David Buckley Borden’s LAF Fellowship Proposal

Emergent Mutualism; Closing the Science-Communication Gap through Collaboration between Science and Design

As ecological challenges become more acute, environmental scientists are increasingly thrust into the spotlight to communicate vital practical knowledge to landscape architects, policy makers, government agencies, community groups, and individuals. The need for motivating a population of non-scientists to both understand and care about ecology is essential. The urgency of transforming this ecological understanding to direct action is vital. Long-term sustainable practice depends on a heightened ecological awareness. I believe that environmental-communication collaborations between landscape architects and environmental research scientists can foster cultural cohesion around ecological issues. Ultimately, an informed public will become their own empowered advocates and are more likely to collaborate with landscape architects to support long-term landscape stewardship, land planning, and conservation practice. To that end, I would argue that the planet’s climate-crises demands new education models, communication methods, and fluid interdisciplinary models that fill the gap between design and science. Given landscape architecture’s new designation as a STEM industry by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the timing could not be better for forging new collaborative relationships with the hard sciences. I agree with ASLA President, Emily O’Mahoney, that “The STEM designation will be an additional tool in helping decision-makers understand the rigor this discipline demands” (ASLA, 2023).

In order to produce ecologically sensitive design and foster environmental stewardship, landscape architects must be educators. The designer’s role as an educator is certainly nothing new. I agree with Paulo Freire, the Brazilian philosopher, that education is the most transformative value-producing system in society (Freire, 1970). In this ethos, I would say that education is the most far-reaching investment of our collective design effort as landscape architects. Landscape architects have made remarkable investments in meaningful community engagement, education, and empowerment in recent years. However, I would argue that how the profession engages the scientific community and then collaboratively educates the general public is worthy of research, critical review, and the dissemination of evidence-based practice models. Through my own creative practice, working with scientists, and design teaching, I have actively researched and applied communication theory through the development of novel science-communication projects with research forests. To be clear, science-communication is generally defined as activities that communicate scientific information to non-scientists for the sake of knowledge, awareness, and decision-making (Burns, 2003). My own science-communication projects have taken many forms, ranging from environmental art on urban campuses to an art-based interpretive trail. Arguably, many of these media, cultural platforms, and engagement strategies exist on the margins of landscape architecture practice. However, I believe that we need new interdisciplinary methods of communication. To that end, I started collaborating with ecologists in 2016 as a Bullard Fellow in Forest Research at the Harvard Forest. This creative-research driven fellowship produced a series of science-communication based landscape installations, art exhibitions, public talks, and peer-reviewed publications. This watershed opportunity opened the door to other collaborations within the Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) Network, including my current projects at the HJ Andrews Experimental Research Forest. The LTER Network is a largely untapped collaborative opportunity for landscape architects as the collection of 27 NSF-funded programs are engaged in researching every type of North American ecosystem. The LTER’s mission “is to provide the scientific community, policy makers, and society with the knowledge and predictive understanding necessary to conserve, protect, and manage the nation’s ecosystems, their biodiversity, and the services they provide” (LTER, 2023). The LTER mission squarely aligns with that of LAF and ASLA.

While my design-research with LTER sites has been productive in terms of creating physical objects, installations, exhibitions, and public events, my teaching schedule has left little capacity for critical reflection, writing, and peer-reviewed publication. I believe that this knowledge can contribute to the growing field of design-based science communication. I am also confident that it will develop new insights to strengthen landscape architects’ ability to communicate ecological issues with the rigor of hard science and the cultural nuance of artful design-thinking.

I envision the LAF Fellowship as an opportunity to research and share the theory and diverse practice of science communication with both landscape architecture and research science communities. Central to my proposed research is a deep dive into past practices and current trends of environmental communication by landscape architects with science research communities, specifically ecology and forestry at LTER sites. This research includes a historic survey of past practices for context, but privileges an exploration of new ideas, communication models, and practice modes to move science communication forward within the realm of environmental design practice. In particular, I am interested in answering the question, “How can landscape architects contribute to science-communication projects in order to foster cultural cohesion around ecological issues and help inform ecology-minded decision making.”

My LAF Fellowship project builds off my experience working with research scientists within the LTER network. This primary, practice-based, research would leverage collaborative experiences with the Harvard Forest and the HJ Andrews Experimental Forest. My critical reflection process would be characterized by post-project documentation, evaluation, internal critique, and partner feedback from LTER collaborators. I see the LAF Fellowship as an opportunity to evaluate these science-communication collaborations, and situate them in design practice, communication theory, and strategic direct-action environmental campaigns.

Through research into other LTER sites and current science-communication trends in landscape architecture I will conduct a literature review and informational interviews with practitioners. This new knowledge would then be synthesized with my past collaborations as case studies to illustrate a variety of science-communication models in terms of their functionality and successes, not to mention limitations and constraints. The studies would include a diversity of recent project types: site-specific landscape installations; narrative-driven exhibitions; art-based interpretive trails; community design-build projects; public art collaborations for direct-action campaigns; tactical pop-up installations for educational community events; and mentored MLA student science-communication collaborations with community conservation partners. These are all project types I’ve developed with scientists in recent years, several of which are featured in my portfolio submission.

The case study method would help answer the driving research question of “How can interdisciplinary science-communication be re-imagined as a collaborative design process for landscape architects and scientists?” However, I do not see these case studies as the final outcome, but a prompt for the development of a series of concise, accessible project-specific “How-to” booklets that combine design thinking, communication theory, experiential design, and public-engagement practice into a free publication to inspire others to engage in interdisciplinary collaboration with science research communities. The closest aspiration that I have found for the final products is perhaps Anne Godfrey’s Active Landscape Photography book series from Routledge. Godfrey’s series presents photography methods and case studies to interrogate relationships between landscape architecture and photography, and ultimately present a variety of creative methods that elevate photography into a rigorous design-research tool for understanding, planning, and designing landscapes. The ultimate outcome of the design-research is a road map to help inspire and instruct allied designers and scientists in collaborative science-communication.

The primary stakeholders for this work would initially be the LTER Network and landscape architects. The general audience is divided into two distinct professional groups, scientific research communities, and landscape architects along with allied environmental designers and planners. The allied design group would include national, regional, and local environmental and planning policy makers and of course members of APA and ASLA. In terms of the scientific community, the LTER Network occupies a rich research niche in a vast constellation of academic institutions and government agencies including NSF, NOAA, NEON, NPS, and other federal agencies working on climate security issues such as the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Interior. I imagine communication professionals at these organizations to be part of the larger target audience beyond the immediate LTER communities.

Although my Fellowship program is proposed as a design-research project, it is also a communication campaign, and ultimately an educational initiative for landscape architects, scientists, and the communities they both serve. My LAF program vision employs a model of stewardship that merges aesthetics, community interaction, environmental awareness, and communication media (examples of this model can be seen in my portfolio). Similar to my other public-facing projects, my Fellowship program would include integrated outreach and an ongoing shared narrative to illustrate the research issues at hand. A combination of traditional offline media and social media would promote reflection, critical thinking, and creativity among both scientists and designers. To that end, I look forward to working with LAF staff to coordinate these engagement efforts. I am also privileged to receive dissemination support, including additional matched funding from the Fuller Initiative for Productive Landscapes and the HJ Andrews Experimental Forest LTER program to help the promotion and community-building around this research proposal.

David Buckley Borden

Eugene, Oregon

9/15/23

Works Cited:

ASLA News. Department of Homeland Security Designates Landscape Architecture a STEM Discipline, American Society of Landscape Architects, https://www.asla.org/NewsReleaseDetails.aspx?id=63963. July12, 2023.

Burns, Terry W. Science Communication, a Contemporary Definition. Sage Publishing, 2002.

Freire, Paulo. Pedagogy of the Oppressed. Continuum International Publishing Group, 1970.

Godfrey, Anne. Active Landscape Photography Methods of Investigation. Routledge, 2022.

Landscape Architecture Foundation, LAF Fellowship in Innovation and Leadership,https://www.lafoundation.org/what-we-do/leadership/laf-fellowship. September 13, 2023.

LTER Vision. Long-Term Ecological Research Network, National Science Foundation, https://lternet.edu/about/. September 14, 2023.

Helves and Hallmarks of Collaboration, initial design studies, as they appeared as a mock advert in Feral Fellowship (Untitled Book Bureau, 2024), 8 × 10 inches, 2024. Collaborators: David Buckley Borden and Ashley Ferguson.

Castor Axe (for Nancy Silvers) ¾” AC plywood, milled pine, lasers, 3M blue tape, black ink, two-in-one primer, acrylic paint, and assorted hardware, beeswax, 12 × 18 inches, 2023. Collaborators: David Buckley Borden, Adam DeSorbo, and Ashley Ferguson.

Tree Poisoning Axe (for Ashley Ferguson), ¾” AC plywood, milled pine, lasers, 3M blue tape, black ink, two-in-one primer, acrylic paint, and assorted hardware, beeswax, 18 × 24 inches, 2023. Collaborators: David Buckley Borden, Adam DeSorbo, and Ashley Ferguson.

Vulcan Axe (for Fred Swanson), ¾” AC plywood, milled pine, lasers, 3M blue tape, black ink, two-in-one primer, acrylic paint, and assorted hardware, beeswax, 18 × 28 inches, 2024. Collaborators: David Buckley Borden, Adam DeSorbo, and Ashley Ferguson.

