Abstract:

The oak woodlands of central and northern California have seen a rapid decline of native oak trees in the last ten years. The culprit has been identified as a forest pathogen Phytophthera ramorum. The disease it causes is Sudden Oak Death (SOD). An integral methodology (Wilber 2005) requires a systematic methodological pluralism be used to balance perspectives, each with appropriate measures of validity. Eight approaches are utilized: history, structuralism, ethnobiology, autopoesis, complexity theory, environmental hermeneutics, and phenomenology.

Contemporary ecology often relies on reductionistic objective science as the dominant approach. By juxtaposing a balance of perspectives in an integral approach several themes emerge. The human mind observes nature through many different lenses, each having its own measure of validity. Science, particularly reductionistic science, is seldom value free, and can be used in different ways, leading to different conclusions. But any attempt to create a controlled situation shifts observations, resulting in a more anthropocentric perspective. Academic and public institutions define P. ramorum as essential to the disease. An alternative view is that the disease is a response to a larger set of variables, such as shifting climate and erosion of landscape.

All parties may be correct---the difference lies in meaning. The interpretation of SOD as P. ramorum encourages institutions to combat the disease using technology as its primary tool. Inherent in this line of investigation is the belief that man is separate from Nature and controls his environment. SOD as forest decline offers a choice to either deny our role in these changes or to learn from it. In this capacity, Nature is the teacher and we are the students.

Keywords. Autopoesis, Complexity theory, Ethnobiology, Environmental Hermeneutics, Gaia, Integral Ecology, Ken Wilber, Natural history, Phenomenology, Phytophthera ramorum , Structuralism, Sudden Oak Death