Oregon grape fruit ripening in a native hedgerow under heavy skies on Summer Solstice.

The summer solstice rolled into Southern Oregon this weekend with a pleasant cold front, rain, and thick clouds.  This return to spring weather is a welcome development as we head into the hot dry months ahead. It’s a brief lull between the mad dash of spring and the long summer months of ripening and harvest to come. Looking back, it has already been a busy and productive year on the Farm and in our partner school gardens. On the Farm we’ve planted out the fields with this year’s vegetable crops for the food pantry and our partner schools, as well as native, flower and vegetable seed crops.

Zinnia seed crop and butternut squash between rows of basketry willows. We love this type of planting that incorporates strips of annuals and perennials together in one field. The willows provide erosion control, windbreak, and pollinator habitat for the seed crops, and any excess irrigation and fertility from the annuals is utilized by the willows.

This year’s seed crops include a few new native species for us including Potentilla, Fescue, and Camas. These seeds will be sold to our local partner The Understory Initiative for use in their restoration seed mixes.

Camas flowering on the Farm in June.

We’ve also finished weeding and mulching our many perennials including grapes, raspberries, strawberries, apples, pears, peaches, and cherries.  These crops all provide abundant fruit for our kids programs and for our school partners in the fall.   As I type, the first raspberry crop is ripening just in time for next week’s farm campers to graze their way through the patch.The spring is also busy season in the nursery where we have stratified, germinated and transplanted more than 50,000 native plants for restoration projects around the Rogue Valley. This season we have several new and exciting species in the nursery including Penstemon, Lupin, and Rudbekia for our new partner the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation.  We have also been growing as many trees as we can for a new three year project we are starting this year to provide drought tolerant and disease resistant shade trees for neighborhoods in Southern Oregon that suffer disproportionately from overheating due to the impacts of climate change and recent fires. We are especially excited to partner with Pollinator Project Rogue Valley to provide trees for the communities of Phoenix and Talent that were burned during the 2020 Almeda Fire.

Black Oak seedlings in the nursery.

While the seeds were growing in the greenhouses and farm beds were being prepped, Sarah has been running an epic spring of education programs.  We hosted 12 field trips from local schools including the Life Skills Class from Hidden Valley High School.  This awesome class also has a productive school garden that provides learning opportunities for the students but also provides tons of produce for families in need.  Sarah and Shaun have also been working in the school gardens at our other three partner schools all year, planting, teaching, eating, and getting hands dirty with the kids. Projects this year have included building a new cob bench at Williams Elementary, a new greenhouse and raised beds at Hidden Valley, and planting pollinator plants at Ruch and Applegate.  They have also been cooking up a storm with the middle school class at Ruch. Each week the students get to cook and eat an organic fresh meal during garden class. Meals have ranged from tacos to spring rolls to pizza and have been the highlight of the program.

Fresh veggie spring rolls!

Working on lunch in the Life Skills classroom at Hidden Valley High School.

All of this good work in the first half of 2025 sets us up for a great summer and fall. We’re excited for camp next week, and then we move in to harvest season of our food and seed crops. Fall brings the return of school garden programming and field trips, as well as sorting, bundling and delivery of nursery plants.  We’re proud of the work already accomplished and enthusiastic for the fun to come. May your summer be safe and abundant and may the fall bring the return of the rains and a bountiful harvest for all! 

Cheers!

2024 Programs and Projects:

• Grew 50,000 trees, shrubs, and wildflowers in our Native Nursery for restoration projects throughout Southern Oregon and Northern California.
• Hosted 20 children for Summer Farm Camp.
• Provided weekly outdoor education programs in our partner school gardens throughout the school year (Williams, Applegate, Ruch and Hidden Valley High School).
• Spearheaded improvements at all four school gardens including planting pollinator habitat, expanding beds, building cob benches, and setting up a new greenhouse.
• Expanded our cooking program at our partner schools to teach students how to make fresh dishes from scratch including: sushi, curry, smoothies, salads and tacos.
• Hosted 16 school field trips at the Farm.
• Hosted tours and classes for groups such as Americorps, Rogue Farm Corps, Rogue Native Plant Partnership and Southern Oregon Native Plant Society
• Grew and distributed over 7,000 pounds of free organic produce to local families, partner schools and food banks.
• Grew 260 pounds of seed crops including zinnias, cosmos, tomatoes, delicata squash and native milkweed.
• Planted over 400 feet of basketry and native willows for habitat, pollinators, crafts, and propagation materials for the nursery.
• Constructed a new bathroom to accommodate demand during school visits and camps.
• Re-plastered the exterior of the common house for the first time in 17 years.
  