UBB-005, PC-001, Fall 2023

Thirty-eight pages, 5.5 X 8.5 inch format, color copier printing, DIY zine featuring speculative design objects and writing by David Buckley Borden et al. Publication includes speculative design writing, project backstory, botanical naming primer, arboreal gothic culture exposé, and a dozen arboreal goth cultivars. Within the watercolor paper cover, one will find a variety of blow-ins including project postcards and a two-color 22 X 22 inch Arboreal Goth Collection 2023 AD black cotton bandana.

Limited edition of twenty-four hard copies. Twelve copies available for sale online.

Purchase your hard copy here.

UBB-003, PC-001, Summer 2023

Forty pages, 5.5 X 8.5 inch format, color copier printing, DIY design zine featuring creative writing and speculative design objects by David Buckley Borden and collaborators. The interdisciplinary Forest Fashion project debuted at Lawrence Hall at the College of Design, University of Oregon in the Spring of 2023. The publication includes speculative design writing, project backstory, EWS primer, and twenty featured works of design-fiction exploring backcountry “fashion” in wildfire prone landscapes. Within the etched-canvas waterproof cover, one will find a variety of blow-ins including color centerfold, project postcards, and other creative treats by the collaborative team of designers, artists, and scientists.

Limited edition of 44 hard copies. Twelve copies available for sale online.

Purchase your hard copy here.

UBB-002 PC-001, Winter 2023

Twenty pages, black and white, 5.5 X 8.5 inch format, DIY artist PNW Tree ID Sign exhibition guide at the University of Oregon’s College of Design in winter 2023. Content includes project backstory, creative process, eight featured works, and a PSA regarding black-clad Arboreal Goth gangs. Hand-sewn silkscreened, waterproof, cover by Vinnie Arnone, Helen Popinchalk, and Nancy Silvers.

Limited edition of thirty-four hard copies. Twelve copies available for sale online.

UBB-001 PC-001, Fall 2022

Twenty pages, 5.5 X 8.5 inch format, DIY artist catalog of Ghost Forests exhibition at Simons University’s Trustman Art Gallery in fall 2022. Hand silkscreened cover by Helen Popinchalk, three blow-ins including, but not limited to color-print centerfold, exhibition postcards, 18 x 24 inch silkscreened EWS guide on newsprint, etc.

Limited edition of forty-four hard copies. Twelve copies available for sale online.

PNW Tree ID Signs, Ghost Forests Exhibition, array of nine mixed-media signs, recycled oak flooring, India ink, acrylic paint, and lasers, dimensions vary, Trustman Gallery, Simmons University, Boston, Massachusetts, 2022.

Pseudotsuga menziesii, Douglas-fir, has a large range west of the Rocky Mountains, from the northern tip of Vancouver Island down to the coastal and mountain ranges of central California. It prefers elevations from sea level up to 5000 feet, sometimes more. Its needles are spirally arranged, with a slight twist at the base. Its mature cones are tan and have a unique 3-pointed bract that extends beyond the scales which evokes an abstract form that looks vaguely like the tail and hind feet of a frantically scrambling mouse attempting to hide just beneath the scales. Douglas-fir trees yield the most amount of timber in North America, making the Doug-fir one of the most economically important trees in the world. The tree is closely associated with the people and timber industry of the PNW, so it is no wonder that our friend Dougie is the state tree of Oregon, and is still the best-selling wood species at Jerry’s Hardware in Springfield, Oregon

Picea sitchensis, Sitka spruce, occurs within a thin strip on the Pacific Coast of Oregon into Alaska, often only reaching a few miles inland. It is a PNW costal icon, making its home along the shores and inlets of a moss covered, moist landscape. Its stiff and sharp needles are glaucus with two strips of stomata on the underside. The tan colored, medium-sized cones are soft, papery, and pale brown. When dry, these cones make the best, out of tune mini xylophones to run a finger across. The Sitka spruce was a central species of a nearly lost ecosystem, the tidal forest. Today, most of the tidal forests have been logged, diked, and converted to farmland and luxury seaside homes. What little remains of the Sitka spruce forests is a somber testament to Homo sapiens’ collective environmental values.

Other Oregon Coast ghost forests, such the Neskowin Ghost Forest were likely created when the Cascadia subduction earthquake in 1700 AD covered the tidal forest with debris from a massive tsunami.

Pinus sabiniana, gray foothills pine, is endemic to California and the Klamath Mountains eco-region of Oregon. The gray foothills pine can be easily identifiable by its tremendously large cones and long drooping needles. The infamously large cones of the gray foothills pine are specially adapted to the sloped and grassy environment it resides in.

After three to five years of staying on the tree branch, the foothill pine cone will detach and roll downhill (hikers beware). The falling cones are heavy enough to cause injury or death to Homo sapiens and have been nicknamed “widow maker cones” due to fatal tales of backcountry misfortune.

Pinus contorta, lodgepole pine, is a hard pine located from the shore of the Pacific Coast to the PNW sub-alpine mountains. The lodgepole pine can tolerate many harsh conditions, such as clay soils, freezing temperatures, and even the pumice ridden soils of central Oregon which can sometimes reach 140 degrees during the summer (Arno, 2020). Its egg-shaped cones are prickly and serotinous, needing fire to release its seeds. The cones’ size and mass make it a choice selection in the suburban sandlot game known as “pine cone war.” The fire-activated oblong cone is rumored to be the inspiration for the game of “Whack Bat” in the 2009 cult classic film Fantastic Mr. Fox. Due to the Andersonian association, the ‘Whack Bat’ pine strobili are coveted souvenir cones in Hollywood, California. The sign features a billow of smoke as a gentle warning to alert folks that they have entered the potentially dangerous Pinus contorta ‘Whack Bat’ zone. Trail users beware!

Pinus lambertiana, sugar pine, can be found throughout the mountains of Oregon and California in moist environments. Its needles are found in fascicles of 5. The overall form is recognizable for its large crown of majestic outreaching branches. Not only is the sugar pine the largest pine in the world, it also bears the largest cones of all pines, with the largest recorded specimen clocking in at an impressive 22 inches. No fooling! When green, the pendant cones can weigh two to four pounds, making them the weapon of choice for petty squirrels overhead.

There were several uses for the sugar pine. Native peoples ate and harvested the tasty seeds and used them in a variety of ways, including roasting, boiling, baking into cakes, or pulverizing into a nut butter spread. The sweet resin was chewed as gum sparingly due to its laxative qualities (Arno, 2020).

Taxus brevifolia, pacific yew or western yew, is a tree species in the yew family Taxaceae and is native to the Pacific Northwest. It is a small evergreen conifer, thriving in moisture dappled sun light, and tends to take the form of a shrub. With the passing of time, it will eventually take the form of an understory tree, hiding beneath the towering Douglas-firs and western hemlocks. It can be found sparsely in the southern Alaska Panhandle all the way down to the San Francisco Bay area, as well as extending east to the northern Rockies.

The pacific yew houses a legendary poison, which is toxic to humans, especially children. All parts of the tree are toxic, so kindergarteners beware on forest field trips! The yew is known for its small, violently red, berry-like cones also known as an aril. Only the female trees produce these pea-sized poison pills. Each aril contains one toxic seed surrounded by bead-shaped fleshy pulp. The needles are flat, double ranked, and deep green.

The whimsical-looking bark of the pacific yew appears to have leaped straight out of a fairy tale, as it is scaly gray on the outside and bright purple on the inside. During the 1990s the pacific yews’ bark was discovered to house the chemical known as Taxol (or Paclitaxel) that can inhibit ovarian and breast cancers. The chemical was extracted from trees in the Pacific Northwest for roughly ten years before pharmaceutical companies switched to agricultural plantations, later synthesizing the drug (Arno, 2020). This controversial harvest of a seemingly unforgivable poison allowed the shade loving pacific yew to come into the light of popular culture for a few years, helping cancer patients, before fading back into humble obscurity and avoiding prolonged exploitation.

Sources:

Arno, Stephen, and Ramona Hammerly. Northwest Trees. Mountaineer Books. 2020, pp. 30-35, 61-69, 83-91, 101-110, 117-122.

Jensen, Edward. Trees to Know in Oregon. Oregon State University. 2010, pp. 11-13, 20-21, 28-29, 36-37, 42-44, 107-108.

“Pinus strobus.” Edited by Christopher J. Earle, Pinus strobus (Eastern White Pine) description - The Gymnosperm Database, 6, Aug. 2023, Pinus strobus (eastern white pine) description (conifers.org)

“Pinus sabiniana.” Edited by Christopher J. Earle, Pinus sabiniana (Foothills Pine) description - The Gymnosperm Database, 26, Feb. 2023, Pinus sabiniana (gray pine) description - The Gymnosperm Database (conifers.org)

Amid forest fires and watering bans, air-quality alerts and atmospheric rivers, we see a new culture arising among people who go hiking in the backcountry of the Pacific Northwest. How might these new folk seek to reconcile past Western land-management practices and contemporary conflicting cultural histories? What timely knowledge might such a society offer in the midst of planetary crisis? In landscapes of rapid change, alongside those who’ve known the land far longer than modernity allows, the goods dreamt up by these Anthropocene wanderers have evolved from speculative niches in academia to a burgeoning bazaar of Pollyanna technologies and nuanced neo-tribal narratives spanning a spectrum from savvy hope to existential despair. Perhaps they signal an emerging reconciliation between conflicting cultural histories of land use in the forested backcountry of the Cascades?

