RIPPLE Rural Stories

Farming for Health in the Applegate Valley

2012-01-13 12:01:12 -0800

Care farming – also known as green care, farm care, or farming for health – is well established in Europe. For example, in The Netherlands there are more than 1,000 established care farms. Great Britain has hundreds, and there are dozens more in Ireland, Norway, Germany, and Italy.

In the United States, there’s just one – so far. The folks at Sanctuary One at Double Oak Farm, a 55-acre slice of heaven in southwestern Jackson County along the Applegate River, are working toward the day when care farms are as commonplace in the U.S. as they are overseas.

Pasture scene at Sanctuary One.

At its core, care farming is a rural development initiative that creates a more dependable, diverse revenue stream for farmers. But it’s not just a win for farmers, it’s a win-win. Care farms are a multidimensional rural healing center that improves the entire community’s access to cheap, affordable, and effective animal-assisted therapy and horticultural therapy. They also make excellent resources for schools and other groups looking for service-learning opportunities.

For example, the Sanctuary helps people from all walks of life experience nature's power to heal by providing them with an opportunity to volunteer on a real working farm. Working with animals and farming has been widely shown to lower blood pressure, ease depression and stress, and help lonely people establish therapeutic relationships.

Teenager meets a rescued horse at Sanctuary One.

That was common sense and practice 50 years ago, back when most Americans lived on a farm, but now that city dwellers are the majority there are a lot of people out there who have never picked a tomato or brushed a horse.

In Europe, care farmers are usually for-profit farmers first and care farmers second. In addition to revenue from growing crops or animal husbandry, they get paid a set amount per human client by the government. Thus it’s not a difficult sell over there to recruit traditional farmers into making the leap to care farming. Open your broccoli patch and barnyard to formerly abused kids who help pull weeds and milk cows once a week and presto, the check is in the mail.

School kids learning about farming at Sanctuary One.

But since that’s not likely to ever happen here, the Sanctuary’s founders made a strategic decision to establish the farm as a nonprofit. As such it relies on voluntary donations to keep afloat. Through a combination of first-mover advantage, savvy marketing, and lots of old fashioned hard work, the Sanctuary is raising more than $250,000 a year after just four years of operation. It also:

Has successfully converted a failed cattle ranch into a profitable enterprise.
Employs four people.
Provides in-depth, permaculture-inspired farming education to six interns per year.
Has 100 volunteers who reap the health benefits of care farming, many of whom drive 80-plus miles round-trip to help with farm chores one or two days per week.
Was visited by 1,200 paying tourists and school kids last year.
Maintains a diverse herd of 65 farm animals and house pets that have been rescued from situations of abuse, neglect, and abandonment.
Puts most of the money raised straight back into the local economy via wages and purchases of goods and services.

In addition to donations, the Sanctuary is funded by grants, farm tour revenue, farm product sales, adoption fees, and fundraisers. They are on track to meet a strategic goal of raising $1,000,000 a year within 10 years of opening their barn doors for business.

Lisa the pig at Sanctuary One gets a belly rub from animal care manager Sansa Collins.

Another of the Sanctuary’s keys to success is the uniquely American spin they’ve put on the concept of care farming. By combining human service programs, organic farming, and animal rescue, the whole is more than the sum of its parts. The Sanctuary’s motto is — People, animals, and the earth: better together.

The staff at the Sanctuary welcome anyone who wants to take a farm tour and learn more about what care farming can do for Oregon’s – and the nation’s -- rural communities.

For more information, visit Sanctuary One at Double Oak Farm on the Web or find us on Facebook.

The Road to Community Vitality

2011-08-02 12:36:27 -0700

Some people are planners. When they get ready to go on a vacation they read all the guidebooks, make lists of sights they need to see, and have a detailed itinerary for the entire trip.

Other people like things a little looser—to be more spontaneous and not so rigid. Take it as it comes and go with the flow!

Both ways have their merits and both ways work for certain kinds of people.

