Thursday, 24 April 2025
Board Explores Best of Both Sides of Supply Chain
The FSC US Board of Directors gathered in Portland, Oregon in early April for their quarterly meeting and to participate in a day of strategic work sessions with senior leadership. While together, the Board visited an exemplary commercial forest in southern Washington and toured one of the most ambitious and inspirational locally sourced major construction projects in the world.
An Insider’s View of a Landmark Project
Upon arriving at the Portland International Airport (PDX), FSC US board members were treated to a special presentation and tour of the newly upgraded main terminal of the airport. Vince Granato, Chief Project Officer for PDX Next which is the team responsible for the PDX Airport, led the presentation. Jacob Dunn, lead architect with ZGF Architects the firm that proposed PDX build a nine-acre roof over the new main terminal, and Andrew Ratzke, Senior Project Engineer with the project’s mass timber partner Timberlab, provided context and key details as well.
Forest to Frame
Inspired by “farm to table” cuisine, the airport features more than 2.6 million board-feet of Douglas fir that was harvested from forests located less than 300 miles from the airport – something no other project had attempted at this scale.
The team set the criteria at the onset of the project that all the wood used be either FSC-certified or be able to be traced back to ecological forest management. They defined ecological forest management as forestry that uses harvest practices that more closely emulate natural disturbances that cultivate diversity and maintain the integrity of forest ecosystems while balancing economic, environmental, and social goals.
There is 660,000 board feet of Douglas fir lattice that now defines the airport for every visitor to PDX. The wood for all the lattice is traceable to 11 local forests, 9 of which are FSC-certified.
The team also worked with four tribal partners to complete this phase of project – the Cow Creek Band of Umpqua Tribe, the Coquille Indian Tribe, the Skokomish Indian Tribe and the Yakama Nation.
For more information on the PDX airport transformation and the full story behind it, visit https://www.pdxnext.com/.
A Walk in the Woods
The FSC US Board concluded their second quarter 2025 meeting with a field visit to a working forest in southern Washington.
Board members discussed several key topics with the landowner. These ranged from the hunger for the origin story that project owners like the Portland Airport are seeking with flagship projects to the growing market challenges to large sawn timber, which is better for the environment because it is achieved through longer growth cycles prior to harvest.
Ongoing visits and conversations such as these help inform the guidance the Board provides our organization.