Anthropologists posit that every artifact possesses a cultural backstory legible in design—every stitch, every screw an archive of creativity and folk knowledge. Some of these narratives speak through vagaries of form—the mouth-sized spout on a canteen; the flared axe handle, smoothed and weighted for ergonomically-efficient destruction. Other stories are only revealed upon rigorous research, including the acquisition, restoration, and re-creation of objects long lost or never known by outsiders. In this way, every object in the Forest Fashion collection communicates a story of human creativity, resiliency, and adaptation.

Environmental Wayfinding System

Building off traditional “hobo” pictographs, the Environmental Wayfinding System (EWS) is a reimagined folk communication system that serves as a graphic survival-code for people navigating environmental collapse in the Anthropocene. A living graphic language constantly evolving in response to ecological developments and human understanding, EWS is often informally shared among its users, and has been recorded across North America, ranging from the scorched mountains of the Pacific Northwest, to the desiccated fly-over flats of the Dust Bowl 2.0 region, to the swamped back alleys of American coastal cities, most notably Washington, D.C.

Strong resilient communities share information freely. So, it is not surprising to see EWS symbols incorporated into a remarkable range of handmade objects as a means to educate others within the community. Documented examples of EWS objects include camping equipment, hiking gear, heirloom quilts, furniture, hand tools, and even toys and clothing for children. The Forest Fashion, Lookout Edition collection is a prime example of a wonderfully diverse collection of EWS inspired material culture.

Although there is a growing movement to standardize the EWS phenomenon, in an effort to make it more accessible across all resiliency-indexed social strata, EWS is a vernacular graphic language that varies from one ecological region to the next, influenced by local environmental legacies and cultural practices. The EWS symbols associated with the Forest Fashion, Lookout Edition reflects the genius loci of the Pacific Northwest Forests.

Salvage Cut Cookie Quilt

Contrary to popular belief, a warm quilt for a warming planet is an essential item for survival. Made of lightweight breathable cotton with a petrol-based, highly flammable batting fill, the Salvage Cut Cookie Quilt provides warmth and comfort for a good night’s rest. It doesn’t quite pack down to inch by inch by inch like those newfangled Prada sleeping bags, and it weighs half a ton. But this cozy quilt sets the stage for bedtime ghost stories and brings a taste of home to the remote mountaintop.

This quilt is adorned with silkscreened prints of a 40-year-old Douglas-fir tree cookie rescued from a Wildlife Habitat Restoration Unit (a product of the Northwest Forest Plan, May 1994) on BLM land in Lane County, Oregon. The red stitch work reflects common, and a couple uncommon, cut patterns of milled plantation timber. This quilt also features hand-stitched graphic language from the Environmental Wayfinding System, indicating the quilt makers are attuned to a network of people collectively navigating environmental collapse within their local communities.

Salvage Cut Cookie Quilt, silkscreened duck canvas, cotton fabric, and thread, 40 x 80 inches, 2022. Collaborators: David Buckley Borden, Helen Popinchalk, Madison Sanders, and Nancy Silvers.

EWS Map Case

The EWS Map-N-Chart Case is a faithful reproduction of an iconic map case favored by long-distance through-hikers, wildfire fighters, and USFS lookout personnel. As such, the waxed-canvas case is almost waterproof and offers two see-through UV-resistant polymer windows for viewing maps, reports, conversion tables, and EWS charts. The map case also boasts an internal pocket for essential Rite in the Rain field books, and two felt hoops: one for a dry-erase marker and the other for an EWS grease pencil. The case features four steel D-rings for easily lashing the case to shoulder straps, backpacks, pack mules, or a low-torque electric-powered ATV.

EWS Map-N-Chart Case, cotton canvas, felt, museum board, Canadian paper pulp, polymer, thread, 13 x 15 x 2 inches, 2023. Collaborators: David Buckley Borden and Nancy Silvers.

Mega Drought Dehydration Canteen Gauge

This Mega Drought Dehydration Gauge Canteen belonged to a young scientist who studied snowpack modeling for flood forecasting, water resource management, and climate studies. The scientist was lost in an avalanche during the late winter 2021 field research season in the Cascades of Southern Washington. His hand-engraved canteen was found the following summer off the coast of Sendai in the Tohoku region of Northeast Japan. At the time of retrieval, the canteen contents still smelled of sour coffee.

Mega Drought Dehydration Canteen, etched aluminum surplus canteen (40-ounce), enamel paint, para cord, 9 x 5 x 3, 2023. Collaborators: David Buckley Borden, Gallows Humor, Blake Schouten, and Nancy Silvers.

Tandem Timber Haul Straps

This pair of moving straps, along with other two-person tools, such as the “misery whip” saw, are categorically “slow and low” impact logging tools. This functional pair of straps are “faithful reproductions,” on loan from the Fancy Silverston. Nonetheless, they are prime examples of early timber technology. Interestingly, the 1/8” satin-stitch EWS symbols spin contrasting tales of radical environmental protection (top strap) and tough guy timber corporate testimony (bottom strap). These particular EWS symbols are a lovely example of critical, narrative-driven, material culture. Conceptually, the pair of haul straps seem to communicate an opposing, yet balanced, sustainable collaborative forest management practice. This fact makes this EWS themed artifact of particular interest to both enviros and timber beasts alike.

Tandem Timber Haul Straps, heavy-weight cotton canvas, wood handles, para cord, thread, 9 x 48 x 1 inches, 2023. Collaborators: David Buckley Borden, Blake Schouten, Nancy Silvers, and Ian Escher Vierck.

Cathartes Aura Cooling Bag

Most water is not for drinking. This curious-looking canvas handbag is modeled off antique water bags that were once used at remote logging sites for cooling down overheated horses, oxen, and “steam donkeys.” Loggers would fill the water bags with cold mountain run-off and then cache the bloated bags in snow pack. During late summer heat waves, these water bags were also administered to loggers suffering from sunstroke or “Vita-D Poisoning,” as the condition was known by some PNW sawyers. The abstract graphic on the bag’s face captures the likeness of the breezy cleaner, Cathartes aura, commonly known as the turkey vulture. The vulture image was intended to prompt meditations on high atmospheric heat, low water levels, and a short life punctuated by a long death.

Cathartes Aura Cooling Bag, cotton canvas, upcycled tin spout and clasp, recycled plastic cap, thread, para cord, and wood handle, 12 x 10 x .25 inches, 2023. Collaborators: David Buckley Borden, Asa DeWitt, Nancy Silvers, and Sabine Winkler.

Commemorative Chainsaw Oil Cans

These small oil cans, a rare find to say the least, were discovered in the McKenzie River Ranger Station parking lot on Route 126 in Blue River, OR in the winter of 2023. The hand-etched chainsaw oil cans appear to be a logger’s commemoration of successful (profitable and injury-free) Holiday Farm Fire salvage logging operations. The customized objects are a prime example of “Lumberjack Art,” a material culture term used by anthropologists to describe objects made from tools and debris in the context of logging operations, especially in the off hours at logging camps. This class of folk art has become increasingly prized by collectors as traditional saws, public working forests, and the working class that cut these forests dwindle with each passing harvest season.

Although it looks like a mangled work glove, the organic figure-ground form (Image A) captures the geographic extent of the 2020 Holiday Farm Fire, AKA the 200430 wildfire incident according to the United States Forest Service. A third of this etched map is crosshatched in red paint to represent the total area of salvage logging operations within the boundaries of the Holiday Farm Fire. On the flip side of the etched can (Image B) is the wildfire start date, 200430 incident number, and the words, “Owl Gulch Salv.” Researchers surmise that the can’s maker participated in the “Owl Gulch” salvage logging operation. The can’s screw tops feature a red saw-scared stump and a black nurse stump with two distinct emerging evergreen saplings.

Commemorative Oil Cans, etched steel, dirt, blood, and paint, 2.5 x 2.5 x 1 inch, 2023. Collaborators: Rachel Benbrook, David Buckley Borden, and Blake Schouten.

Hot Log Mitts

This pair of restored Hot Log Mitts were discovered in 2022 in a long-forgotten storage space in an old dairy barn just outside of Tillamook, Oregon. These emergency fire mitts are remarkably bulky, but necessary when surprise wildfires douse any superficial notions of fashion. The mitt’s off-white color initially puzzled design-researchers. They now believe the mitts were made from light-colored material in order to highlight any burn holes or tears in the flame-retardant wool. Yet others posit the white material was used in the spirit of the old saying; “Good wood is the wood you got.”

Hot Log Mitts, cotton canvas, felt, thread, wood dowels, insulated with common sense and precaution, 8 x 15 x 4 inches, 2023. Collaborators: David Buckley Borden, Sabine Winkler, and Nancy Silvers.

Lil’ Hot Log Mitts

A smaller (baby-sized) pair of Lil’ Hot Log Mitts were also discovered in a nearby hops barn and reunited with the larger parent pair in 2023. The two sets of mitts appear to be made by the same crafts-person, in terms of material, stitch work, and design details, for example, the “Right” and “Left” scripted pull-on tabs found on each pair of mitts.

Lil’ Hot Log Mitts, cotton canvas, felt, thread, wood dowels, insulated with common sense and parental care, 2 x 3 x 8 inches, 2023. Collaborators: David Buckley Borden, Sabine Winkler, and Nancy Silvers.