But when it comes to the future and success of communities, having a plan is the way to get started and ensure you build on your assets and past success in a coordinated manner. That is what Sweet Home has done over the past 20 years with assistance from RDI.

It’s like going on a road trip. You could just jump in the car and start driving—you might see some really interesting sights and end up somewhere great. You also might end up getting lost. Similarly, the road to community vitality can often be long and winding, and include many potholes and detours as Sweet Home has discovered. Having a Strategic Plan—that road map and a set of directions has been instrumental in so many successes in Sweet Home.

One of Sweet Home's original goals in 1991 was to create new jobs by attracting new industry to locate in the community. In working with the state, two potential new industrial businesses were identified and targeted for relocation. Sweet Home looked good on paper, but when both companies came for a community visit, they were concerned with the “run-down” appearance of Sweet Home. The two businesses felt that the visual appearance of the community demonstrated a lack of commitment on the part of the community to invest in itself and this assessment was the sole reason given for not relocating.

As a result of being overlooked, the Sweet Home Economic Development Group (SHEDG) with the assistance of RDI, applied for and received several grants. By 1993 with RDI’s assistance, SHEDG had raised a total of $144,200 for revitalization efforts, including $17,500 from the community. One aspect of revitalization created a subsidized no-interest loan fund to help fund downtown storefront renovations. Other revitalization efforts included improvements to the median on Highway 20, building drinking fountains and benches, creating banners and new entry portals, and installing historic street lights. These city wide efforts complimented the revitalization improvements of the Sweet Home businesses participating in storefront renovations.

During 1992 and 1993, three Sweet Home leaders participated in the Rural Futures Forum (RFF) leadership training developed and delivered by RDI. The program which was delivered in rural Oregon from 1992 through 2002, drew leaders from around the state together in a central location once a month for five months on Friday through Sunday. In 1998 five more people attended RFF. Those Sweet Home leaders from the 1998 class organized a local leadership training program, The Sweet Home Leadership Academy, delivered with assistance from RDI in 2001. And Sweet Home is continuing to build their leadership capacity by participating in the RDI delivered Ford Institute Leadership Program which they entered in 2006 and are continuing with in 2011. There is no doubt Sweet Home is committed to training leaders and increasing community vitality.

This amazing community didn’t stop there! Sweet Home has participated and benefited from many of RDI’s economic vitality and community building programs over the years. Besides participating in strategic planning, downtown revitalization and leadership training, Sweet Home has also benefited from RDI’s Mill Site conversion project, Business Assistance Team program, and Organizational Development and Collaboration efforts.

Sweet Home was one of a dozen communities that participated in the RDI led Mill Site Conversion Project from 1994 through 1999. The program was partnership with the Oregon Economic Development Department, The US Economic Development Administration, Pacific Power, and Stohl Rives to take former mill sites and get them cleaned up and reused to create new jobs. This process included addressing legal, financial and environmental issues so that the property can be redeveloped into a productive asset for the community.

Sweet Home purchased seven acres of the old mill site, and applied for and received a grant from USDA Rural Development to build a flexible manufacturing facility. Business assistance efforts identified an expanding local business that employed more than 30 to locate in the facility. Other local buildings have been renovated and new businesses have located in them, diversifying Sweet Home’s economic base.

RDI organized and trained the Sweet Home “Business Assistance Team” of local community members including the City, SHEDG, Business Association, and small businesses. The Business Assistance Team reaches out to the local businesses in Sweet Home to assess their needs and connect them to resources like the Small Business Development Center and economic development district. Assistance to businesses in Sweet Home led to creating and retaining 70 new jobs.

RDI also provided capacity building assistance to the Oregon Jamboree in Sweet Home (the country western music festival) helping to strengthen its structure and procedures to create an even better event that significantly contributes to the economy and supports so many of the local clubs and organizations. And RDI assisted in helping the five major organizations (The City, SHEDG, Business Association, Ambassadors and Chamber of Commerce) collaborate and focus their economic activities to support each other and the community.