  Native plants bundled and ready to deliver to restoration sites.

On February 15, 2024 we lost a great friend of the farm and an even greater human – James Haim.  He left this world suddenly and tragically and much too soon.

I first met James twenty years ago when he moved with his family to Williams. I’m not sure how it happened exactly, but almost instantly I felt like he was one of my best friends and the heart of the community.  Over the next two decades I had the honor of working with James on many projects at White Oak: we hosted his classes of high school students for 3-day field trips, taught natural building workshops, built cabins and cob ovens, rafted the rogue river, sang in saunas and sweat lodges, and walked and talked in the woods.  James served on our Board of Directors for 18 years and was our President for the past ten.  He led us with passion, wisdom, patience, and a sly smile.  He was a profound role model for me for the way he lived his life in service to others and the earth while making the most of the beauty of every day.  This June we were honored to host a celebration of life with James’ huge community of friends and family. We gathered in the orchard to laugh and cry and share stories of the ways our lives had been touched and made brighter by his friendship. James loved bringing people together in community and in nature, and so we did just that to celebrate his remarkable and inspiring life.  -with love, Taylor

Here is what his family wrote to remember James:   Son, brother, father, partner, and dear friend to so many- James’ light shone bright in the myriad of roles he played throughout his big and beautiful life. James was known for his boundless energy, contagious laughter, wide-open heart, and his deep gratitude for the humbling beauty of wild places. Whether on a river, a mountain, a slope off trail, or a meadow sprinkled in wildflowers, James embodied a sense of wonder, inviting others to play and drop more deeply into their hearts. Whether teaching, raising his daughters, co-creating the Wilderness Charter School, building, sitting in a circle, or floating rivers with his buddies, he brought a playful and loving presence to all he did. James was a man of many talents: a remarkable whistler, juggler, power napper, paddler, wood crafter, pesto maker, and sun seeker, to name just a few. Rarely in a rush and somehow always on time, with his remarkable physicality James danced through the web of life touching hearts wherever he landed.

Sunset on the Farm in midsummer.

2023 has been a great year on the Farm of growth, new ventures, and a return to normalcy after 3 years of Covid challenges. We have been blessed with a very pleasant mix of a wet winter, mild spring and relatively cool summer, all leading to a great year for plants and people. On the Farm, seed crops and produce for the food bank and schools have thrived with the extra moisture and moderate temperatures. This year we are growing resina calendula, yukina savoy mustard greens, velvet queen sunflower, bush delicata squash, orange zinnia, and showy milkweed all for seed.

Orange Zinnia seed crop thriving in the Big Field.

The native nursery is also poised for the biggest year yet, with almost 100,000 trees, shrubs, and wildflowers growing in three greenhouses on the Farm. We are especially excited and honored to be growing 25,000 plants for the largest post-dam removal project in US history on the Klamath River. This tribal-led restoration project will commence in 2024, and we currently have 8 species, including Coyote Mint, Yampah, Goldenrod, Penstemon, and Balsam Root, growing on the Farm to contribute to this epic undertaking. Many thanks to the Karuk, Yurok and Klamath tribes for spearheading this decades-long effort to bring salmon habitat back to the tributaries of the mighty Klamath River!

We have 32 species of Native Plants currently growing in the Nursery. In the foreground are Spirea and Thimbleberry.

2023 has also been an awesome year in the school gardens at our four partner schools. Thanks to a grant from the Oregon Department of Education, Sarah Shea and Darien Aubinoe have expanded and improved our partnerships with Williams, Applegate and Ruch schools, and also started a new program with the Hidden Valley High School Special Needs class.  We have especially enjoyed the opportunity to introduce students to many locally grown and produced foods through our “Tasting Tables” program. This spring we offered fresh pesto, goat cheese, sourdough bread, and ferments, as well as fruits and vegetables, all from local small businesses (including White Oak) to the students at each of our partner schools. Oregon is a national leader in the Farm to School movement, and we are very proud to be a part of the effort to incorporate outdoor education and healthy eating into our local schools.

Jaime Dolan Tree working in the Hidden Valley High School garden.

2023 also saw the return of overnight Farm Stay after a three year COVID hiatus. We welcomed 20 students this summer for a week on the Farm of fun, food and friends. It was especially gratifying to have an incredible group of old and new campers and to witness their ability to collaborate with each other in the outdoor kitchen, on the talent stage, and in the fields and forest.