Comfy Camp Slippers

The Comfy Camp Slippers are an interesting modern hybrid of vintage trail slippers, house shoes, and crocs. Some lookout towers and cabs are a “please, take off your shoes” sort of space. In the ol’ tradition of back-40 thrift, these comfy camp slippers (size 9.5 women’s, wide) appear to be fashioned from materials on hand (felt, cardboard, and a decommissioned fireproof personnel tent). These slippers keep toes toasty (but not toasted) when the sun sets, temp drops, and the “owl coos for yous.” The top-side satin-stitched “Comfy Camp” EWS symbol makes these hand-fashioned slippers a bona fide, coveted luxury accessory in any fashion camp, high or low.

Comfy Camp Slippers, up-cycled fireproof wildfire fighter tent, felt, thread, museum board, 3 x 4 x 9 inches, 2023. Collaborators: David Buckley Borden, Nancy Silvers, and Sabine Winkler.

Lil’ Boo Comfy Camp Slippers

Little boos need creature comforts too. These kiddie-sized T-3 Comfy Camp Slippers are the ultimate in fawning camp-parenting.

Lil’ Boo Comfy Camp Slippers, up-cycled fireproof wildfire fighter tent lining, felt, thread, museum board, size T3, 2 x 3 x 5 inches, 2023. Collaborators: David Buckley Borden, Nancy Silvers, and Sabine Winkler.

Doug-Fir Cookie Eye Pillow

How can lookouts under the threat of wildfires sleep at night? It has something to do with soft cotton eye pillows and stiff nightcaps in little tin cups. The Douglas Cookie Eye Pillow also works wonders for arboreal dreams of Oregon plums and sugar pine cone drops on those bright full moon nights.

Doug-Fir Cookie Eye Pillow, cotton canvas, elastic band, thread, and patience, 7 x 4 x .125 inches, 2022. Collaborators, David Buckley Borden, Nancy Silvers, and Sabine Winkler.

Five Gallon Forest Flask

The Five Gallon Forest Flask can be a wildfire lookout’s savior. This particular customized fire extinguisher backpack features a five-gallon capacity chrome-plated aluminum tank, remote heat and humidity sensors, OTF knife with clip, and a ventilated air-cooled backrest. The brass slide-action pump is hand-operated and paired with a rugged thirty-inch double-braided oil-resistant hose. The tank’s carrying handle has clamps for securing the pump, and holes for attaching heavy-duty canvas shoulder straps. Apparently, shoulder straps were available in “suspender red” cotton webbing or off-white cotton canvas with felt padding for shoulder comfort. The high-viz EWS graphic on the backpack is equal parts safety feature and district statement to which the Forest Flask belonged. This Forest Flask has no apparent makers-mark, nor agency brand.

Five Gallon Forest Flask, 2 oz. etched aluminum 5 gal. canister, rubber hose, metal knife, bronze water pump, tin telescopic antenna, sensors, acrylic paint, and assorted hardware, 7 x 12 x 15 inches, 13 lbs. net weight, 2023. Collaborators: David Buckley Borden, Blake Schouten, Nancy Silvers, and Ian Escher Vierck.

Trapper Keeper

The Trapper Keeper, packed with a variety of field tech, survival gear, and choice creature comforts, is essential to support a lookout’s long trek to remote destinations such as the supply shed, bunkhouse, weather station, and the wildfire lookout tower itself. The Trapper Keeper is not a backpack, it’s a mobile support system for backcountry lookout-tower personnel. This particular pack is a modification of the trad government-issued wood-frame design. This upgrade features tactical pockets for bodily autonomy, padded chest straps for durability, a plywood frame for easy peel-and-burn kindling, a wet tube for bare-root saplings, and a reinforced cotton lining featuring a decoded Environmental Wayfinding System print.

Trapper Keeper, mixed-media backpack, cotton canvas, silkscreened muslin, furniture plywood, plastic tubes, tree saplings, paracord, rubber band, nickel grommets, and assorted thread and hardware, dimensions vary on payload but generally 8 x 20 x 30 inches, 2022. Collaborators

The Forest Fashion collaboration was funded by design-research grants to David Buckley Borden as part of his Fuller Design Fellowship at the Fuller Initiative for Productive Landscapes at the University of Oregon. Additional financial support for project fabrication was provided by the Oregon State University Foundation’s Andrews Fund as part of Borden’s design research residency at the HJ Andrews Experimental Forest. Collaborating landscape architecture graduate students at the University of Oregon were also funded through the sale of artwork on this website.

Nancy Silvers’ Trapper Keeper collaboration was funded by the Ford Family Foundation through a grant to David Buckley Borden and Colin Ives via the Center for Art Research at the University of Oregon.

Forest Fashion collaborators: Rachel Benbrook, William Bonner, David Buckley Borden, Asa DeWitt, Isaac Martinotti, Helen Popinchalk, Kennedy Rauh, Nancy Silvers, Madison Sanders, Blake Schouten, Ian Escher Vierck, and Sabine Winkler.

Pinus sabiniana ‘Impaler,’ commonly known as the “river pike pine” has a medium-to-large-sized cone. It is found in cool riparian valley systems and is associated with river log drives of the 19th and 20th Century lumber trade in North America. Notwithstanding its industrial past, the tree’s iconic cone is prized by tree huggers for its sharp uni-terminal point. The pike tip is covered in a red macro-plastic cap per the Gothic Herbarium safety code.

Fun Fact: A Pinus sabiniana ‘Impaler,’ can be seen on the fireplace mantel in the background in the famous “familial crisis” scene in the 1971 film, Sometimes a Great Notion, starring Paul Newman and Henry Fonda.

Pinus sabiniana ‘Barbus,’ commonly known as the “barb pine” or “sloth hooker,” is considered to be an arboreal anachronism. The umbos of the cone evolved along with the giant ground sloths, including Megalonyx, who were widespread in North America up to the Wisconsin Ice Age. The barbed pine cone adapted to attach to the sloth’s woolly coat in order to spread its seeds over a long-range as the sloth would walk great distances in search of food.

As land sloths slowly went extinct, early Homo sapiens learned to cultivate the barbed pine specimen for its unique Velcro-like characteristic and commonly used the clingy cone as a practical joke during tedious hunting and gathering trips.

Pinus sabiniana ‘Grapnelia,’ commonly known as a “grappling foothills pine” or “gray batman hook pine” is a large-sized pine tree endemic to California. The tree is easily identified by its sharp spiny cone and grappling hook-like terminus. The cone, about the size of an American football, is spiked, relatively heavy (up to three kilograms), and is a known “public safety hazard” during even the most mild wind events. Despite the cone’s dangerous reputation as a “widower,” dendrophiles are still seduced by the cone’s remarkable gnarly appearance and size.

Note: Red safety covers have been placed on sharp terminus tips per public health regulations of the state of California.

Pinus sabiniana ‘Forksis,’ commonly known as the “pitch fork pine” is a small-to-medium-sized pine. It is native to western North America, primarily from British Columbia to northern California and as far east as Idaho. It is found in environments that most other tree species find unsuitable for growth, such as acidic, sandy soils, not to mention disturbed landscapes of political unrest and cultural upheaval.

Pinus sabiniana ‘Whack Bat,’ commonly known as the “grenade pine,” is a common seed bomb cultivar found west of the Rocky Mountains. The fire-activated oblong cone with its single stem pin and large ring is rumored to be the inspiration for the fictitious game of “Whack Bat” in the 2009 cult classic film Fantastic Mr. Fox. As a result of the Andersonian association, the ‘Whack Bat’ pine strobili are bona fide trophy cones.

Caveat emptor: unscrupulous cone traders have been known to pass off the common “ringworm pine” cone (easily identified by its double stem pin) for the premium price of a ‘Whack Bat’ cone. Nihilo sanctum estne?

Pinus sabiniana ‘Tines,’ commonly known as the “spork pine,” is a medium-to-large sized pine cultivated for its tolerance of dry urban environments. It was specifically cultivated for the North American market and is typically found to the left of the feeble plastic knife.

Pinus sabiniana, ‘David’s Bowie,’ commonly known as a “bowie knife pine”, or simply, “knife pine,” is a large pine prized for its sharp pointed cone and cutting edge. The bowie cone has an uncanny resemblance to the Americana hunting knife of the same name. The red safety cap has been removed for this photograph in order to highlight the potentially lethal tip of this bizarre Pinus sabiniana cultivar. The cone is a colorful pop in any teenager’s pine cone war chest of crude blades and spent shells from the local sand pit range.

Pinus sabiniana ‘Anglerus,’ commonly known as the “lure pine,” is a medium-sized pine cultivated for its cone’s curious appearance of an oversized fly fishing lure. Today, the prized cones can be found in glass display cases in high-dollar eco-tourism hot spots, i.e., Jackson, WY. The dyed turkey feathers in the lure cone (photograph above) are an after-market phenomenon that is generally frowned upon within serious collector circles. Other popular materials for customizing cones include: chicken contour feathers, bison pantaloon hairs, and ungulate vibrissae, especially Quey brand elk whiskers.

The Arboreal Goth Cone Collection is a speculative-design project exploring gothic hybrids of ecology, industrial material, collector culture, and late-capitalism in North America. The original “art cone” concept stems from an obscure pine cone artform practiced by USFS lookout personnel stationed in wildfire watchtowers throughout the Pacific Northwest.

The mixed-media objects are created from old logging tools, foothill pine cones, macro plastics, oil-based paints, and natural oils and waxes. Dimensions vary by cultivar, 2023-2024.

