june 2025 | by susan jurasz | show project

Our interpretive planning and design efforts are focused on the message and the experience. The idea that people learn differently — through sound, sight, motion, the practical and empirical strikes our fancy. It’s not a new idea, it’s just that we are more vigilant in our approach to apply it.

At the Mount Pisgah Arboretum in Eugene, Oregon, we invite you to walk through a stand of incense cedar. It’s an ordinary trail made spectacular by design. Simple, light, aluminum circles of varying size (some with cutout words and some without) dance in sunlight. High and low along the trail, these simple rings entice you to look, touch, smell, listen, and think about the surrounding forest. A circles on the forest floor enshrine a calypso orchid, one on the bark makes you notice the deep grooves — it says "home" — which makes you question: "a home to what?" A ring above your head says "structure" — and as you gaze into the branches above, some going up over 300 feet, you feel dizzy. Toward the center of the forest, the canopy opens up and the ground gets a little wetter. There is a large circular deck cut to accommodate two cedar trees. A large circular bench beckons you to slow the pace and sit for a moment in this quiet place.

july 2015 | by susan jurasz | show project

Imagine building a gigantic bird’s nest, stick by stick, one large enough to fit all your friends… Of course, it helps if all your friends help you build it too.

Sometimes a project has all the elements of imagination, art, fantasy, and fun. For several years, Sea Reach has been working with Mount Pisgah Arboretum in Eugene to develop an interpretive program that inspires visitors to look more closely at the natural world around them—or at least to see aspects of the natural world around them that may previously passed by without notice. There will be seven to eight interpretive nodes at the Arboretum. Each node is different, and all designed to inform the visitor and delight the senses.

The first node, under construction now, is the "Water Garden"—a raised platform along a slough that’s seasonally flooded by the west fork of the Willamette River—the wetter areas full of lily pads and the edges a wild jungle of riparian species. If you’re lucky, in the wetter season, you can glimpse a turtle basking in the sun. In the drier season, you might hear a pileated woodpecker tapping out a beat in search of insects.

The node consists of a viewing blind and a walk-through tunnel, constructed of aluminum poles and hand-woven filbert and willow branches. Windows—high and low—allow for a variety of perspectives on the seasonal wetland.

Interested in being part of the weaving party? Volunteers are welcome: contact the Arboretum here!