Get insights into all aspects of forests and trees, learning how they grow and how they are used around the world.
Visit Portland’s World Forestry Center for a fun and educational experience for all members of the family. The site combines informational exhibits with hands-on activities. Notice the beautiful wood façade of the Forest Discovery Center Museum, built in Cascadian architectural style. Inside explore two stories of exhibits.
The first floor features Pacific Northwest exhibits. Experience simulated rafting on the Clackamas River, try smokejumping and operate a timberjack harvester. Learn about animals living in forests and water running through forests.
Second-floor exhibits explore forests around the world. Ride on the Trans-Siberian railway to see a Russian boreal forest, board a Chinese boat to learn about temperate forests, travel by jeep through a sub-tropical forest in South Africa and visit Brazil’s Amazon tropical forest on a treetop crane. Each exhibit provides information on opportunities and limitations in these forests.
Outside, climb onto Peggy, a 42-ton steam locomotive that hauled more than a billion feet of logs before being retired in 1950. Even older is the petrified stump. It’s a 10,000-pound (4535-kilogram), 5-million-year-old giant sequoia stump that has been petrified, with the wood of the tree replaced by stone.
The World Forestry Center also maintains the Magness Memorial Tree Farm, about a 30-minute drive southwest of downtown Portland. Hike on 2.5 miles (4 kilometers) of trails, have a picnic and enjoy the forests, meadows and streams. Dogs are allowed here on leashes.
Find the World Forestry Center near the southern end of Washington Park, west of downtown Portland. Admission is reduced for seniors and children. Drive and pay to park or walk, bike or ride the bus or tram to get here. The center is open daily but closed Tuesdays and Wednesdays between Labor Day and Memorial Day.
Visit other diverse features in the park including the International Rose Test Garden, Oregon Zoo, Oregon Holocaust Memorial, Portland Children’s Museum and Portland Japanese Garden.
