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OPINION
East Oregonian
Thursday, October 19, 2017
Founded October 16, 1875
KATHRYN B. BROWN
Publisher
DANIEL WATTENBURGER
Managing Editor
TIM TRAINOR
Opinion Page Editor
MARISSA WILLIAMS
Regional Advertising Director
MARCY ROSENBERG
Circulation Manager
JANNA HEIMGARTNER
Business Office Manager
MIKE JENSEN
Production Manager
OUR VIEW
Construction puts
timber in vogue
These are exciting times for the
timber industry. It’s been awhile
since that’s been the case in Oregon.
Government forest managers and
their political bosses finally appear
to recognize that more effective
management of public forests
is needed to help prevent future
wildfires and reduce their severity.
Rep. Greg Walden and Sens. Ron
Wyden and Jeff Merkley have all
stated their support for legislation
that accomplishes those goals — rare
agreement between Oregon’s
Republican and Democrat leaders.
Beyond timber management,
however, are innovations that
promise new uses for timber in
construction. Among them is “mass
timber” that is used in “tallwood
design.” As an example, a credit
union in Hillsboro is using glulam
beams to construct its new five-story,
150,000-square-foot headquarters
building.
Another building planned for
Portland will be 12 stories tall and
constructed of cross-laminated
timber, called CLT. It will dwarf the
seven-story building in Minneapolis,
Minnesota, that is currently the tallest
mass timber structure in the nation.
To explore the uses and design
possibilities of mass timber, the
University of Oregon architecture
program is combining efforts with
Oregon State University’s forestry
and engineering programs to create
the Tallwood Design Institute.
In other words, wood construction
is sexy again. Once relegated to
home construction and one- or
two-story projects, lumber was seen
as an excellent material for relatively
small structures.
Then came cutting-edge projects
such as the Metropol Parasol in
Seville, Spain. It is among the largest
wooden structures in the world.
Made of laminated lumber coated in
polyurethane to protect it from the
weather, the ethereal design of six
interconnected “mushrooms” soars
85 feet tall and covers an area that is
490 feet by 230 feet.
Built in 2011, it shades the entire
city square and houses a restaurant,
museum, farmers’ market and a
walkway that allows visitors a
bird’s-eye view of the historic city.
The future of mass timber is
nearly unlimited. Larger mass
timber such as CLTs made by DR
Johnson Lumber Co. in Riddle,
and mass plywood panels made by
Freres Lumber Co. in Lyons, offer
architects and engineers possibilities
that didn’t even exist a few years
ago.
Better-managed forests, combined
with innovative products, designs
and structures demonstrate that the
timber industry’s future is brighter
than it’s been in a long time.
Eric Mortenson/Capital Press
A worker guides a Glulam beam into place Oct. 3 during construction of
the First Tech Credit Union headquarters building in Hillsboro. The build-
ing, which will be five stories high and contain 156,000 square feet of office
space, is believed to be largest U.S. structure so far built using advanced
lumber products such as cross-laminated timbers (CLT) and Glulam beams,
posts and flooring.
Unsigned editorials are the opinion of the East Oregonian editorial board of publisher
Kathryn Brown, managing editor Daniel Wattenburger, and opinion page editor Tim Trainor.
Other columns, letters and cartoons on this page express the opinions of the authors and not
necessarily that of the East Oregonian.
OTHER VIEWS
Schools getting creative
with Measure 98 funding
Corvallis Gazette-Times, Oct. 16
W
e’re still not convinced Oregon
voters made the right decision
last November when they
passed Ballot Measure 98, which forces
the state to spend money on career and
technical education programs, along with
two other areas meant to improve the
state’s dismal graduation rate.
But we have to give the ballot
measure at least some of the credit for
driving a resurgence of interest across the
state in career and technical education,
areas that have had a hard time staying
properly funded over the past decades.
(Our reservations about Measure
98 have nothing to do with the areas it
funds, but rather that it did not come with
a dedicated source of funding. This is
a long-running issue in Oregon, where
voters routinely approve costly initiatives
without giving much thought to the
question of how they will be bankrolled.)
In any event, it’s nice to see career and
technical education programs reclaim
a share of the educational spotlight, as
educators reacquaint themselves with
the idea that some of their students may
not be headed to a four-year institution
of higher learning after graduation or,
for that matter, may not be particularly
motivated by the traditional path to
college. As educators increasingly talk
about the need to create many different
paths to graduation, it becomes clear
that one of those paths involves career
and technical education — the sort of
education that can lead to well-paying,
high-demand jobs.
The latest example of the resurgence
in the sorts of educational offerings that
earlier generations used to call “wood
shop” or “metal shop” came last week
in Lebanon, where Superintendent
Rob Hess pitched the idea of creating a
countywide vocational charter school.
Hess said he plans to bring what amounts
to a “napkin sketch” of the idea to the
school board’s November meeting.
Of course, we reserve a final
judgment on the idea until after Hess
has a chance to flesh out the numerous
details. And he told the board that the
earliest such a school could be in place
would be the fall of 2019.
But the idea is undeniably timely —
and the money that Measure 98 will be
funneling into school districts around the
state could give Lebanon at least some of
the financial means to pull it off.
“Everyone in the region is interested
in providing pathways for kids different
than the traditional four-year college
pathway,” Hess said. “In this community,
there are many living-wage jobs and kids
aren’t being prepared for them.”
