Category Portland and Cascadia
Pokegama’s Macro Accelerator
[a log stripped of its bark and lubricated with animal fat collides with the Klamath River after descending through the Pokegama Chute at speeds of up to 90 miles per hour. Is that dust or smoke we see in its wake? Image circa 1900, by Maud Baldwin] The western United States’ historic logging boom was […]
‘Drawing Water’
[Maps from David Hicks Drawing Water Series. Winter, 2011 (top) and Midwest, 2011 (bottom)] David Wicks MA thesis project, Drawing Water, links USGS national water consumption data with rainfall data compiled by NOAA/NWS in a series of maps. The data are parsed with Python scripts and the prints (above) were generated using software written on […]
Recruitment of Entropy (Advancing Deltas V)
[A view of the shifting delta in what was Condit Dam’s Northwestern Lake.] It has been almost four months since Condit Dam was intentionally breached by blasting a tunnel through its concrete base. As much has happened since then, here are some notes from the field. Amongst other events and trials, local media has remarked […]
Occupied in Portland
[Occupy Portland, seen on November 11th] Like other islands within the urban archipelago of the Occupied movement, Occupy Portland arrived at a critical juncture and was subsequently dismantled this past weekend. The occupy movement has consistently demonstrated how quickly it learns and adapts. Mistakes and improvisation seem integral to its shifting and malleable design. And […]
Advancing Deltas III
Following yesterday’s demo blast to Condit Dam, the experimental management of 2.4-million cubic yards of potentially mobilized sediment got underway. Surprises emerged from the get-go, as it took just over an hour to drain the dam’s reservoir (engineered scenarios predicted it would take 6 hrs), and shortly thereafter the river began cutting itself a new […]
Designed Deluge
After much ado, PacifiCorp’s Condit Dam is scheduled to be breached at noon, pacific standard time, today. Of note is the design for how that will occur: “The method for dam removal involves clearing sediment and debris immediately upstream from the tunnel and then drilling and blasting a 13-foot by 18-foot drain tunnel in the […]
Advancing Deltas
[USGS Diver Deploying a Transect Marker at the Mouth of the Elwha River in the Strait of Juan de Fuca. “The primary goal of the dive survey is to learn how underwater plant and animal life react and adapt to the downstream effects of dam removal and provide scientists a more detailed and complete picture […]
Staring at Goats VIII: the In-situ Field Guide
[Anonymous text at the Belmont field, as we saw it just prior to the return of the goats. We are fond of this sign’s shrewd use of materials consisting of a plastic 3 ring binder with the back ripped off and its binder clips retooled as clasps. Delivered without punctuation, it has a wonderfully ambiguous […]
Staring at Goats VI (Version 2.0)
[Click the bottom image for a much larger view] As of yesterday, the Goats on Belmont project is now in its second trial run, merging urban ecology experimentation with land management strategy and urban event. If you are wondering what we are talking about and/or missed our series of posts that ran concurrently with our […]
Architectures of Hybrid Migrations
Although very likely not submitted to this year’s Animal Architecture Awards, the design for the “Selective Water Withdrawal Tower” on The Deschutes River could have been a candidate for the prize, or at minimum, a poignant contribution to forums discussing “the myriad issues arising from the complex interactions between animals and human society“, and how […]
Free Association Design 