Visitor photos improve understanding of human-forest interactions

• Forest feature relevance is not proportional to prevalence. • Preferences extend beyond beauty; deadwood is valued for biodiversity not beauty. • Man-made deadwood is disliked, clashing with ideas about forests. • Relevance of structures enable targeted forest management. This study used Visitor-Employed Photography to investigate how visitors interact with forests along a trail near Rostock, Germany. The objective was to measure complex perceptions of forests by asking visitors to photograph and evaluate forest structures like tree species, deadwood or ground vegetation. We focused on which structures were relevant, visitor preferences, and the reasons behind those preferences. Our findings reveal that the relevance of a structure is not proportional to its prevalence; some rare structures are highly significant. Areas with high visual accessibility and structural variety are particularly important. Both striking structures—like thick trees and flowering plants—and inconspicuous ones, such as deadwood, were relevant. The inconspicuous structures often held imaginative meaning for visitors, reflecting an ideal of a natural forest. While most structures were perceived positively, man-made deadwood was a notable exception, as it clashed with the ideal of a respectfully treated natural space. The reasons for preferences were complex. For example, deadwood, while not considered beautiful, was positively evaluated for its connection to natural forest processes. These findings provide insights for more targeted forest management by highlighting relevant structures and promoting preferred. Our findings indicate that general management principles could benefit from incorporating the societal view of forests as natural spaces that warrant respectful treatment, as reflected in the stated reasons for preferences. We recommend that future studies continue to measure the relevance of forest structures and the causes of preferences. The approach used can significantly improve our understanding of complex human-forest interactions.