That’s true not just in Linn County,
but in Benton County as well — and, in
fact, throughout the rest of the state.
OTHER VIEWS
Trump’s sellout of
American heritage
T
he last runs of heavenly wild
House that is forced to treat its chief
salmon are trickling in this month,
occupant like a toddler, it’s easy to
the buttery coho with flesh the
forget that Trump is doing real damage
color of fall foliage. After that, we’ll
to things that all of us share.
have to settle for mostly farmed and
So, that’s politics, right? To the victor
frozen fish until next spring — no
go the spoils. He’s simply rolling back
substitute for the real deal.
onerous regulations, as promised, and
sticking it to the global elites on climate
We can count on this seasonal
miracle, healthy fish returning to their
Timothy change. Well, no.
Your party affiliation will not
birthplaces and then on to the dinner
Egan
protect you from the chemicals sprayed
table, so long as the fragile balance
Comment
on strawberries — shown to cause
of nature remains intact. But with a
brain damage to children — which
president who is going after clean air,
Trump will allow to remain in the food chain.
clean water and the world’s most valuable wild
Living in a red state will not keep warming
salmon fishery, the fate of creation and all the
oceans from rising ever higher when the latest
myriad wonders within it is at stake.
500-year storm hits your region. Being a Trump
I use “creation” as an appeal to creationists
supporter does not protect your favorite stream
to look at what your president is doing to
from the toxic discharge of a power plant into a
Eden, or what’s left of it. I also want to appeal
public waterway.
to economic nationalists.
All of the above are
For the USA has the
In Alaska, (Trump) is potential
consequences of
greatest home for sockeye
more than 50 environmental
salmon on the planet in
going
against
the
will
rules that Trump has tried to
Alaska’s Bristol Bay. The
of the people to target kill since he took office.
Trump administration is
monuments
putting it at risk in order
Bristol Bay. Half the — National
not the Confederate
to aid a foreign mining
conglomerate.
world’s wild sockeye kind that Trump wants to
preserve, but special places
This American carnage
is led by a man whose job is come from this magical protected in somewhat the
way as national parks
to protect the natural world
place, a bounty that same
— are also in his sights.
within our borders, EPA
administrator Scott Pruitt.
supports 14,000 jobs. These are unique landscapes
set aside for their cultural,
As you may have heard,
historical or scenic splendor.
he has sealed himself off
Trump could shrink 10 of them — another
from the public with a $25,000 phone security
sellout of American heritage.
system and an 18-member security detail. It
In Alaska, he is going against the will of the
took a court order to pry loose some of the
people to target Bristol Bay. Half the world’s
details of his meetings. No surprise, he holds
daily lap-dog sessions with the companies he is wild sockeye come from this magical place, a
bounty that supports 14,000 jobs. Alaskans are
supposed to regulate.
a cantankerous bunch who can’t agree on much
Pruitt is the swamp, the only wetland the
of anything. Yet they voted by an overwhelming
Trump administration wants to protect. He
margin in 2014 to protect Bristol Bay from a
serves the oil, chemical and mining interests
gold and copper mine that could generate 10
that propped him up when he was attorney
billion tons of toxic waste.
general of Oklahoma. He now runs the oil,
And unlike big food producers in the
chemical and mining protection agency out of
heartland, the Bristol Bay salmon industry
Washington, with our money. You would never
is not propped up by subsidies, chemicals or
guess that this toady in a suit works for us.
compromised politicians. The fish need only
Look around. The catastrophic wildfires
clean water and healthy oceans. That’s why the
that are sweeping through iconic landscapes
EPA had earlier concluded that the proposed
in Northern California and carpet-bombing
Pebble mine could have a “catastrophic” impact
entire neighborhoods are a glimpse into an
on the bay.
early future in the West. Hurricanes, rolling in
Trump’s men are rolling over for the gold
one after the other, are swamping cities. Every
mine. Just hours after Pruitt met with the
month brings a new high temperature record.
mine’s corporate leadership, Trump reversed
Until this year, the U.S. response was in
EPA protection, as CNN reported this week.
tune with the rest of the world — to try to do
If you’re surprised that wild salmon would be
something to fix this overheated globe of ours.
sacrificed for precious metal, remember that
In announcing this week that President
one of Trump’s few passions is for gold-plated
Donald Trump intends to spite all the other
bathroom fixtures.
nations and gut President Barack Obama’s
■
signature effort to curb greenhouse gas
Timothy Egan worked for 18 years as a
emissions, Pruitt framed the move as the end of
writer for The New York Times, first as the
the “war on coal.” Now comes the war on the
Pacific Northwest correspondent, then as a
planet and public health.
national enterprise reporter.
Amid the hourly calamities of a White
The East Oregonian welcomes original letters of 400 words or less on public issues
and public policies for publication in the newspaper and on our website. The newspaper
reserves the right to withhold letters that address concerns about individual services and
products or letters that infringe on the rights of private citizens. Submitted letters must
be signed by the author and include the city of residence and a daytime phone number.
The phone number will not be published. Unsigned letters will not be published. Send
letters to managing editor Daniel Wattenburger, 211 S.E. Byers Ave. Pendleton, OR 97801
or email editor@eastoregonian.com.