Campers with their gourmet salad creation.

There is still a long way to go before this year is in the books, but it’s off to a great start.  And now we look forward to a strong finish: harvesting seed crops, tree fruit and produce, bundling native plants for delivery, hosting fall school visits, getting back into the school gardens, and putting the Farm to bed with cover crops and mulch for another (hopefully) wet winter. Thanks to our great crew, supporters and partners for our many blessings and opportunities, and may all our gardens ripen and nourish people this coming harvest season!

Nootka Roses blooming in the native hedgerows.

More hedgerow magic!

Calendula, Zinnia, and Brassica seed crops maturing in the fields.

Campers learning to make friction fire on a lovely summer evening.

Remarkably White Oak Farm turned 20 years old this fall.  Two decades is a long time in human terms and in the life of a farm; amazing people come and go, babies are born, cabins get built, trees grow and produce fruit, others are thinned and burned.  Generations of chickens and goats and strawberries are raised, share their bounty and then die.  Children who participated in our first years of summer camps have their own kids now.  What started as a pie-in-the-sky dream shared by Stacey Denton, Eli Sarnat, and I, has turned into an established and multidimensional operation thanks to great people, hard work, generous supporters, and an open-minded local community. 

When we started White Oak way back in 2002, our ideas were a bit radical and tended to raise a few eyebrows. Not many people were talking about, much less implementing, farm-based education, natural building, alternative energy, diversified perennial agriculture, or eco-forestry. Concepts such as sustainability, food-security, restoration, and resilience were on the fringes, and global warming was still a problem that most thought was a century away.  We did not invent any of these techniques nor ideas, and our work has played only a tiny role in their subsequent adoption by the mainstream. Instead, our efforts stand on the shoulders of generations of farmers, builders and teachers before us, from indigenous people tending the oak woodlands and pine forests of the West with beneficial fire, to back-to-the-landers experimenting with new ways to live lightly on the land, to activists worldwide working to promote outdoor education, organic food, and climate awareness.  Yet it is still gratifying to see how these ideas and ways of growing, designing and teaching have expanded and captured the attention of millions of people in the past twenty years. There is now a robust farm-to-school movement worldwide bringing local food and outdoor education to children in underserved rural and urban schools.  Organic farming is the fastest growing sector of the US food system.  Solar power is now incorporated in huge municipal and private construction projects and is cheaper than coal. Human and biological diversity are understood to be pillars of a sustainable and just world.  And climate change is recognized as a clear and present danger that requires the world’s governments and corporations to work together on a massive scale.  Of course none of these changes are universal; many people and special interests are actively fighting against them, and there is still much to be done on a global and local scale.  Nonetheless, understanding and attitudes have evolved in remarkable ways in 20 years.

Looking forward to the next two decades at White Oak, I am incredibly hopeful and optimistic.  Despite challenges brought by fires, drought, and uncertain political and economic conditions, the Farm is in a great position to continue as a force for positive change. We have actively thinned our forests and improved our water systems to prepare for climate challenges. Our nursery is producing tens of thousands of trees and shrubs for restoration projects around the Rogue Valley every year. Our education programs reach almost one thousand children annually and are now integral parts of the curriculum at our three partner schools. The Farm produces hundreds of pounds of seed and thousands of pounds of free food for folks in need each year with less water and fewer inputs than ever before. Our staff and board are composed of talented and dedicated people committed to the mission.  And we are buttressed by an incredible community of partner schools and organizations, foundations, individual donors, program participants, and friends far and near who inspire and support us to keep growing year after year.

2022 Programs and Projects:

• Completed 20 acres of ecological thinning, piling and burning in our forest – bringing our two-year total to 36 acres.
• Grew 50,000 trees, shrubs, and wildflowers in our Native Nursery for riparian restoration projects around the Rogue Valley.
• Hosted 20 students for Summer Farm Camp.
• Provided weekly outdoor education programs in our partner school gardens throughout the year (Williams, Applegate & Ruch).
• Spearheaded improvements at all three school gardens including planting native shrubs, constructing a garden wall, and upgrading irrigation systems.
• Hosted 15 school field trips to the Farm.
• Hosted tours and classes for groups such as Americorps, Rogue Farm Corps, OSU Alternative Spring Break, and Lomakatsi Youth Corps.
• Grew and distributed over 4,000 pounds of free organic produce to local families, partner schools and food banks.
• Grew over 500 pounds of seed crops including sunflowers, cosmos, tomatoes, pac choi, delicata squash and native milkweed.
• Planted over 1,000 feet of native hedgerows for habitat, pollinators, and propagation materials for the nursery.

