Our Year in Review
Restoration Forestry at White Oak Farm
New Interperative Hiking Trail
Our Year in Review
By Stacey Denton
Every Vernal Equinox the hard work of many months is rewarded with the
abundance of delicious fruits and vegetables around every corner of
the Farm. Juicy pears are falling from the trees, tendrils of grapes
are becoming sweeter with each cool night, and well-rooted carrots,
turnips, and beets hint of the upcoming dormant season. This overlapping
time, when Summer transitions into Fall, gives us the heat-loving fruits
of Summer and the nourishing brassicas, peas, and roots of the cool
season. We glimpse the entire growing season while grazing in the garden,
and in so doing can pause briefly to reflect on the year’Äôs activity.
White Oak Farm widened its distribution of organic produce to area
families in 2007 by becoming a member of the Siskiyou Sustainable
Cooperative (SSC). Along with eight other farms in Williams and the
Applegate Valley, WOF grew produce for the Coop’Äôs CSA program. The
Farm agreed to provide peas, kale, fava beans, lettuce, cherry tomatoes,
green beans, onions, potatoes, and winter squash to approximately
100 shareholders in the cooperative CSA. Of special note is that the
CSA was able to provide roughly fifty other shares to low-income seniors
in the Rogue and Illinois Valleys. The CSA season is just drawing
to a close and has been the most successful year in terms of volume
and member satisfaction that both WOF and the SSC have seen in five
seasons of running CSA programs.
In May, White Oak Farm and the Lomakatsi Restoration Project hosted
an incredible event on restoration forestry at the Farm. Over the
course of the weekend workshop participants discussed restoration
forestry principles and techniques with professional foresters and
permaculturalists while Lomakatsi crew members selectively thinned
ten acres of our forestland. When lectures, conversations, and storytelling
concluded inside, participants were able to go outside and experience
first-hand the application of restoration forestry techniques. Altogether
over fifty people from around the Pacific Northwest were in attendance.
Just prior to the restoration forestry event, WOF also hosted the Southern
Oregon Natural Building Day. Attendees made several hundred adobe bricks
for use in natural building projects on the Farm. Taylor Starr, Jim
Haim, new community member Madrone Frankfort and their natural building
students then used the bricks during their Complete Cottage Construction
and Introduction to Cob Building workshops in early Summer. Workshop
participants learned about building with cob, straw bales, light straw
clay, adobe brick, and peeled poles while helping to further progress
on a small structure in the woods. Other farm community members, including
our work-study residents Victoria Heaton and Josh Weber, have also contributed
many hours to White Oak’Äôs natural building projects over the course
of the year.
This year the Farm’Äôs Common House has served to host a variety of herbal
medicine classes in addition to forestry and natural building workshops.
Topics ranging from Constitutional Physiology to Herbal Travel and Whole
Foods Nutrition have been presented by several local herbalists and
the Farm’Äôs own Jenn McCoy. WOF also hosted Sandor Katz for the second
year in a row for a successful workshop on the art of fermentation.
A new garden consisting of medicinal, edible, and fiber craft plants
was installed skirting the Common House grounds to help support workshops
such as the herbal medicine series. The garden was planted in the Spring
and we are looking forward to harvesting dye plants, fresh fruit, and
medicinal herbs in the years to come.
Once again, our Farm Camps for children were a great success. In July
and August we explored the Farm and Forest with children during two
week-long camps. Twenty-five youngsters, ages 5-11, filled the air with
laughter and shouts of joy while learning how to milk goats, mix cob,
and make herbal salves. Each week was filled with much learning, friendship
and fun.
With Summer turning to Fall, we are busily bringing in the storage crops
from the field and looking forward to the upcoming quieter months. As
we settle into our Fall wreath making, weaving dried grains, herbs,
and brilliantly colored flowers into holiday gifts, we look back at
another rewarding season of educational events and farming with a sense
of gratitude for the many gifts that have come by way of the Farm.
Restoration Forestry
at White Oak Farm
By Taylor Starr
One
of the most exciting projects I have had the opportunity to participate
in during my five years at White Oak Farm is the new Restoration Forestry
Program. In collaboration with the Lomakatsi Restoration Project, an
Ashland based non-profit, we have begun the long process of restoring
the ecological integrity of 50 acres of forest on the White Oak property.
After 100 years of logging, mining, road-building, and fire-exclusion
many of the forests of western North America are unhealthy. They lack
species and structural diversity, they are overcrowded and thus at risk
of drought, disease, and catastrophic wildfires, their soils are eroded,
and their associated wildlife are unable to find sufficient habitat
for survival. On our own small scale, these same problems are evident
in our mixed conifer forest. The goal of our Restoration Forestry Program
is to slowly and steadily reverse these trends through active observation,
management, and education.
The last three years our efforts have been focused on observation, the
development of a Stewardship Plan, and the necessary fundraising to
make this project happen. This Spring our efforts got underway in the
forest. Working in collaboration with the highly knowledgeable and dedicated
staff of Lomakatsi, White Oak Farm hosted a three day workshop on Creating
A Sustainable Ecological Culture. This participatory weekend included
practical applications of Traditional Ecological Knowledge, Restoration
Forestry, Ecological Woodlot Stewardship, Permaculture, and Natural
Building. Over fifty people from throughout Washington, Oregon and California
participated, including local leaders in the fields of Forestry, Permaculture,
Natural Building, and Indigenous Land Management. The weekend provided
participants an opportunity to learn techniques and principles of restoration
forestry, while also exploring Native American ecological practices
for cultivating viable plant communities for use as food, basketry and
weaving materials. Practical hands-on techniques in the forest, woodlands
and fields were demonstrated throughout the workshop by the Lomakatsi
Crew. Workshop participants and the White Oak Farm community were especially
blessed by the presence and prayers of our local elder from the Takelma
People, Agnes Baker Pilgrim, and by the drumming and song of the Whistling
Elk Drum Group. Overall it was an incredibly enlightening and empowering
weekend for all in attendance.
