Potlatch Tree Farm in Oregon

Every time we drive to Spokane on I-84 and go past the Irrigon exit, we pass a huge farm of hybrid-poplar trees. It's probably about a mile wide and who knows how far back it goes. It was a mystery to us, as we drove by, wondering what all those trees were for - rows and rows and rows, all the same, only a slightly different (where the branches started growing on the trunks, some groves lower, some higher). We could see a name from the highway, or just a big sign -- "Potlatch". Then one day, a section of the trees disappeared and a sign read "Harvested 2002". Hmmm.

So, one day, I got off the nearest exit and followed the signs that said "office". As I drove down the small paved road, going deeper into the forest of trees, a clearing appeared and there were trucks being filled with the trunks of newly chopped trees, and then I saw the trucks that were chopping the trees down.

Finally, I saw a huge warehouse, with trucks going in and out, and a smaller building, that must be the office, so I pulled into the parking lot.

As I got out, a scruffy looking fellow walked near me, so I asked him what was this place. And he told me the trees were an experiment for paper pulp. They were trying to find a fast way to grow trees to make paper pulp quicker, cheaper, and in great mass. He also said there was a creek that ran through the property and there were lots of wildlife there -- deer, elk, small animals and even cougars/mountain lions. The man was nice, he was even from my neck of the woods - he did have a hard-luck story to tell, but now he was happy working there - it was seasonal work, but good.

Anyway, now, as we drive by, I know what it is all about. I can tell when new trees have been planted, harvested, and in the winter, you can look down the rows and see inside the mystery forest.
BTW - now it has been bought out by another company, Greenwood Tree Company. Google it.