On a mid-July morning in Corvallis’ Willamette Park, Callie Gunderson’s two-year-old son climbed a maple tree. Gunderson said playing in the park is the best way to encourage him to be adventurous.

In nature, beauty often comes from imperfections. Uneven textures and mottled colors lend depth and character to materials like wood and stone, and people are increasingly looking to bring that ...

One thing I love about living in the age of the internet is that old students can keep in touch much more easily than when I was young-via email or social media. Recently a highlight in this kind of ...

As you glance up into tree limbs, perhaps searching for some sign of spring in a swelling flower bud, your sight might be arrested by fat, rounded growths on the bark. On some trees, these hard, woody ...

When a tree is under stress from a virus, insect or other cause, it protects itself by developing a burl, an irregular, knobby-looking growth near its base or trunk. When harvested, a cross section of ...

GRANTS PASS, Ore. (AP) — The poaching of knobby growths on ancient redwood trees has spread to national forests in Northern California and Oregon. The growths, known as burls, appear at the base of ...

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Have you ever noticed an abnormal growth on the trunk of a tree that looked rather tumorous -- all bumpy and wart-like? Examples can be seen on random trees just about anywhere.

This undated photo shows a tree with a trunk burl in Rosendale, NY. The fat burl developing on this tree, which does it little or no harm, is valued by woodworkers for its swirling grain. (Lee Reich ...