Other successes in Sweet Home include

Sprucing up main street—thanks to a beautification committee the lane divider strips on Highway 20 have been turned into garden-like sites.
New sidewalks to portions of town.
Significant improvements to its water and sewer systems, including construction of a $12 million water treatment plant.
A Boys and Girls Club, Senior Center and Community Center have joined the community that are well-used, new police and fire stations, and renovation of its high school and elementary schools.
A new marina community has been established: new townhouses selling for $500,000 to nearly $1 million have been constructed at Foster Reservoir, where there is a 49-slip marina with plans to double in size. There’s also an RV park with plans for a three-story lodge and commercial center.
The Oregon Jamboree has grown into one of the premiere country music events in the Northwest and generates annual profits of more than $300,000, with 10 percent donated to the community foundation.
Volunteerism remains high despite Sweet Home’s relatively large commuter base.

Sweet Home has seen clear and positive results that can be directly attributed to their journey with RDI (RDI learned just as much from them along the way too)! But what led to these successful end results was the willingness to take the first step and commit their plan to paper—a road map pointing them in the right direction.

In Sweet Home, a long list of accomplishments over the last twenty years reinforces the value of planning and trusting in the process. The community has many significant accomplishments they can be proud of. “We have succeeded because we chipped away at the goals a little at a time,” says former mayor Tim McQueary. “We didn’t try to make things happen in one big bite. It just would have been too much.”

RDI Executive Director Craig Smith recently spent time with city leaders in Sweet Home viewing some of the progress and successes. “I’m really impressed,” Smith said. “Early intervention and continued commitment by community leaders has made all the difference. It’s truly impressive what Sweet Home has done.”

Creating economic vitality takes forethought, a willingness to commit to creating a plan and following through with that plan. It takes hard work and the ability to collaborate with members from all parts of the community (talk about your backseat drivers)! Like a tattered map, communities must revisit the plan that has been created again and again and check with all passengers. Long term planning doesn’t happen overnight--it takes dedication, trust, resources, support and a willingness to allow the process to happen. But in the end, Sweet Home has shown a well planned road trip produces results and is both worth the work and the wait. RDI is proud to have been along for the ride with Sweet Home. Sweet Home is one of the more than 100 communities RDI has worked with in 2009 and 2010 and one of more than 300 we have worked with over the last 20 years.

Timeline for Sweet Home efforts:

1989 – The Community Initiatives Program (which became RDI in 1991) conducted Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats Analysis recommending forming an economic development group and completing a Strategic Plan
1990 – Sweet Home Economic Development Group (SHEDG) formed
1991 – Pacific Power facilitated the first strategic plan
1992 – RDI helps develop, secure funding and implement the downtown revitalization project
1992 – First Sweet Home Jamboree Country Western Music Festival is held (now in its nineteenth year)
1992–1993 – Sweet Home has three leaders including the City Manager and founder of the Jamboree participate in RDI leadership training program Rural Futures Forum
1993–1994 – RDI facilitates a new vision and strategic plan for Sweet Home
1994 Organizational Development work with the SHEDG and the Sweet Home Jamboree
1994–1997 – Sweet Home former mill site is assessed and cleaned up
1996–1998 – RDI develops a Business Assistance Team in Sweet Home
1997 – Flexible Manufacturing Building opens on former mill site to house one of the businesses assisted by the Sweet Home Business Assistance Team
1997 – RDI facilitates strategic plan update
1998 – Five from Sweet Home participate in RFF
1998 – RDI facilitates Sweet Home Summit with the five major community organizations to help them work better together creating economic vitality
2000–2001 – RDI works with leadership grads to design and deliver the Sweet Home Leadership Academy
2001–2002 – Strategic Plan updated
2006–2011 – Sweet Home, as part of East Linn County with Lebanon and other communities, participates in the RDI delivered Ford Institute Leadership Program
2009–2010 – RDI facilitates tourism planning for Sweet Home and East Linn County

Agriculture and Energy Efficiency in Sisters

2011-07-12 13:41:54 -0700

For the past few years Marc Thalacker, General Manager of the Three Sisters Irrigation District (TSID), has been facing a challenge.

