Stud. Mater. Ośr. Kult. Leśn. 12, 2013, s. 9-23 SHIFTING FOREST PERCEPTIONS: A COMPARATIVE CASE STUDY OF FOREST PERCEPTIONS IN YUKON CANADA AND THE TUCHOLA FOREST REGION OF POLAND Jodie Asselin, Agata Agnieszka Konczal Department of Anthropology, University of Alberta Department of Ethnology and Cultural Anthropology, Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań In this article we present research that took place in two separate forest regions, the southern Yukon Territory, Canada, and the Tuchola Forest region of Poland 1 . Tough undertaken separately, the authors discovered that a linking concept in both projects was that forests were the subject of numerous and shifing percep- tions by locals. As a means of better understanding this similarity we examine the nature of forest through exploring and comparing local forest perceptions in both regions. In particular we focus on ambiguous or seemingly contradictory represen- tations of forests: shifing perceptions over time, their representation as both wild and tame, as human and natural, known and unknown, and as symbols of the past and future. 1 Material for this article is in part derived from the doctoral thesis of J. Asselin (2013b), Department of Anthropology, University of Alberta, and the BA thesis of A.A. Konczal (2012) Department of Ethnology and Cultural Anthropology, Nicolaus Copernicus Uni- versity in Toruń. Adres do korespondencji – Correspondnig author: Jodie Asselin, University of Alberta, 2921 Richter Street, Kelowna BC, Canada V1Y 2R8, e-mail: jasselin@ualberta.ca Agata Agnieszka Konczal, Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań (student), ul. Arciszewskie- go 25/41, 69-269 Poznań, e-mail: agata.a.konczal@gmail.com