Center for Rural Livelihoods

10/09/2026

Restoring Forests through Indigenous Agroforestry; the last of of our agroforestry video series is now live on YouTube. Head to the link in bio to watch it!

09/11/2026

09/11/2026

09/02/2026

Composting workshop this Saturday 10-12! Rain or shine please bring a folding chair if you can as seating is limited 🌻💚

09/02/2026

If we will have the wisdom to survive,

to stand like slow-growing trees

on a ruined place, renewing, enriching it,

if we make our seasons welcome here,

asking not too much of earth or heaven,

then a long time after we are dead

the lives our lives prepare will live

here, their houses strongly placed

upon the valley sides, fields and gardens

rich in the windows. The river will run

clear, as we will never know it,

and over it, birdsong like a canopy.

On the levels of the hills will be

green meadows, stock bells in noon shade.

On the steeps where greed and ignorance

cut down

the old forest, an old forest will stand,

its rich leaf-fall drifting its roots.

The veins of forgotten springs will have

opened..

Families will be singing in their fields.

In the voices they will hear a music

risen out of the ground. They will take

nothing from the ground they will not

return,

whatever the grief at parting. Memory,

native to this valley, will spread over it

like a grove, and memory will grow

into a legend, legend into song, song

into sacrament. The abundance of this

place,

the songs of its people and its birds,

will be health and wisdom and indwelling

light. This is no paradisal dream.

Its hardship is its possibilities.

─Wendell Berry

08/28/2026

Sign up at the link in our bio to join us for our annual farm tour!

This year, we will be visiting Kara Huntermoon who tends Heart Culture Farm out in West Eugene.

We will see agroforestry techniques in practice, and learn about regionally appropriate species that thrive in seasonally wet Willamette Valley sites. We will also explore multi-species rotational grazing and working with willow!

Sunday, September 13th 2-5 pm, register on our website to get all the details and reserve your spot!

08/18/2026

Agroforestry: a welcoming approach to riverbank restoration & parks

08/07/2026

Check out all the amazing work drew thomas and his sheep have been doing on campus at the Center for Rural Livelihoods.

Rotational grazing is a major part of our systems. In our orchards, it reduces w**d whacking and amending labor. In our the forests, it reduces fuel loads to reduce the risk of catastrophic wildfire.

All their p**p creates rich fertilizer to help encourage native species, like the we are trying to restore in our oak woodlands. They knock the seed down, trample it into the ground and take out the competing blackberries, allowing the camas to flourish again on this former plantation forest site.

Want to learn how you could integrate silvopasture on your land? Hit us up for a free technical consulatation via the link in bio or on our website’s agroforestry page. Also check out our new agroforestry handbook and subscribe to our YouTube Channel to check out all the videos in the agroforestry series. We want to make these restoration practices accessible for all!