Thirty irrigating farmers along Hurtley Ranch Road in Sisters have not been receiving irrigation water for their crops on a consistent basis. There were times when nineteen couldn’t get any water at all. And they weren’t happy about it.

“We were getting about six complaints a day from landowners during the irrigation season,” said Thalacker. The complaints mainly involved inconsistent water flow from the existing irrigation pumping and piping system which had been installed many years ago by a private landowner in the area.

The flow problem was the result of incorrect sizing on two of the pumps combined with pipe sizing and locations that were inconsistent throughout the system. Four landowners, located south of the pumping plant, were on a 30hp pump; twenty-six, north of the pump station, were on a separate 30hp pump. And pushing water north meant an uphill climb for the water before reaching the twenty-six properties.

Before System Improvements—Hurtley Ranch Road irrigation pumps and electric meters. View is facing north, pump/meter on left in photo serviced 26 landowners; right serviced four to the south.

“We even tried putting the landowners on a rotation system but it wasn’t working. Rotation only works if people will honor the system,” said Thalacker.

So Thalacker had Greg Smith, owner of Thompson Pump and Irrigation Inc., come out and analyze the total system. Smith quickly determined that the problem was one of system design and equipment.

“The basic pumps were incorrectly sized, the pipe size to the landowners was inconsistent, and there was a clear need for variable frequency drives which would even-out the energy usage required to deliver water consistently to all landowners,” said Smith.

Marc Thalacker was not surprised to hear this assessment from Smith. His concern, however, was how to fund the needed system improvements. The landowners had already been through a contentious law suit in the late nineties with the previous system owner and Thalacker wasn’t keen to re-ignite those hard feelings.

No stranger to seeking out state, federal, and granting agencies, Thalacker has shepherded many water and energy conservation projects since joining the TSID. Assembling a broad coalition of partner agencies, Thalacker is about half-way through completing the three-year Whychus Creek piping project.

Before recent improvements roughly 55 percent of the Whychus Creek water that entered the irrigation system was lost to evaporation and leakage.

The piping project will provide substantially more water for TSID users and will eventually reintroduce runs of summer steelhead and spring Chinook salmon.

“From a conservation measure, it is the ultimate; you are not only conserving water, but you are also conserving electricity," said Thalacker a few years ago.

For the Hurtley Ranch Road project, Thalacker reached out to a variety of partners for both technical and funding assistance.

The Natural Resources Conservation Service supplied system design services through their Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) program. Thompson Pump supplied two new pumps, a 20hp for the southern properties, and a 40hp for the northern ones.

Thompson Pump also installed two Variable Frequency Drives which monitor and adjust the energy usage of the two new pumps. A Variable Frequency Drive acts like a “transmission” for an electric motor. It automatically adjusts a motor’s speed up or down. Motors often run at full speed when only partial speed is needed. With the varied flow and pressure requirements of the Hurtley Ranch farmers, the new Variable Frequency Drives will reduce electric usage; improve motor life, and overall system life.

After System Improvements—White cabinets are the two Variable Frequency Drives. Two new pumps installed above the VFD’s. VFD/pump on the right services northern 26 landowners, left side services four southern landowners.

Additionally, using a sophisticated computer analysis, Thompson Pump provided the energy savings analysis required by the Central Electric Coop’s (CEC) “Save Water – Save Energy” program, allowing CEC to provide the TSID with a substantial incentive rebate for the Variable Frequency Drive purchases.

Commenting on the ability of the Variable Frequency Drives to reduce energy usage, Marc Thalacker said “I don’t have the exact numbers but I can tell you that overall energy usage on the system is way down for May (2011 compared to previous months.)”

