Photo Credit: 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.”