MT. CONSTITUTION FOREST RESEARCH
atelierjones’ founder Susan Jones is leading the management of her family-owned forest property in the San Juan Islands: 144 acres of third-growth Western Hemlock and Douglas Fir that were overstocked and left in poor health. In collaboration with state foresters, third- and fourth- generation local loggers, family, and friends, the ongoing project is an effort to better understand this forest landscape and restore it to health.
Under jurisdiction of the Washington State Department of Natural Resource (DNR), the family’s DNR Forest Management Plan includes thinning the overstocked forests, maintaining roads and streams, and tactically harvesting timber, much of which provides firewood for campers in Moran State Park.
Since 2013, four methods for forest regeneration have been tested on different plots on the site: 3 acres of 50% thin with lop/scatter and natural regeneration; 4 acres of 90% harvest/100% replant; 7 acres of 30% of PCT thin/harvest/middle story removal along with some 7 acres of hand cut removal of excessive, overstocked, small-diameter hemlock trees by Susan and family and friends. These plots are monitored and routinely managed in an effort to create a more robust and complete forest ecology. As of 2024, approximately 21 acres of Western Hemlock have been thinned to avoid choking the 60-year-old Douglas Fir stand planted by Susan’s grandfather in the early 1960’s: from some 350-500 trees per acre to a healthier 150-200 trees per acre.
Susan and her family are committed to understanding the nuanced silviculture of sustainable forestry and the care it takes to manage the rich layers of generational forestry that have occurred over the past 120 years. Susan writes about the origins of this personal family journey in her book Mass Timber | Design and Research.
The lessons learned working directly with the forest continue to inform our practice’s passion for timber and wholistic approach to ecology, architecture, and economy.
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Nature Conservancy LCA
Constitution Shed
Mass Timber | Design and Research