“And the beauty of Variable Frequency Drives is that they will extend the life of the new pumps,” added Greg Smith.

And maybe best of all, the Oregon Department of Energy (ODOE) provided funding for the Variable Frequency Drive purchases using State Energy Program Recovery Act (stimulus) funds. The Wy’East Resource Conservation & Development Council, working with ODOE and CEC, provided energy savings calculations and project documentation.

New system piping costs were substantial, accounting for 79 percent of the total project. The Deschutes River Conservancy, with assistance from the National Fish & Wildlife Foundation, the National Forest Foundation, the Oregon Governor’s Fund, and the Pelton Fund contributed 84 percent of the total grant monies received.

With the new system up and running, landowners are now receiving irrigation water when and where they need it. “Regardless of when people turn on their water now they get consistent flow – and we’re not getting any complaints!” said Thalacker.

Here’s a summary of how the Hurtley Ranch Road project breaks-down cost and funding-wise:

Equipment & Labor Costs
Two new pumps (one 20hp, one 40hp) and two new Variable Frequency Drives: $37,172
New Pipeline Costs: $138,925
Total Costs: $176,097

Funding Sources
Bonneville Power Administration/Central Electric Coop: $4,800
Oregon Department of Energy: $12,000
Deschutes River Conservancy (and partners): $89,600
Total Funding: $106,400

Funding sources contributed 60 percent of the total project costs! The water and energy savings, over time, will be realized by both the TSID and landowners.

Vern Rice, Energy Services Supervisor with CEC, commenting on how other irrigation districts and agricultural operations can benefit from the installation of variable frequency drives, said “I encourage anyone that has significant variables of flow or pressure in their pumping operation to learn from the TSID experience. CEC’s agricultural energy efficiency rebate program is very simple and everything you need to know is on our website www.cec.coop.”

John Gloeckner, a landowner on the south end of the new pumping station, is much happier this irrigating season. “It’s been a long time coming. We’re getting all the water we need so far. I raise cattle and bucking bulls and if I can’t get water consistently throughout the (irrigating) season it costs me money because I have buy hay to feed. This project has really been a blessing,” said Gloeckner.

Want to learn more about agricultural energy efficiency? Please contact your energy provider, local Resource Conservation & Development Council, Irrigation District, or your Soil & Water Conservation District for current programs and incentives.

Entering the Workforce

2011-07-05 11:26:15 -0700

The final video in a series created by and about entrepreneurs in rural Oregon is about Tommy Gibbons, a 19-year-old entering the workforce with a bright mind and a strong heart for his community.

Tommy has been on his own since he was 17 and continues to face challenges but that hasn’t stopped him. As a youth in a rural economy, Tommy realized there was a force that pushes people to succeed—his local community. August 2010

OPB News: Rural Economy Project: Tommy Gibbons Perpetual optimism is a foundation for this young entrepreneur.

Building Community and Economic Resilience

2010-10-05 12:14:08 -0700

This video, the second in a series created by and about entrepreneurs in rural Oregon, tells the story of the Black Buffalo Coffee House in Chiloquin, Oregon.

Clay and Theresa Chocktoot opened the coffee house and internet cafe in the midst of a recession, because they wanted the community to have a place to go, a home away from home to gather with friends and family. There aren't many opportunities in Chiloquin for high school students to gain work-related experience, so they also wanted to offer a mentoring program for students. As a small business, the Black Buffalo Coffee House is supporting the community, and in turn they are receiving support from the community. This connection to community has made the coffee house a success in its first year. August 2010

Entrepreneur Follows Her Dreams

2010-08-30 10:00:56 -0700

This video, the first in a series created by and about entrepreneurs in rural Oregon, tells the story of Mary Stevenson, a single mom who decided to take a leap of faith and open her own business in Baker City, Oregon.

Mary opened Earth and Vine Art and Wine Gallery in the heart of the recession, because she knew that even when the economy is bad, especially when the economy is bad, people want to connect with their community. August 2010