Prototype Lab at the Discovery Museum

We want your help shaping the future of our museum.

Our new Prototype Lab is located on the first floor of the Discovery Museum. This space is dedicated to testing new content, storytelling, and visitor engagement techniques that will influence future exhibits.

Forest management refers to human interventions in forested landscapes. Managing forests is a deeply human practice which allows us to map our economic, cultural, and environmental values to places with trees. If you know where to look, forest management decision-making is everywhere — in virtually every culture, across the world and through time. In truth, forest management is not a binary choice — to cut or leave alone — but a grand spectrum. Decisions made in forests directly impact the wellbeing and livelihoods of billions of people. Even so, most of us don’t feel as though we have a role to play in the forest management conversation. World Forestry Center believes that has to change. In forests, we see our values reflected, for better or for worse, and today much of that reflection looks like indifference. That has to change too. 

You are encouraged to spend time in the lab, reading various stories exploring Forest Management throughout history and the modern day. From the tales of Robin Hood and the Epic of Gilgamesh to the ancestral lands of the Klamath Basin and Central Africa’s Peat Forests in the Congo.

Explore the trajectories and entanglements of forest management with human history and share your thoughts on how we can make forests a social priority.

Plan your next visit to the Discovery Museum and help us shape the future of our exhibits!