Hands-On Mud Education

By Sarah Shea Starr, Education Coordinator

Building with mud is a bit of a wild concept.  When I first introduced kids in our local schools to this idea I was met with incredulous faces.  How can mud turn into a structure?  How can building with clay help the environment?  The answer: natural building with cob, straw bales, sustainably sourced wood, or other renewable materials is a great way to create affordable, beautiful and energy efficient structures. These buildings also have a low carbon-footprint and a minimal impact on the environment. Best of all, natural building is accessible to kids and adults with little experience because it requires few tools, simple concepts, and is quiet, safe and fun!

Over the past year, I have been incorporating hands-on cob building projects in our partner schools’ gardens and on Farm field trips.  These experiential breaks from the largely sedentary and cerebral school environment provide many benefits to students. It allows them to move their bodies, breath fresh air (especially during COVID-times), demonstrate prowess to themselves and their peers, and develop practical skills such as using a hammer, a level, and a cordless drill.  Additionally, natural building is a great way to encourage students who may be struggling emotionally or in the classroom to release stress and negativity and to succeed at something tangible and real.  Many of these students migrate over to the garden during their recess to lend me a hand on the wall, talk, and take a break from the challenges of being a kid in our fast-paced world. 

Getting our hands and feet dirty has also been a great gateway into exploring concepts of resource extraction, climate change, sustainability, and renewable building materials.  For most students this was the first time they have ever really understood that there is a limited amount of certain materials on the Earth.  It can be a hard subject to navigate, especially when we talk about global warming.  For kids growing-up in southern Oregon, climate change is not an abstract idea, but rather an experience they live every summer with smoke, drought, and extreme heat.  This reality and closeness of global warming makes the study of sustainability even more relevant. But by learning about these “hard” topics in an experiential and fun way we can empower students to feel capable and powerful in their ability to design and build a better future.

This fall we finished building a cob garden wall at the Ruch Outdoor School, and a small cob structure for native bees at the Williams School.  On field trips to the Farm during the spring and fall the students were able to tour our straw bale and cob structures and work on natural plaster projects.  We explored the concepts of solar gain, thermal mass, and the carbon footprint of natural materials versus manufactured building materials.  The students were able to see that my crazy ideas about mud can actually turn into beautiful and functional buildings that also have a lasting positive impact on the Earth!

We would like to thank our many foundation supporters, partner organizations, donors, and volunteers.  Thank you for supporting our work!

Evelyn Roether, Jane Neubauer, Jean Greco, Ann Neely, Helen Majzler, Tim Shea and Barbara Landry, Sara Katz and David Markle, Paul Cox, John Shea, Janet Shea, Sally and Rick Ricupero, Felicia Knowles, Carrie Little, Janie and Kirk Starr, Sallie Swartz, Kathy Shea, Martha and Samuel Jacobs, Sallie Shawl, Steve and Sandy Hill, Cheryl Grandfield, Walter and Connie Lindley, Colette and Stephan Magoon, Michelle Bienick and Brian Hannigan, Matt and Margaret Shea, Merrilee Runyan, Phil Whitmore, Shahoma McAlister, Matt and Amanda Wilson, Jeff and Kendra, High Mowing Seeds, Organically Grown Company, Oregon Dept. of Education, Greater Tacoma Community Foundation, Hendrix Foundation, Jewish Community Fund, Ashland Food Coop, Rogue Valley Farm to School, Silver Springs Nursery, Freshwater Trust, Rogue Native Plant Partnership,  Ruch Outdoor Community School, Williams Elementary, Applegate School, A Greater Applegate, Josephine County Food Bank, Williams Food Pantry, Jen Hamar and Mike Merg, Eli Sarnat, James Haim, Andy Fischer, Jenny Kuehnle, Melina Barker, and especially our incredible and dedicated staff and volunteers: Sarah Shea, Nicole Kraft, Darien Aubinoe, Forrest Gillies, Stephen Saladyga, Amber Glassman, Hannah Borgenson, Julia Funaro, Josh Weber, Martin Gordon, Jake Manning, Stephanie Meehan, Taylor Starr, Willow, Ruby, Lucy and Maya

2022 has been a great year on the Farm so far. We have been blessed with abundant spring rains, cool weather, and lots of opportunities to work with students in the school gardens and at the Farm. With the constant stream of terrible news and regressive steps on the national stage it has been somewhat surreal to experience one of the most pleasant and beautiful springs and early summers I can remember in Southern Oregon. But, despite the challenges facing our country and the world, we are doing what we can in our little corner of it to make a positive difference and try to turn the tide one day at a time.