Arboreal Goth Cone Collection collaborators: Vinnie Arnone, William Bonner, David Buckley Borden, Mike Demaggio, Adam DeSorbo, Asa DeWitt, Ashley Ferguson, Helen Popinchalk, Nancy Silvers, and Ian Escher Vierck.

Photography by Adam DeSorbo.

The complete catalog of the Arboreal Goth Cone Collection is available from the Unfinished Book Bureau and can be purchased here.

Rachel Carlson sports the Science or Death Flag, which is equipped with common field research tech to celebrate the critical collaboration between science and society. 

The Science or Death Flag was inspired by three years of critical conversations of concern for the PNW ecosystems and the populations that call them home. The field equipment (heat guarded sensor, anemometer, and thermometer) symbolizes a culture of rigorous research and knowledge. The Gothic flourishes and the six stripes in the canton are a public acknowledgment of the ongoing sixth mass extinction. 

Science or Death Flag, marine-grade canvas, 3 x 5 feet, 2021. Collaborators: David Buckley Borden, Michael Demaggio, and Ian Escher Vierck.

Sabine Winkler presents a high-viz EWS Camp Flag, in the classic black-white-red colorway, to announce a welcoming "safe camp" amidst local environmental collapse.

The EWS Camp Flag features a not-so-secret message in the graphic-folk language known as the Environmental Wayfinding System (EWS). This fire-retardant fabric flag is flown outside community centers, public spaces, open-homes, and backwoods camps to welcome folks to learn about EWS and how to use the environmental communication tool to navigate challenges on the path to global ecological collapse. All are welcome. 

EWS Camp Flag, marine-grade canvas, 3 x 5 feet, 2023. Collaborators: David Buckley Borden and Sabine Winkler.

Ed Abby waves a Collective Action Power Flag as an urgent call for creativity-powered collaborative action.

Collective Action Power Flag, marine-grade canvas, 3 x 5 feet, 2023. Collaborators: David Buckley Borden, Jack K. Byers, and Asa DeWitt.

Charles Young presents the Lame Duck Flag and an aggressive stance against invasive species along the Willamette River in Eugene, Oregon.

Lame Duck Flag, marine-grade canvas, 3 x 5 feet, 2021. Collaborators: David Buckley Borden, Michael Demaggio, and Ian Escher Vierck.

Ashley Ferguson captures the industrious Castor canadensis spirit with the PNW Eco Engineer Flag.

Eco Engineer Flag, marine-grade canvas, 3 x 5 feet, 2023. Collaborators: David Buckley Borden, Michael Demaggio, and Sabine Winkler.

Julia Butterfly Hill stands tall to protect and to serve trees with the 44th Regiment Tree Guard Flag in hand.

44th Regiment Tree Guard Flag, marine-grade canvas, 3 x 5 feet, 2021. Collaborators: David Buckley Borden, Sabine Winkler, and Ian Escher Vierck.

Aldo Leopold honors the Hot Ashes for Trees Flag, in deference to the never-ending cycle of wildfire ecology within the PNW.

Hot Ashes for Trees Flag, marine-grade canvas, 3 x 5 feet, 2024. Collaborators: Jackie Barry, David Buckley Borden, Michael Demaggio, and Sabine Winkler.

Winona LaDuke channels the Ride the Lightning Flag to serve as a towering lightning rod for environmental justice.

Ride the Lightning Flag, marine-grade canvas, 3 x 5 feet, 2021. Collaborators: David Buckley Borden, and Sabine Winkler.

John Muir was a goth and has the Arboreal Gothique Flag to prove it.

Arboreal Goth Flag, marine-grade canvas, 3 x 5 feet, 2023. Collaborators: Vinnie Arnone, David Buckley Borden, and Asa DeWitt.

Nancy Silvers wrestles the Hazardous Monkey Flag to give voice to the latent activist in all of us. 

The Hazardous Monkey Flag captures the spirit of the Enviro Barn Quilt project with a remix of graphic traditions from quilt blocks, hazardous-material signs, and taxidermy. The “monkey wrench” quilt block design (made from deconstructed hazardous-warning signs) radically screams for change. The layered graphic also slyly captures an abstract bear skin rug found in corporate cave dwellings of yore.  

Hazardous Monkey Flag, marine-grade canvas, 3 x 5 feet, 2024. Collaborators: David Buckley Borden, Ashley Ferguson, and Sabine Winkler.

Secret Seed No. 41, sugar pine cone, glass veggie canning jar, recycled metal “Big Stinky Fly Trap” funnel, acrylic paint, 3.5 x 3.5 x 9 inches, 2024.

Drop Seeds Bandana, 20 x 20 inches, two-color ink on white, or golden yellow cotton, made-in-the-USA bandana, 2023. Collaborators: Vinnie Arnone and David Buckley Borden.

Secret Seed Flags: Vive Vive, Drop Seeds, and Less Assholes (from left to right), marine grade canvas, 3 x 5 feet, 2023-2024. Collaborators: Vinnie Arnone, David Buckley Borden, Mike Demaggio, and Ashley Ferguson.

Wayfinding Barrier, No. 2, installation at Harvard Forest, 2 x 3.5 x 4 feet, wood, acrylic paint, vinyl, sheet metal, aluminum tape, and recycled ant nests and specimen box, 2017. Collaborators: David Buckley Borden, Jack Byers, Dr. Aaron Ellison, and Salua Rivero.

Hemlock Memorial Shed, installation at Harvard Forest, 8 x 8 x 9 feet, wood, acrylic paint, and assorted hardware, 2017. Collaborators: David Buckley Borden, Dr. Aaron Ellison, and Lisa Q Ward.

Sixth Extinction Flag, installation at Harvard Forest, 5 x 5 feet, canvas, thread, nylon rope, and grommets, 2017. Collaborators: Jackie Barry, David Buckley Borden, and Dr. Aaron Ellison. Photography by Salua Rivero.

Fast Forward Futures, installation at Harvard Forest, 4 x 8 x 26 feet, wood, acrylic paint, and assorted hardware, 2017. Collaborators: David Buckley Borden, Jack Byers, Dr. Aaron Ellison, Salvador Jiménez-Flores, and Salua Rivero.

Fast Forward Futures, installation at Harvard Forest, 4 x 8 x 26 feet, wood, acrylic paint, and assorted hardware, 2017. Collaborators: David Buckley Borden, Jack Byers, Dr. Aaron Ellison, Salvador Jiménez-Flores, and Salua Rivero.

Insect Landing, installation at Harvard Forest, 4 x 6 x 6 feet, recycled wood, and acrylic paint, 2017. Collaborators: David Buckley Borden, Dr. Aaron Ellison, Salvador Jiménez-Flores, CC McGregor, Patrick Moore, Salua Rivero, and Lisa Q Ward.

Double Assault, installation at Harvard Forest, dimensions variable, acrylic paint, wood, vintage buzzsaws, and assorted hardware, 2017. Collaborators: David Buckley, Jack Byers, Dr. Aaron Ellison, and Salua Rivero.

Bio Resource Plug, installation at Harvard Forest, 1.25 x 1.25 x 2.5 feet, wood, acrylic paint, steel., and PVC tubing, 2017. Collaborators: David Buckley Borden and blacksmith Brian Hall. Photography by Neil Pederson.

“Exchange Tree,” installation at Harvard Forest, 8 x 10 x 12.5 feet, wood and acrylic paint, 2017. Collaborators: David Buckley Borden, Dr. Aaron Ellison, Salvador Jiménez-Flores, and Salua Rivero.

Hemlock Hospice Tour Helmets. installation at Harvard Forest, customized safety helmets, 2017. Collaborators: David Buckley Borden, Jack K Byers, Dr. Aaron Ellison, and Salua Rivero. Photography by Patrick Moore.

The Landscape Makers exhibition was a maker-driven art + design event featuring the work of Fuller Design Fellow David Buckley Borden and his collaborative team of Studio Fellows. The landscape-inspired work explored cultural narratives of PNW forests through interior installation, design objects, and interdisciplinary environmental-communication. The exhibition featured refined design-research work created by Borden and a team of artists, designers, and select graduate students enrolled in the Master of Landscape Architecture Program at the University of Oregon.

The public exhibition was also a snapshot of an ongoing creative project, Lookout Landscape, a multi-site interdisciplinary creative project with the Fuller Initiative for Productive Landscapes, the Center for Art Research, the HJ Andrews Experimental Forest, and the Spring Creek Project for Ideas, Nature, and the Written Word. The Lookout Landscape project is an emerging collaborative, community-driven endeavor led by David Buckley Borden and Colin Ives, as CFAR Affiliate facilitators. The project uses an environmental lens to highlight the maker-culture within the state of Oregon by including the process and input from a variety of creative individuals, ranging from forestry research scientists to indigenous land stewards from both local and regional communities.

Recycled aluminum hazardous-material signs, primed wood siding, wood glue, and sheet metal screws, 2021-2022. Collaborators: David Buckley Borden, Seth Eddy, Nancy Silvers, and Ian Vierck.

This series of large-format mixed-media barn quilt designs are inspired by regional Pacific Northwest narratives in response to the 2020 wildfire season, which was noted as one of the most extensive seasons on record. The 44-inch square quilt-block patterns are created from recycled hazardous material signs to communicate community memorial, testament, critique, respect, and celebration of wildfires as an ecological phenomenon. While telling the story of the 2020 fire season, the work addresses larger issues of climate change, human impact, industry, personal experience, community activism, and the future of wildfire response in the PNW forests.

