As you drive along Oregon Route 18, you may see something … in-tree-guing. At mile-marker 25, between the towns of Grand Ronde + Willamina, a view opens up onto an enormous smiley face design on Hampton Lumber timberland.
Back in 2011, the company’s foresters were starting the reforestation process + decided to mix larch trees, whose needles turn yellow and fall off in the fall, into a swath of evergreen Douglas firs. They used a rope to plot the 300-feet diameter circle, which will be visible for the next 30-50 years until the logs are harvested and processed at nearby lumber mills. Talk about branching out to make us happy.