Winter and early Spring found us busy in the forest, cutting, piling and burning small diameter douglas fir to increase forest health, decrease fuels, and hopefully make White Oak Farm (and the neighborhood) more fire resilient. Much thanks to Josh Weber of Greenpath Landworks, Jake, Stephen, Martin, Amber, OSU Alternative Spring-breakers, and the the Lomakatsi Youth Crew for doing the hard work in the woods. Woods-work is some of the most satisfying and challenging work there is: poison oak, steep slopes, hot sun, runaway burns all challenge the mind and body. The reward is the feeling of doing the good work to set the forest up for success down the road. We look forward to seeing how the woods respond to all this hard work (36 acres of thinning over two years), and to sharing the changes with students young and old over the coming decades.

On the Farm, plant growth has been amazing with the moisture delivered by La Nina (my favorite personified weather phenomenon). This has been especially beneficial in the nursery where growth of native trees and shrubs has been far more robust than in past drier years.

Sarah and Hannah have been extremely busy at Ruch, Williams, and Applegate schools, teaching in the school gardens, delivering fresh farm produce to students and families, hosting school field trips, and welcoming children to summer camp on the Farm.

On the Farm, seed crops such as Pac Choi, Delicata Squash, Resina Calendula, Cosmos, Sunflower, and Peacevine Cherry Tomato are planted, weeded, watered and growing well. Our perennial and native plantings are also thriving with the moisture and cooler temperatures, making for a good year to be a pollinator on the Farm.

As we enter the dog days of summer, we are watering deep, prepping for fall school visits and the return of students to the school gardens, and harvesting produce for the local food bank and the first seed crops of the year. In this time of profound challenge to our democracy and our planet, White Oak Farm is more committed than ever to do the positive work of education, restoration, and community food security. We believe more than ever in the right of all people to make decisions about their own bodies, to have an equal say in the direction of our nation, to live on a healthy planet with clean water and good food, and to have a hopeful future to look forward to. We also continue to experiment, grow new crops in new ways, mulch, plant more trees, and appreciate the many people, plants and animals that work together to a make the Earth our favorite planet. Below are a few images that capture 2022 so far….

14 inches and counting! We are so blessed to be getting an abundant snow producing storm this week. The creek is finally flowing, and the snow is piling up. The above view is of the upper meadow at the Farm – thinned in 2010 to enhance a white oak/manzanita savanna ecosystem. This type of drought tolerant ridge-top ecosystem provides great habitat for many species. Tracks observed in the snow today include: bobcat, deer, skunk and jackrabbit.

By Nicole Kraft – Nursery Crew Leader

2021 marks the third year of White Oak’s Native Plant Nursery, and a successful one at that. This year we grew and distributed over 30,000 native trees and shrubs of 18 different species for the purpose of riparian restoration throughout Southern Oregon. 

These trees and shrubs were grown from hand-collected seed and cuttings, which all require specific treatments and stratification to mimic nature’s processes. In early spring as the seedlings emerged from their peat-filled trays, we individually potted them up into soil-filled nursery containers.  Next, we sorted and spaced the plants in order for them to size-up and grow in good form. We watered, loved, and fed them compost tea through the very hot and dry summer months.  When Fall arrived and the cool temperatures brought the beginnings of dormancy, we started bundling the plants by species and quantity, preparing them for their final destinations.  The cycle continues with new seed collected in late summer put into stratification, plant deliveries, cleaning and organizing the greenhouses, and preparing for winter cuttings.

Riparian zones are the land areas along waterways, streams, and other bodies of water, such as a streambank or a flood plain. They provide critical habitat for diverse fish and wildlife species and important ecosystem services that relate to hydrology, such as water filtration and groundwater recharge. Native plants fill specific roles in the riparian ecosystem, providing canopy and food security for hundreds of species, erosion control and stabilization of stream banks, improved water quality and temperature modulation, and greater resistance and resilience to wildfire. 