Some quilt designs, such as Monkey Wrench and Burnt Bear Paw (left and right) are reinterpreted traditional folk patterns that continue to resonate with contemporary environmental narratives. Other designs were created anew in response to local community chronicles. These neo-folk pieces, with titles such as Wind Event, Back-40 Block Aid, and Chevron Fossus Mortis, push the folk tradition into new narrative territory as humanity reckons with novel ecological challenges brought on by climate change.

One-inch plywood, aluminum haz-mat signs, bullseye primer, and assorted hardware, 60” x 60”, 2021-2022. Collaborators: David Buckley Borden and Nancy Silvers.

Shared personal knowledge and familial storytelling is the creative crux of folk design tradition, including quilt-pattern making. The Make Your Own Haz-Mat Quilt piece built off this tradition of voice and creative empowerment to function as a low-tech interactive work that invited gallery guests to create their own designs by manipulating a grid of sixteen independent flip placards. Each flip placard included 15 haz-mat sign options, giving users 240 permutations to play with in the creation of their own personal environmental statement.

Full-scale prototype of modular landscape installation element, nominal 4” x 6” timbers, structural screws, primer, acrylic paint, aspirin, and band aids, 7’ x 14’ x 18’, 2022. Collaborators: David Buckley Borden, Nancy Silvers, and Ian Vierck.

Tree Guard No. 01 is a provocative pop-dipped reinterpretation of the urban steel tree guard. The modular prototype is inspired by timber-framed barn-building and high-visibility destruction/construction barriers. This dramatic tree guard is intended to capture human attention, land stewards’ imagination, and the value of the potential tree within it. Although the tree guard is displayed in a gallery setting without the central tree, the prototype is being further developed as a series of public landscape installations on contested land under threat of development in Eugene, OR. The Tree Guard No. 01 was created in the spirit of Jack K. Byer’s mantra, “Protect to Study; Study to Protect.”

Vernacular mixed-media panels, wood, marine-grade polymer canvas, and assorted hardware, 44” x 44” each, 2021. Collaborators: William Bonner, David Buckley Borden, Kennedy Rauh, and Ian Vierck.

Every landscape has an association with a material culture. How can a material, be it from nature or the human hand, influence the cultural identity of a people, their sense of place, and their land-use practice?

Buffalo Plaid or Buffalo Check is a plaid pattern created by large blocks formed by the intersection of two different color fabrics, typically red and black. The tartan-inspired plaid (the Gaelic for pladjer) pattern was introduced to North America by Jock McCluskey, a descendant of Rob Roy, who traded the heavy Scottish blankets with Native Americans and other European trappers. The iconic pattern is now synonymous with both the timber industry and outdoor recreation in Oregon forests.

The four iconic “Buffalo Plaid” inspired patterns (two-inch, one-inch, glitch, and bespoke) were handwoven with marine-grade fabric by Kennedy Rauh. The fabric patterns were then framed with wood CNC-cut panels. The graphic icons within the panels are representations of North America’s classic ecological engineers, the bison and beaver.

Beyond Scaled-Models for Buffalo Plaid Panels. Lookout Landscape Studio Fellows, Overlook Field School alums, MLA graduate students, and Landscape Makers (left to right); William Bonner, Hannah Chapin, Kennedy Rauh, and Ian Vierck.

Woodshed installation, cheap lumber, split firewood, haz-mat signs, primer, acrylic paint, and assorted hardware, 44” x 48” x 64”, 2022. Collaborators: David Buckley Borden, Hannah Chapin, Kennedy Rauh, Nancy Silvers, and Ian Vierck.

The Carbon Storage Woodshed is a modest reminder that wood (both dead and alive) plays a proactive role in the process of capturing and storing atmospheric carbon dioxide. The shed is also a pointed prompt that calls on the timber industry to play a landscape stewardship role in carbon sequestration of the Pacific Northwest forest ecosystem.

PNW Forest Flag display, marine-grade canvas, paracord, cedar poles, and antique logging tools (river pike, pike and hook, and bark spud), dimensions variable, 2021-2022. Collaborators: David Buckley Borden, Hannah Chapin, Michael Demaggio, and Ian Vierck.

This series of large-format 3’ x 5’ flags captures a few principle interests (wildfire ecology, wildlife habitat, and science in society) at the HJ Andrews Experimental Forest in Blue River, Oregon. The PNW Forest Flags are an extension of a series of collaborative fabric works by Boston-based artist Michael Demaggio and David Buckley Borden. This particular vexillography series began during Borden’s Overlook Field School Artist Residency in the summer of 2021. The ongoing collaborative environmental flag project continued with additional creative contributions from Hannah Chapin, Nancy Silvers, and Ian Vierck.

Yellow pine wood, blue tarp, marine-grade polymer canvas, brooder lamp, 40-watt bulb, paint, vinyl, and assorted hardware 46” x 46”, 2021. Collaborators: William Bonner, David Buckley Borden, Pat Falco, Kennedy Rauh, Nancy Silvers, and Ian Vierck.

Light box designs were used to explore local environmental issues, rural and urban. These prototype studies also tested material-interplay between wood, fabric, graphics, color, and lighting.

Many thanks to Tom Coates for his guidance and assistance with our CNC robot collaborators on the series.

Wood, marine-grade fabric, brooder lamps, paint, and assorted hardware, 46” x 46”, 2021. Collaborators: William Bonner, David Buckley Borden, Pat Falco, Kennedy Rauh, and Nancy Silvers, 2021-2022.

Vernacular architecture installation, wood, marine-grade canvas, hardware, and miscellaneous forestry, safety, and firefighting tools, 4’ x 3' x 5’, 2022. Collaborators: William Bonner, David Buckley Borden, Hannah Chapin, Michael Geffel, Kennedy Rauh, Nancy Silvers, and Ian Vierck.

The Community Wildfire Tool Shed was an experimental re-interpretation of a backcountry USFS storage shed. The shed presents both traditional tools and speculative design solutions for community firefighting, both past and future. The modular paneled structure was a creative exploration working toward the design and fabrication of a full-scale lookout tower for the Lookout Landscape project with the HJ Andrews Experimental Forest et al.

Interior architecture installation, CNC-cut wood panels, marine-grade fabric, upcycled wind gauges, recycled hazardous-material signs, vintage fire warden phone, paint, assorted hardware, and media players with projectors, 11’ x 11.5’ x 11.5’, 2022. Collaborators: William Bonner, David Buckley Borden, Hannah Chapin, Kennedy Rauh, Nancy Silvers, and Ian Vierck.

Hybrid landscape “architecture” merging iconic design elements of a backcountry open-door outhouse and vintage PNW wildfire lookout tower. This full-scale prototype was a design opportunity to explore modular structure construction, narrative-driven panel design, kinetic instrumentation, and the material culture and operation of a typical USFS lookout tower. The interactive structure was functional, complete with standard waterless plumbing (Jerry’s five-gallon bucket), fire marshal phone, USGS maps, two iconic lookout tower shutters in the event of inclement weather and other lookout “creature comfort” ephemera.

The Loo with a View, a fun (however practical) structural study draws heavily on William Bonner’s Air Shed thesis project with David Buckley Borden, Dr. Fred Swanson, and others at the HJ Andrews Experimental Forest.

Special thanks to Tom Gottelier of Designers on Holiday for sharing their architectural expertise with the team.

The Landscape Makers team members are grateful to Fuller Director, Liska Chan, and Fuller Lab Director Michael Geffel for championing this collaborative project. David Buckley Borden’s Fuller Design Fellowship, the collaborative interdisciplinary work, and resulting exhibition was generously supported by the Fuller Initiative for Productive Landscapes.

About the Fuller Center for Productive Landscapes

The Fuller Initiative for Productive Landscapes (FIPL) is an internationally recognized center for research-based design and design-as-research, focused on the role of place in cultural sustainability, and grounded in the arts and humanities. Guided by a team of scholars, students use fieldwork and art methods to investigate the ongoing stewardship of landscapes and culture.

The FIPL has four primary goals:

1. Reclaim second nature – the productive landscape – as a central inquiry within the discipline of landscape architecture.

2. Centralize praxis and material experimentation within the landscape curriculum.

3. Connect University of Oregon students to globally significant places, practices, research, and pedagogies.

4. Enhance the arts and humanities as modes of inquiry within the curriculum.

The FIPL holds a series of events over the academic year, in both Oregon and Pennsylvania, connecting students to critical ideas in landscape architecture through art inquiry, fieldwork, collaboration, and learning from experts in the field. The events are structured by an annual theme within the framework of productive landscapes. The FIPL runs three annual signature events: a summer field school that is an immersive, intense experience for a small group of students, initiated by a lecture open to the public, and a preparatory spring seminar open to any University student. The annual events alternate between different physical settings, learning modes, class size, and inquiry media to provide a wide range of opportunities for learning. The FIPL leverages the signature events as the basis of landscape architectural research, forging connections between collaborators, and resulting in the dissemination of arts and humanities-based landscape architecture research through publications, design competitions, and exhibitions.

EPA-B Boats concept drawing, 11x11 inch, digital illustration, by David Buckley Borden, winter 2024.

EPA-Boats prototypes, plywood and assorted recycled marine hardware, 2024. Collaborators: David Buckley Borden and Isaac Martinotti.

