Sarah and Ben are changing the game. As stewards of the largest contiguous forest in the Willamette Valley, they have put a premium on habitat creation, diverse forest ecologies and sustainable forest practices. Together they run Zena Forest Products , just an hour south of PDXNext. Yesterday they were gracious enough to show us their forest, their mill, their wood sheds, and new flooring manufacturing facility. Oregon white oak is an amazing tree- climate resilient, hardy and super durable. But it has historically been “tossed in the canyon” by commercial logging operations that favor Douglas Fir and clearcut by farms and vineyards. Ben Deumling and his family saw an opportunity. What if a market was created for this and other hardwoods that typically get tossed on slash piles? Forest ecologies benefit when managed for tree diversity and these hardwoods help minimize forest fire intensities. And local timber communities, who’ve had a rough couple of decades, have a lot to offer in providing the skills and knowledge to transition to a more diverse timber economy. All of the new wood floor at PDXNext has been made by Zena Forest Products from oak trees on and near their ridge top. And all that wood was cut on an outdoor saw in a barn, planed by a 1946 wood planer that was brought back to life by Ben after decades at Oregon State University, stacked for a year to dry and then taken to their new parquet flooring shop to be made into tiles for the new terminal. This project allowed Zena to scale up and invest in North America’s only parquet flooring machine which - because it utilizes smaller ‘sticks’ - puts historically discarded wood species into play. We’re fortunate to have found each other and looking forward to the first deliveries next month. (And, because someone will ask, yes there will be #pdxcarpet … but you’re going to love this Oregon Oak!)
I love this Nat! It’s amazing to see how PDXNext and my ZGF colleagues are lifting up regional materials makers and helping redefine climate smart, equitable wood sourcing.
Love this and had the opportunity to visit this forest land with the FSC-US board several years ago. Excited the parquet flooring works out. It looks beautiful!
Reading this I couldn't help but think of your dad and Slaytonia, and my dad's 1950's table saw that now sits in the middle of your dad's shop....synergy!
Thanks for sharing. I would have loved to visit them with you. I will have to reach out to them and see if I can utilize some of their material for my personal woodworking projects.
Nice people. Sold them some white oak logs off of my place in 21.
So cool, and zena is such a beautiful spot!
Sustainable forestry ---and the floor is simply beautiful.
Awesome post, Nat. This awareness is essential, and needs to be promoted. Great job. 👏
👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼
Owner / President at Zena Forest Products
9moThanks Nat for the kind words and for bringing us along on this amazing project. So honored to play a part in building.