A Challenging But Abundant Resource
Using Juniper provides purpose for an invasive species
By Mark Johnson
Photos: Gabe Border
What can be done about a building resource growing abundantly in a region but is not being used? When creating the Cottonwood Canyon Experience Center, part of the Cottonwood Canyon State Park in Eastern Oregon, designers felt a need to ask this question. Juniper, an invasive species, can be found all over Oregon, but is often merely cut and burned. The beautiful wood is related to cedar, and has both a distinct aesthetic as well as an aromatic quality. Sourcing, milling, and applying the wood, however, poses several challenges. Together, the partners on this project decided to tackle the issue, setting a market example for how the wood could be both useful and beautiful.
Several years ago, Oregon State Parks was handed a donation: an 8,000-acre, rugged and fragile prairie parcel, tucked in the deepest part of Oregon’s Cottonwood Canyon. With golden rolling hills, a mile of river access, and a historic farm, the site was a mere dot on a map, 25 miles from any gas station, 50 miles from the nearest town over 400. The partners were charged with turning this landscape into a place-creating structure that anchored the park and served as the backbone for 13 different types of education programming, and a wide range of other official, private, and public gatherings. The design team responded to this task by finding materials that are as resilient as the ranches that used to occupy the site, and as local as the people it was built for.
The Problems With Juniper
“An abundant but invasive species, Juniper is a water hog in an already water-short area. For a number of reasons, the current public and private landowner response to Juniper has been to cut, pile, and burn the trees,” Seth Miller from Oregon Parks Forever explains. Studies show a decreased number of animals, birds, and butterflies where Juniper propagates. When a spring dries up or a creek flows less, all of the wildlife in the area are affected, and this is especially true in an area that aims to protect local salmon, trout, and steelhead. Juniper growth has also been shown to significantly increase soil erosion. Though difficult to use, this invasive species is best logged—and if it is to be logged, then it should be of some use. Miller notes, “We aimed to use as much Juniper as possible, to set an example of how beautiful the wood could be, and what a resource it could be to the community.”
In search of a feasible application for the wood, the team collaborated with forestry management. Juniper is prone to movement, driven by the presence of knots, the taper of the grain, and the pitch. The finest timbers are free of heart center, have a straight grain, and have a limited knot size. Also, as a generally small-diameter tree, Juniper does not compare well to traditional timbers; therefore, it is not structural, clear, or quarter-sawn. However, this did not stop the team from finding a suitable and prominent application for the material throughout the project; Juniper was used on the interior and exterior of the Experience Center, as well as for signage and fencing. The majority of the wood was sourced through Kendall Derby of In the Sticks: Sawmill, Kiln & Lumber Warehouse, located in Fossil, Ore., a mere 45 miles from the park. Specializing in Juniper milling, Derby was able to work with the challenging species. The wood used for the signage and fencing was sourced from the private lands of Earl Mortimer, near Mitchell, Ore., about 90 miles from the new state park.
Making A Place Out Of Space
The result of the extra effort is a humble structure in contextual and material alignment with the canyon. Oregon State Park’s hope for the Experience Center was to facilitate interpretation—communication that goes beyond information to reveal what things mean and why they matter, to connect people to the place. The material used to create the space in which visitors stand is not merely beautiful, but it is meaningful and brings up a story of history, habit, research, innovation, and future generations. In this way, the team created a facility rooted in the canyon in several ways, which is both inviting to visitors and familiar to locals. Now receiving traffic from surrounding towns as well as from medium-sized cities in the region like The Dalles and Bend, the center has become a bridge across Central Oregon’s urban/rural divide. It is hoped that the Experience Center will serve the state park as a capstone gathering place among the rich, scenic landscape, connecting stories of history with programming and outdoor experiences for future generations. Both framing and reframing the canyon, the center creates a special place where before, there was only space.
Project Collaborators:
Oregon Parks Forever, formerly The Oregon State Parks Foundation
Lund | Opsahl, structural engineering
Walker | Macy, landscape architecture
Mark Johnson, AIA, LEED AP BD+C, is a principal architect and founder of Signal Architecture + Research. Reach him at mjohnson@signalarch.com or visit www.signalarch.com.