SeeingGreen ™

This past Friday, Co-Pilot and I went on a road trip to Oregon’s coast for some much needed r+r. With little planned, our only destination was a well-appointed campsite at Cape Lookout State Park. Eager to get on the road early, we packed up our sleeping gear, enough food to keep us from eating our own hands and off we went. It was 9:30 AM and the day was already gorgeous. Blue skies, warm air and proof of spring everywhere.

With no more than a few stops for traffic lights, we quickly made it off the double-digit highway onto the single digit roadway that leads to the mid-to-northern section of the coast. For the next 51 miles we made our way through hill and dale until the forest and coastal mountain range filled our windshield with its deep green hues and jagged horizons.

Lured by its handsome wood and rock sign, Co-Pilot and I decided to take a rest stop at the Tillamook Forest Center, the year-old educational and interpretive center. The first thing I noticed as we pulled into the near empty parking lot was the looming replica of a forest fire lookout tower. I’ve always been intrigued by these little cabins on stilts that continue to serve as the first line of defense in detecting devastating forest fires. In fact, one of the goals of the Tillamook Forest Center is to educate people on the Tillamook Burn, an inconceivably fierce series of forest fires that ravaged the forest in the 1930s and 40s.

Although we decided to skip an award-winning movie about the burn (saving it for a our next visit hopefully with a niece or nephew), we did check out the Center’s creative educational displays and its well-appointed gift store. However, my favorite part of our stop was (predictably) learning about the Center’s use of green building techniques. In addition to using lumber that was sustainably harvested from the Tillamook Forest or salvaged from nearby projects, I was excited to see that the moat-like pond that surrounds the entrance is part of an integrated stormwater management system. It works like this: rain that hits the Center’s metal roof collects in a gutter and then runs into a scupper that directs the water into the 65,000-gallon pond. The water is then used in the heat exchanger and sprinkler system, to flush toilets and as a back-up reservoir if needed by local firefighters. Additionally, the pond serves as an attractive landscape addition that is a nice reflection literally and metaphorically on the goals of the Center.

Although the Tillamook Forest Center was not our main destination and the ocean did not disappoint, I have to admit that I was tickled pink to be Seeing Green on our little vacation from the sustainable city.