The workshop served as both a motivating force and a financial boost
to the physical work of beginning to bring balance back to White Oak’Äôs
forest. Throughout the Spring, the Lomakatsi crew, White Oak Farm community,
and students from the Wilderness Charter School in Ashland completed
ten acres of restoration work in the woods. The work consisted primarily
of thinning small diameter trees and shrubs to provide better access
to sun, water, and nutrients for our larger conifers and deciduous trees.
In addition, the thinning also reduces the fuel load in the forest,
thus reducing the risk of catastrophic wildfire and opening up the possibility
for introducing prescribed burning as a future management tool. The
most exciting and dramatic component of the project was the restorative
thinning of our small four acre Oak Woodland and Savannah located on
the ridge at the top of the property. Opening up this relic habitat
that supports our namesake Oak as well as several other important species
such as manzanita and brodeia served many functions including enhancing
wildlife habitat, invigorating acorn production, increasing plant diversity,
and providing a fuel break from neighboring forest lands managed by
the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). One of the most remarkable events
of the project came in the Oak Woodland when a Lomakatsi crew member
spotted a native mourning dove nest in a small oak tree. The tree was
carefully avoided as a reminder of the project, and several weeks later
we spotted two fledglings in the nest.
The completion of work on ten acres this Spring was the beginning of
what we hope will be an ongoing collaboration with Lomakatsi to further
enhance the health and diversity of our forest, and spread the techniques
and philosophy of restoration forestry far and wide through our education
programs. We’Äôll be back in the woods this Fall and Winter burning piles
of debris from the thinning operation, as well as beginning a road decommissioning
project to reduce erosion and sedimentation in Marble Gulch. The thrill
and satisfaction of doing work that tangibly benefits the Earth has
made our first year of work in the woods a huge success. We move forward
now with greater confidence and hope that our actions and those of others
on the path of restoration will not only improve the health of the forest,
but also enrich all our lives with purpose and meaning that is truly
powerful. Please join us in our work, or send in a contribution to our
restoration fund to help make sure this program continues for years
to come.
New Interpretive
Hiking Trail
By Josh Weber
I
moved to White Oak Farm & Education Center for the work study program
in April. Prior to moving to Oregon I spent three summer seasons in
Colorado’Äôs Rocky Mountains leading Youth Corps trail crews. This program
teaches wilderness ethics and conservation, tangible life skills, and
trail construction techniques including constructing new trail, building
bridges, and dry masonry rock structures. Joining the farm, I was excited
to become involved in the myriad projects underway and find ways to
contribute and create my niche. My previous trail-building skills, combined
with my motivation and passion for implementing a walking trail, were
the catalysts for constructing an interpretive hiking trail to provide
access to the farm’Äôs beautiful and diverse forest.
After walking the old logging access roads on the property, and receiving
consultation and input from the community members, I flagged a proposed
route and gained approval to begin the process. The trail starts near
the parking lot on a streamside logging road. I followed game trails
and a natural path along the stream, up a gulch, and past moss-covered
big-leaf maples, alders, cedars and a bounty of beautiful riparian plants
and flowers. The trail then winds slowly up the hill through drier slopes
of sugar and ponderosa pines and a surprising quantity of canyon live
oaks and tan oaks. At the crest of the hill, the trail climbs through
the more open Oregon white oak and manzanita savannah, providing an
opportunity to breathe in the lovely views of the Williams Valley and
Sugarloaf Mountain. Restoration of this savannah has been one of the
main focuses of the WOF sustainable forestry project, bringing our woodland
back to its native, healthy, thriving state. This three-quarter mile
loop then switchbacks gently down the other, steeper side of the hill
and finishes at the upper pond, for a refreshing ice-cold swim.
I started this project by choosing workable sections to complete, one
at a time. First I ’Äúcleared the corridor’Äù’Äîremoving underbrush, branches,
and small trees where the proposed trail will be. Then, taking a pick
mattock and an adz hoe, I built the tread of the trail, about two feet
wide. Currently at this step, the trail is nearly to the crest of the
savannah, and provides a basic path for people to enjoy, even prior
to its full completion. I will then go back through and add three bridges,
as well as rock steps, some retaining walls, and water drainage structures.
This technical work can be tedious and should not be rushed, and so
will take some time to complete. Aesthetics are important! The final
step entails cleaning up debris and making the path blend in nicely
with its surroundings.
Beyond just exercise, we wanted this hike to provide an educational
opportunity for those that walk it. Working with our very own plant
guru Jenn McCoy, we have plans to create up to forty informative plaques
along the trail, sharing information about the wild forest flora, natural
history of the area, and the man-made ditch running through the forest.
This long-term project will continue as I find a few spare hours between
farm and personal time. Interested in walking the trail or getting involved?
Stop on by the farm and see what you can do!