Alpha-Chem Warning Flag concept drawing, 11x11 inch, digital illustration, by David Buckley Borden, winter 2024.

Zinc, Alpha-Chem Flag, marine grade canvas, 4 x 4 feet, 2024. Collaborators: David Buckley Borden, Jenny Ginn, and Sabine Winkler

Conventional hazardous material signs are reimagined as traditional quilt blocks.

Concept sketch of unsolicited proposal created by Borden to illustrate the large-format barn quilts installed on the west side of the abandoned dairy barn at Buford Park in Eugene, Oregon.

Enviro Barn Quilts on display at Landscape Makers exhibition, LaVerne Krause Gallery, Lawrence Hall, University of Oregon, Winter 2022.

The final series of large-format mixed-media barn quilt designs were inspired by regional Pacific Northwest narratives in response to the 2020 wildfire season, which was noted as one of the most extensive seasons on record. The 44-inch square quilt-block patterns were created from recycled hazardous material signs to communicate community memorial, testament, critique, respect, and celebration of wildfires as an ecological phenomenon. While telling the story of the 2020 fire season, the work addresses larger issues of climate change, human impact, industrial practice, personal experience, community activism, and the future of wildfire response in the PNW forests.

Some quilt designs, such as Monkey Wrench and Burnt Bear Paw (left and right) are reinterpreted traditional folk patterns that continue to resonate with contemporary environmental narratives. Other designs were created anew in response to local community chronicles. These neo-folk pieces, with titles such as Wind Event, Back-40 Block Aid, and Chevron Fossus Mortis, push the folk tradition into new narrative territory as humanity reckons with novel ecological challenges brought on by climate change.

Select Enviro Barn Quilts reconfigured as a stand alone cube for a pop-up community event at the University of Oregon’s Urban Farm in the fall of 2021.

Environmental Wayfinding Baby Quilt, 54 X 54 inches, silkscreened 600 denier canvas, 2020. Collaborators: David Buckley Borden, Mike Demaggio, and Helen Popinchalk.

Environmental Wayfinding System, No. 1. 18 X 24 inches one-color silkscreen print on 100lb Chipboard Kraft French Paper. Signed and numbered. Edition of 10. Collaboration with Helen Popinchalk. Print is available here for purchase.

Two-color silkscreen-print on 20" square cotton bandana. Limited-edition of 50 per colorway, light blue or white, bandana. Collaboration between Jenny Ginn and David Buckley Borden. Available for purchase here.

WIP photography; installation by Pike Awning on day one of two-day fabric install.

Study drawing with scaffolding installed on site in background.

Field test of fabric performance on scaffolding mock-up.

Early concept drawing of tower component.

Early concept drawing of fabric wrap and colorway.

Early concept drawing of colorway and night time performance.

“New England Futures Scenario Quadrant,” digital drawing, 7.5 x 11 inches, 2016. Illustrative New England quadrant visualization featuring government and population as two driving scenario forces. Illustration based on photography of Fisher Museum land-use diorama at Harvard Forest. Collaboration with Jonathan Thompson et al.

“Future New England Landscape Scenarios No. 2 of 4; High Population and High Government,” digital drawing, 7.5 x 11 inches, 2016. Illustration based on photography of Fisher Museum land-use diorama at Harvard Forest.

“Future New England Landscape Scenarios No. 4 of 4; Low Population and Low Government,” digital drawing, 7.5 x 11 inches, 2016. Illustration based on photography of Fisher Museum land-use diorama at Harvard Forest.

“Future New England Landscape Scenario No. 22,” digital illustration, 8X10 inches, 2016. 

Illustration based on audit of Harvard Forest lab meeting at which researchers shared findings from scenario focus group in Burlington VT.

Sea levels rise by 22 feet. “Climate Change Refugees” flee East Coast. Cape Cod Diaspora inundates Vermont commons and coopts town meetings. Dairy farms lose ground to “Field & Stream” condo development. First covered car wash bridge opens in summer of 2049 in West Arlington, Vermont.

“Landscape Futures Prop Kit,” wood, rope, paper, acrylic, recycled knobs, dials, and miscilaneous hardware, dimensions vary, 2016. Collaboration with Dr. Matthew Duveneck.

Pedagogical props as teaching tool for landscape futures outreach. Kit of familiar forms serve as prompts for understanding scenario computer modeling and implications of future New England landscape scenarios over the next 50 years.

“Climate Change Data Stick,” digital illustration, 8X10 inches, 2017. 

Illustration series exploring speculative design as medium to communicate feedback loops between culture and environment within future New England landscape scenarios. 

“Timber Drone,” digital illustration, 8X10 inches, 2017. 

“Back 40 Eco  Monitor,” digital illustration, 8X10 inches, 2017. 

“Suburban Backyard Filter System,” digital illustration, 8X10 inches, 2017. 

“EAB Pestilence Woodshed,” digital illustration, 8X10 inches, 2016. 

“Wild Fire as Ecological Constraint,” digital illustration of physical prop, 8X10 inches, 2016. 

Don’t Give Up Flag, marine-grade canvas, 3 x 5 feet, 2018. Collaborators: David Buckley Borden and Michael Demaggio.

An Appeal to All Flag, marine-grade canvas, 3 x 5 feet, 2020. Collaborators: David Buckley Borden and Michael Demaggio.

Local Extinction Flag, marine-grade canvas, 3 x 5 feet, 2019. Collaborators: David Buckley Borden and Michael Demaggio.

Royal Wetland Flag, marine-grade canvas, 3 x 5 feet, 2021. Collaborators: David Buckley Borden and Michael Demaggio.

Sixth Extinction Flag, marine-grade canvas, 3 x 5 feet, 2019. Collaborators: David Buckley Borden and Michael Demaggio.

Bunk Hill Flag, marine-grade canvas, 3 x 5 feet, 2018. Collaborators: David Buckley Borden and Michael Demaggio.

Wetland Command Flag 2.0, marine-grade canvas, 3 x 5 feet, 2020. Collaborators David Buckley Borden, Michael Demaggio, and Ian Escher Vierck

Commemorative Ice Picks, concept sketch based on vintage ice picks, Winter 2024.

Site map with major beloved features and assets, both cultural and environmental. The creative direction for this series of proposal drawings embraces the site’s land-use and local history; natural, cultural, and shared.

Local geologic stratum serves as the visual framework to communicate team’s empathetic approach to the master planning and the implementation process.

Artifacts found on site are recast as potential site futures with the addition of simple annotation. Traditional annotated drawings, a staple of landscape architecture and planning practices, are playfully upended to communicate design intentions, including inspiring visions for the future based on local land-use history.

This John Audubon inspired representation poetically presents the team organizational chart as an ecosystem diagram. Local flora and fauna graphics speak to the team’s dedication to landscape stewardship and its environmentally-sensitive ethos. The non-hierarchical organization is a nod to the fact that the collaborative structure is dynamic, responsive, and inter-dependent. However, the team’s function is firmly centered on needs of local communities.

This inspired reinterpretation of a wind rose diagram casts the landscape’s land-use practices in terms of sustainability from the past into the near future. The diagrams communicate an understanding of sustainable practices in a simple four quadrant wind rose format. Iconic Hudson River images serve as the graphic texture to the diagrams and nod to the site’s rich history.

Historic photographs of on-site brick making are presented as a visual metaphor that liken brick-making to the team’s planning process, which is driven by a generative feedback loop between culture and ecology.

As with many creative collaborations, the exchange of novel ideas, applications, and critiques influences all active participants. Creative influence tends to flow both ways when it comes to generative feedback loops. This tendency is often strengthened within the context of an interdisciplinary team. There are clear examples of Borden’s direct influence on Agency project work. The effect of Agency, as a design culture and group of individual designers, also influenced Borden. For example, Borden’s diagrams on collaboration and experimentation, developed for an independent publication on interdisciplinary science-communication clearly builds off graphic tropes he was exposed to while in residence at Agency Landscape and Planning.

The Agency AIR presented Borden with opportunities to leverage pre-existing work from his back catalogue of landscape-related artwork. For example, to round out a creative direction for an RFP, Borden combined select “Environmental Flag” graphics with site photographs to produce a series of stylized page dividers for the final submission over the course of an afternoon. These drawings are a simple case of leveraging an artist’s creative capital to add value to a new collaborative effort. It represents a practical win-win opportunity for both visual artist and the landscape architecture and planning studio.

Novel Ecosystem Generator made in part from recycled research field equipment at the Harvard Forest. Array of centrifugal fans spin with breeze.

Safety feature turned op art detail on backside of Novel Ecosystem Generator.

Novel Ecosystem Generator, concept model, wood, rubber bands, acrylic paint, 2 x 7 x 21 inches, 2019.

The culmination of the Hibernaculum Residency was an immersive exhibition at the Innovation and Design Building in Boston's Seaport District. The multidisciplinary installation featured a variety of work ranging in scale and media. Much of this work included collaborative design and production with a cast of collaborators ranging from painters to lettering artists to wood workers. View select Gallery installation work here. 

The foundation of the Hibernaculum is a series of one-page landscape installation proposals. Proposals are intended to meet at the intersection of popular culture and pressing ecology. Accessibility to the general public is central to each proposal as a means to promote greater landscape appreciation and environmental awareness. Select proposals were constructed on site at Eagle Lake and/or in the Innovation and Design Building gallery. View select one-page proposals here. 

