemical fertilizers or pesticides and not to prune. This was clearly a 'good' principle aimed at getting as close to nature as possible. However, this too is a cultural result originating from human thought.

With the benevolent intervention of humans and the passage of time, the Cheollipo coastal forest turned a deep green. Botanists who had predicted that not even a blade of grass would grow were startled by the green transformation of Cheollipo. The Cheollipo hills became a treasure trove for plant ecology research. The nickname "Blue Jewel of the West Coast" was thus given to Cheollipo Arboretum.

Spring scenery of magnolias in bloom at Cheollipo Arboretum

Without chemical fertilizers or pruning
Adhering to benevolent principles
'A hill where trees are masters'
Taean Cheollipo Arboretum

Since registering the forest under the name 'Cheollipo Arboretum' in the 1970s, the arboretum has strived to adhere to the principle of growing plants naturally. The founder, Min Byung-gal, passed away in 2002. Since then, Cheollipo Arboretum has abandoned its previous policy of being closed to the public and has been open to general visitors since 2009. However, the arboretum's operators still hold firmly to the goal of a "hill where trees are the masters."

Cheollipo Arboretum is a comfortable forest to visit anytime. Native Korean plants, as well as foreign plants never before seen in this land, all live as if they had grown here for a long time, making it the forest closest to naturalness.

It is rather unfamiliar that an artificial forest can be so close to nature. Although it is an artificial forest created by human effort, it is an ecological forest where the benevolent human intervention to realize natural beauty more clearly than any other forest is vividly alive. This is the unique virtue of Cheollipo Arboretum. Without hesitation, it reaches the conclusion Pollan mentioned: "a place balanced between nature and culture."

The forest of Cheollipo Arboretum, which astonishingly reveals the boundaries between artificial beauty and natural beauty, culture and nature, is perhaps the first step toward finding the creative wisdom to live with nature by reflecting on the authenticity of life. It is sufficient as a standard for the rapidly increasing number of botanical gardens, like bamboo shoots sprouting after rain, to aim for.

The world opened, and there were trees within it. People cut down trees and took their place. Then people planted trees again and nurtured them with all their care to build culture. Nature and culture can never be separated. The beautiful forests of Uljin on the East Sea and Taean Peninsula on the West Sea, which have survived as neutral zones between culture and nature, are the green hopes we must protect to the end for our healthy breathing in the era of climate change.

Tree Columnist

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.