The World Forestry Center

The World Forestry Center is a museum next to the Portland zoo that has information about logging and forest stewardship. The majority of the museum focuses on the Pacific Northwest, but there are also exhibits about the rest of the world.

The museum was a little bit kid-oriented, but I still enjoyed it. The center of the museum had a 60 foot tall ceiling to house an artificial Douglas fir tree, Oregon's state tree. There were also a lot of interactive games to give an idea of what it's like to operate a tree harvester or to be a smoke jumper. There was also some sort of white water rafting ride, but I didn't see anyone try it. I only played the smoke jumper game, but it was pretty neat.

The exhibits also had a lot of interesting information about logging practices in Oregon. Practices such as mandatory replanting of clear cut areas within a year. It was especially interesting to learn about these things right before going out to Mapleton, where there was evidence of logging on just about every hillside.

Here are some pictures of the smoke jumper game to illustrate. The goal of the game was to reach your designated landing area. You pulled the cords on either side of the seat to turn (right cord turns left and vice versa), and pull both cords to brake.:



I'm sure everyone has seen an example of something like this before, but it is always pretty cool. Someone left a .22 in the crook of this tree, and it grew around it. You might have to enlarge the photo to see it properly.

This is the top of the artificial fir tree as seen from the second floor. With an artificial person in it.


here are some giant pieces of petrified wood. Without a scale it's hard to tell, but the one on the left is at least four feet in diameter:


And here is a hastily taken photo of a regenerating area of clear cut forest next to a much older area.