A series of light-touch landscape installations were made in and around the property of the Trifecta Editions residency. For example, hand painted sign (pictured) with lettering artist John Cronan.  Other installations include, Hibernaculum Woodpile Target, Wetland Forest Flag, Geologic Site Marker and more. View select on-site installations here. 

The Hibernaculum project features a collaborative silkscreen print series with Trifecta Editions. The print series, inspired by time spent on Eagle Lake, center on the ecology and natural history of the Adirondack Mountains. View select prints here. 

Camp Bug Out Pack, bricolage sculptures, wood, antler shed, paracord, acrylic paint, vinyl, canvas, wood glue, assorted hardware, leather mitts, and upcycled junk, dimensions vary, 2019. The Borden Boys.

Crap Creek Paddle, upcycled wood paddle, broken BB gun, canvas, rawhide, and assorted hardware, 2019. The Borden Boys.

Our Dear Slingshot, antler shed, paracord, rawhide, and rubber tubing, 2019. The Borden Boys.

Downeast Home Hatchet, reclaimed 10” Dewalt chop saw blade, copper rivets, hickory handle, paracord, and vinyl, 2019. The Borden Boys.

Downeast Home Hatchet (detail), reclaimed 10” Dewalt chop saw blade, copper rivets, hickory handle, paracord, and vinyl, 2019. The Borden Boys.

David’s Bowie Knife, reclaimed knife blade, antler shed, copper rivets, and paracord, 2019. The Borden Boys.

Fishing Jam, reclaimed ribbon spool, wood, fishing line, Jasmine’s childhood bobber, paracord, glue, and Guinness can tab, 2019. The Borden Boys.

Signal Mitts and Swappable Symbols. leather mittens, canvas, paracord, glue, and thread, dimensions vary, 2019. The Borden Boys.

CDB Camp Bug Out Stove, upcycled cans, Maine license plate, and assorted hardware, 2019. The Borden Boys.

Sasaki on-site installation crew taking a break for the flash bulbs.

Fig. 13.3  Spatial patterns produced by three groups of processes. (a) Separate patterns; (b) planned refers  to the rea as a whole; (c) unplanned refers to the area as a whole, though some or many places are highly planned and designed. Green area = natural vegetation;  white = agriculture;  coarse grid = residential;  fine grid = commercial. 

Fig 12.8. Models of mosaic sequences. Each area starts 100% dark green and is progressively replaced by a white new-land-type (light green is simply used to identify locations of new land type during the 10% to 50% replacement period). White land type surrounds the landscape. Illustration based on original figure prepared by Kristina Hill. 

Fig. 9.10 Six types of landscape based on predominant spatial pattern. (Adapted from Forman (1990b).

Fig. 4.13. Shapes suggesting past origin, present functioning, and future change.

Fig.9.12. habitat interspersion, adjacencies, and convergency points.

A result of interspersing more than two habitats is to produce convergency points ('junctions' or type of 'convert'). Design (a) has one convergency point, while design (d) has one has two. Such locations are of special importance to certain species. Convergency points are important well beyond wildlife habitat. They are often funnels for flows of water, eroded particulates, and mineral nutrients, as well as for moving animals. Thus, they are ideal locations for predators and hunters. Indeed, for the same reason, they are ideal for wildlife-oberserving blinds and platforms (Forman, 2006). Convergence locations are also ideal for ecological-based landscape interventions such as hibernaculum (Borden, 2014). 

Fig. 3.13. Eight common boundary surfaces

Fig 3.12. Wildlife usage and movement relative to boundary curvilinearity. Woodland is pinyon-juniper and grassland is grama-sagebrush. Scattered green dots represent elk (Cervus) and mule deer (Odocoileus), based on track and scat densities. Solid arrows indicate much movement, dashed arrows, intermediate movement, and dotted arrows little movement.  P = predator movement (coyote, Canis). Summary patterns based on unpublished data of R. Forman, D. Smith, and S. Collinge from near Taos, New Mexico (USA). 

Fig. 7.4 Flow rates and stream-bottom particle sizes along river mosaic. Numbers 1 to 8 are sections along the river differentiated by a distinct change or boundary. Dotted line = hillslope. Material entering laterally from a tributary or in subsurface flow also passes through patches and boundaries. Flow rates and particle sizes are represented by large, medium, and small arrows and circles.

Fig. 2.3.  Generalized patterns of wind speed and productivity in a field. Relative to average wind speed over forest, thick arrows in field indicate accelerated , and dashed arrows reduced, wind speed. Un-shaded areas of field indicate low plant productivity. 

Fig. 9.1. Flows or movements in an ecosystem cluster and a catena. (a) Flows between a patch and its surroundings in relation to distance and ecosystem or land use type. Amounts of flow indicated by arrows line weights. (b) Flows among five soils in a catena. Adapted from Hole & Campbell (1985) and Woodmansee (1990). 

Fig 10.8. Downwind smoke and pollutant deposits related to temperatures above the ground. Adapted from Geiger (1965). 

Fig. 6.9. Distinctive windbreak patterns around pastures. (a) to (d) Suggestions for the northern Great Plains of North America (Dronen 1988). (e) used successfully in North America in conjunction with Today I Learned (TIL) education movement (Borden 2014). Orientation is determined by wind and snowstorm directions.

Ecosystem in action.

Mixed media: Ink, graphite, colored pencil and carbon transfer on paper, 8.5 x 11”, Winter 2012.

As the keystone species of North America’s Great Plains, Bison bison (buffalo) shaped America’s grassland ecological system for millenniums. Before man re-shaped this vast ecosystem with sprawling networks of housing, agriculture, industry and infrastructure, the American Bison were the crucial player in maintaining this delicately balanced land of grass, fire, and migrating herds. Today, less than 1% of America’s “pre-discovery” prairie grasslands remain and approximately only 4,000 “wild” buffalo remain, down from an estimated 80 million buffalo in the mid-1800’s.  

Mixed Media Series: Pencil, ink, carbon transfer on paper, 8" X 10", October 2009 to present, Series of 73 as of May 2015.

Buffalo Head Source: Harper’s Magazine. Publication date and artist unknown.

Mixed media: Pen, pencil, carbon transfer on paper, 8" X 10", Spring 2012

Mixed media: Pen, pencil, carbon transfer on paper, 8" X 10", Spring 2010.

Mixed media: Pen, pencil, digital typography on paper, 8" X 10", Spring 2011

“In Cornwall, Connecticut, and wherever iron was made in the Birkshires, you may still see where burning mounds were: the hardwood is coming back in those hills, except for the chestnut, which reaches about ten feet before it browns and succumbs to the blight of 1904.” (Sloane, 1965)

If you didn’t know better you might believe the chestnut tree is making a comeback. The chestnut blight (caused by infection of Diaporthe parasitica, a fungus imported from Japan on nursery stock) is a cruel organism; just as the chestnut sapling appears to have made its triumphant return and is ready to shoot up to be a mighty tree of yore. It doesn't. The diseased tree remains in a sad arrested state of poor health.

Mixed media: Pen, pencil, carbon transfer on paper, 8" X 10", Spring 2011

Mixed media: Pen, pencil, water color paint, carbon transfer on paper, 8" X 10", Spring 2010

Mixed media: Pen, pencil, carbon transfer on paper, 8" X 10", Spring 2010.

The Massachuset and Wampanoag tribes called the land I grew up in“Nanamooskeagin,” or “land of many beavers.” Sadly, the only castor canadensis  I ‘ve seen in my hometown are found on the Abington town seal at the top of property tax bills.

Silkscreen print on Rives BFK grey paper,  8 X 10", Spring 2013.

Beaver Head Source: Curious Woodcuts of Fanciful and Real Beasts, Gesner, Konrad, ed. New York Dover Publications, Inc. 1973.

Tossed Wall

The Tossed Wall is architectural evidence of agriculture. As fields were cleared for tilling, these stonewalls were literally tossed into existence, one stone at a time, at the edge of an agricultural field. The form of a tossed wall is loose and often far wider than tall. The builder’s goal was to dump the stone, stacking it up was unnecessary. 

Disposal Wall

Similar to the Tossed Wall, the Disposal Wall is also a byproduct of agriculture. In some cases the Disposal Wall was initially a Tossed Wall that had been rebuilt in an effort to tidy up the farm. The Disposal Wall is built from two single stack walls, where the resultant void is filed with smaller fieldstones. This type of disposal wall is evidence of successful agriculture.

Pasture Wall

The Pasture Wall, also known as a farm wall, was built to contain livestock and is the most common type of stonewall in New England. This wall is characterized by large stones and typically lacks the smaller stones of an agriculture related wall. The wood rails that once made up most of the wall’s height and ensured that livestock stayed put, have long since rotted. 

Gentleman's Wall

The Gentleman’s Farm Wall or Estate Wall is neither the direct result of agriculture nor husbandry, but is a statement of values and achievement. This wall communicates pride, order, and wealth by means of craftsmanship. The wall’s tight one-over-two construction, consistent batter, and capstone, were of significant expense and beyond the reach of most thrifty New England farmers.

Whiskey Wall

The Whiskey Wall is arguably the most misunderstood and misclassified stonewall typology. There is serious debate as to the exact origin of the name. Some historians claim it is called a Whiskey Wall because it was built under the influence of whiskey. As one can easily imagine, “walling under the influence” lends to poor construction practice and eventually leads to the wall’s failure. Others claim it is called a Whiskey Wall because it was destroyed by drunk hunters, likely trying to flush out an animal from within the wall.