It will come as no surprise that humans have severely degraded riparian zones- with development, human-constructed dams and removal of the beaver, agricultural run-off and overgrazing, and the list goes on. Exotic plant populations, wildfires, and climate change are also on the growing list of impacts. 

It turns out that nursery-grown native plants can be hard to find, especially in significant quantities for larger scale restoration projects. White Oak sees an opportunity in this challenge, and we will continue to do our best to provide healthy native plant species for the important work of restoring the riparian habitat in our Southern Oregon communities.

As always, a huge part of our success comes from our partnerships, mentors, and community support.  We have learned from and worked with James Kraemer of Silver Springs Nursery over the last three seasons. He has imparted a great deal of knowledge and wisdom, as well as a passion for plants that is infectious. The majority of our nursery stock is purchased by The Freshwater Trust, a Pacific Northwest-based restoration organization.  For the past 8 years TFT has been working on restoration and conservation projects in the Rogue Basin of Southern Oregon, with 30 current restoration sites. We collaborate with the Rogue Native Plant Partnership on native seed sourcing and discussions about the future of restoration. We also work with local landowners and host on-site native plant sales to encourage the education and planting of native riparian plants. Thank you to all who support us and these efforts, and feel free to reach out with any questions about incorporating native plants into your own life!

Restoration

By Taylor Starr, Director

Given the challenges facing the world these days, it is easy to be pessimistic and even despondent about our future.  The smoke and fires start earlier every summer and last later into the fall. Drought conditions are worsening, and the pandemic and political polarization seem to continue unabated.  And yet each fall with the return of the rains, the growth of newly planted cover crops, the arrival of school groups, and the planting of young trees, hope is renewed and anything again seems possible.

Fall is truly the season of rebirth in our Mediterranean climate.  This October we were blessed with abundant rains, and seemingly overnight, smoky skies became clear, leaves turned their most vivid colors, and robins descended on the madrone berry crop in numbers not seen in decades. Now even in late November as I write, their songs reverberate through the forest as they feast.  I am heartened by their joy and their numbers, and reminded that despite the challenges our community and our world face, there is good work to be done, and it is best done with a song of joy.

This year has presented us ample opportunity here at White Oak Farm to whistle while we work. Children returned for school visits in Spring and Fall, and the education programs in the Williams and Ruch school gardens were expanded and improved in their second years.  We also hosted two weeks of summer farm camps, including the first year of Teen Camp, which was a big success! On the Farm, thanks to generous donations and partnerships with A Greater Applegate, Rogue Valley Farm to School, and the Josephine County Food Bank, we were able to distribute thousands of pounds of fresh organic food to local food banks, schools, and families free of charge.  We also had a great year producing seed crops of sunflowers, zinnias, calendula, winter squash, milkweed, greens, and beans for small farmers and gardeners around the country.  In the Native Nursery we took a big leap this year, producing over 50,000 trees and shrubs for riparian restoration and native landscaping.

Some of our most exciting work in 2021 took place in the forest that covers the steep hillsides behind the Farm.  This year we partnered with the NRCS and local forester Josh Weber to thin 16 acres of mixed conifer and hardwood forest on the western half of the property. These woods were previously so thick with small diameter Douglas Fir and Poison Oak that they were rarely visited.

After a winter of carefully designing a prescription, cutting small trees, piling and burning the branches, and leaving larger wood for firewood, habitat, or to decompose into the soil, the project area is healthier, more fire-safe, and more wildlife friendly.  This work will continue in 2022 on the eastern half of the Farm and into the future with the development of more trails, signage and educational opportunities. 

At the heart of this year of hard work and new programs is our commitment to restoration: repair, renewal, and reinvigoration.  We are focusing our efforts more and more in this vein: restoration of our woods, of local riparian corridors and burn zones, of our soil, and of local pollinator communities, school gardens, and food systems.  These efforts are impactful because their timeline is long. When sprouting thousands of acorns or burning piles of branches in our woods, the payoff is not measured in dollars, but in future cascading positive outcomes. Perhaps an acorn will become an old growth oak someday, shading a stream with healthy salmon runs, providing food for critters and people, and offerings its branches for children to climb.  Restoration is also an act of restitution, an attempt at making good for past actions gone wrong. In riparian restoration work, one of the signs that a project is successful is when beavers move back to an area and do their work. By taking down trees to build their dams beavers provide habitat, recharge water tables, reduce erosion and improve water quality.  There is poetry in this planting of trees to encourage another to cut them down, but it is this very complexity and long-term impact that makes the effort so important and so satisfying.