WINTER 2023/2024
WELCOME LETTER | 2.15.24
Late Winter…
is among my favorite times of year: sun on snow, the hard-won elongation of days. I had a colleague once describe the Russian concept of ‘lizarding’ and it has stuck in my mind. In the peak of winter, it is common for residents of Moscow to find a south-facing bench, unfurl their scarves and unbutton the tops of their coats. There, with a tiny windowpane of skin exposed to the elements, they take in the winter sun. They lizard.
And so, on the occasion of this—our first quarterly studio newsletter, I invite you to take in winter in all its miserable glory and lizard with us for a few minutes. In the warm glow of the spring that is soon to come, in the field work that has taken us afar, and in the shiny work of our collaborators. Light refracted amplifies the whole. In the seedbank of winter, we find spring.
Thanks for the read,
Cali
FYNBOS FIELD WORK | 11.23
Exploring the Cape Floral Kingdom
This winter brought the opportunity to complete long-awaited field work in the South African fynbos. The grant was generously sponsored by the Jane Silverstein Ries foundation and focused on study of the native ecosystem of many of the world’s most popular houseplants (string of pearl, amaryllis, pencil cactus, gladiolus, geraniums, crassula, aloe, and many more).
The fynbos is the most floristically diverse ecosystem on the planet with a high concentration of endemic plants that only thrive in its parched soils. The environmental constraints (fire, limited pollinators, nutrient poor soil, extreme sun and wind exposure) are—perhaps counterintuitively—what drives the diversity of the flora. Species adapt (bigger flowers, fire-activated seeds, good smells) at a rapid pace to compete for limited resources.
The goal of this trip was to collect field research in the De Hoop Nature Reserve to inform ecologically driven indoor planting. Instead of planting houseplants as specimens, as is so often the case, I went to observe the native plant communities, conditions, and soils, the codependencies in which they thrive. With the hope of moving the needle towards better stewardship of indoor plants and a more contextual understanding of the fragile ecosystems from which they come. Like so many other ecological marvels around the globe, the fynbos is threatened by a cocktail of environmental pressures (invasive species, encroachment, fragmentation, climate change).
From here, we are parsing the findings into plant palettes that we are capable of sourcing in the States and doing test plots. Stay tuned as the research unfolds.
GRAND OPENING | 11.23
Trailborn Rocky Mountains opens
We send our congratulations to the team at Trailborn on their brand launch and the opening of their first hotel, Trailborn Rocky Mountains. Nearly three years in the making, the Campo team worked in tandem with our friends at Electric Bowery to update a mid-century motor lodge in Estes Park, Colorado, at the base of Rocky Mountain National Park. We designed and fabricated almost a hundred pieces of outdoor furniture for the project, largely from Ponderosa Pines felled onsite for a utility easement and Phase 2 of construction. Photos are courtesy of Trailborn and by Christian Harder.
SAW MILL | 2.24
Ready for deployment
We bought a mobile saw mill. Crazy, right? After our work with Trailborn, we saw the power in being able to work directly with clients to reimagine materials onsite and divert waste. And the poetics of keeping a tree in situ — in a new form under the same sun — is nothing short of special. For our studio, it was a nice itch to scratch: the collaboration, the craft, the design jiu-jitsu of determining what could be made from a limited quantity of wood.
And so we bought a mill so that we can own the process and timeline, and deploy quickly to remote locations. Our particular mill is built for mobility and the capacity to do slabs and dimensional lumber from large trees. We will be taking the mill out to Oregon later this month for some project work and adding sustainable products to our shop, as we develop new designs. Get in touch if you have trees to fell or family heirlooms that need making.
RESEARCH WORMHOLE | 1.24
Prayer Trees of Ute Nation
We are currently in the early stages of the Master Plan for Fishers Canyon, a new 343-acre mountainside open space in Colorado Springs. The site is fascinating and touches on many of the idiosyncratic features of the City’s history as a whole, including the Broadmoor and wellness culture, the military, the wildland-urban interface, and indigenous stewardship.
We took a deep dive into the Denver Public Library’s Western History Collection to learn more about the site’s context and were fascinated by the role Ponderosa Pines—the dominant species onsite— play in the spiritual practices of Ute people and the migration of Plains Nations to the foothills of Colorado.
“The original inhabitants of the area were the Colorado Mountain Ute people, who’ve inhabited the Front Range region since time immemorial. They saw that, due to its height, the peak was the first to be illuminated by the dawn; for that reason they named it Tava, meaning “Sun Mountain.” The peak bore that name for hundreds of years, and it even lent the name to the Ute themselves. The local band identified themselves as the Tabeguache, meaning the “People of Sun Mountain.” Other indigenous groups had their own names for it as well. When they arrived in the early 1800s, the Arapaho people named the mountain Heey-otoyoo, meaning “the Long Mountain.”
Flores, Devon. “The Mountain of the Sun: the Many Names of Pikes Peak.” History of Colorado Center, Story, November 16, 2018.
To honor Tava—the mother mountain, Ute tether Ponderosa saplings to point in the direction of the peak. The bent trees, known as ‘prayer trees,’ are sites of worship. The inner bark of the ponderosa is used in healing ceremonies. The trees bearing scars from these ceremonies are known as ‘medicine trees’ and are living artifacts of the Ute and other indigenous Nations.
Colorado Springs is an important cultural nexus for Plains and Mountain Nations due to the number of local natural springs, access to the Ute Trail—a trade and hunting route established pre-colonization to access the summer hunting grounds of the South Park valley, as well as proximity to sacred sites, like Tava and “the dust of grandfather’s bones” in the Gardens of the Gods. For Plains Nations, the ponderosa and lodgepole pine forests—used for tent poles and other infrastructure—provide natural resources that are not available on the Plains and a cause for periodic migration to the foothills. The practice of prescribed burns (the controlled use of fire to maintain fire-dependent ecosystems) is used by many indigenous nations to manage the health of native grasslands, prairies, and savannas.
In these various silvaculture practices—prayer trees, medicine trees, selective forestry, and prescribed burns, we can see layers of indigenous stewardship that shape natural areas like Fishers Canyon and inform future management of these landscapes. Historical context and photos below from Kaelin, Celinda R and the Pikes Peak Historical Society. Images of America: American Indians of the Pikes Peak Region. Arcadia Publishing: Charleston, SC, 2008.
LAND LIBRARY MASTER PLAN | 12.23
Historic ranch to residential library
We are lucky to work in many beautiful corners of the American West but the Rocky Mountain Land Library holds a special place in our hearts. Over the past three years, we have worked with the nonprofit to plan their future headquarters on Buffalo Peaks Ranch, a historic working ranch in South Park valley near Fairplay, Colorado.
For those of you that are new to the Land Library, it is the brainchild of Ann Marie Martin and Jeff Lee, two former employees of Denver’s Tattered Cover Bookstore. Over 30 years, they collected over 50,000 books about man’s relationship with the land, with the hope of one day opening a residential library to share the collection with the world. The concept of a residential library (a library where you can stay on the grounds) was seeded on a trip to Gladstone’s Library in the UK.
The recently completed Buffalo Peaks Ranch Master Plan delves into the fascinating natural and cultural history of the site and sets a roadmap for its transformation into a library in the coming years. Many thanks to the Park County Land and Water Trust Fund and taxpayers for funding this effort.
The Spring Issue will head to the Pacific Northwest and Paris. Thanks for reading. If you prefer to opt out, please click the link below.
THE END