Who takes care of the food forest?
The Swan Creek Park Food Forest is a community resource in a public park, managed and cared for by volunteers. Anyone is welcome to help, and our group is comprised of people who have years of experience with food producing plants and trees, newcomers who find active, hands-on volunteering as a fun way to learn more, and everyone in between. All are invited to our community work parties, which occur on the third Sunday of every month, unless otherwise posted.
What about weeding?
We employ Permaculture design; that is, we take a holistic understanding of the Food Forest as a whole, and see all of the different plants and fungi therein as pieces of a whole that work together. This means there is no such thing as a “weed” as understood in a traditional gardening or agricultural context. Many plants that are considered “weeds” are actually edible, nutritious, and even beneficial to the soil and the ecosystem around them. Part of what we aim to do at the Swan Creek Park Food Forest is to re-envision what makes a plant considered desirable and edible.
Do you at least weed invasive plants?
As much as good Permaculture design should be able to create self-sustaining landscapes, invasive species running unchecked do need to be dealt with, as they threaten the native and naturalized species as well as the biodiversity of the whole. Himalayan Blackberry removal is a focus of many of our work parties, though we hope that in time, we will be able to crowd out the invasives with a resilient and flourishing understory. We never use herbicides or chemicals; removal is always manual.
Some invasive species can actually be helpful to the whole, and do not necessarily need to be removed so much as crowded out by other species in succession. An example of this is Scotch Broom, which is actually a helpful nitrogen fixer. To deal with this invasive, we simply cut the aboveground parts of the plant away, allowing the root to continue to fix nitrogen as other plants flourished around them.
What about watering?
Part of Permaculture design is looking at the landscape and predicting the ways in which it will interact with natural rainfall. Using this information, our designers specifically placed the more “thirsty” plants in areas that will collect more water. We even made sure to dig the holes in which we planted trees and shrubs in a way that will maximize water retention, and are careful to plant during the times of year that have the most rain, assuring that new plants will be generously watered by our climate’s own rain cycles. If you are interested in learning more about this approach, feel free to come to our work parties and workshops to learn more! We believe this approach to be much more sustainable way of using water.
Don’t food-bearing plants and trees require an enormous amount of stewardship?
A lot of the food plants that are currently in the United States are not native to North America. Because they are adapted to a different part of the world, they do require quite a bit of upkeep. At the Swan Creek Park Food Forest, we give native plants and plants that are well-adapted to this area a privileged position in the forest. Because the plants are well suited to the Pacific Northwestern landscape, they require less care, and fit into a natural system of check and balances just like any forest.
Is the food produced at the Swan Creek Park Food Forest really free and available to all?
That is the idea. No one should have to pay to visit, and all workshops offer education for a suggested sliding-scale donation, thereby making education accessible, as well. We trust people to take what they need, and share with their neighbors, and have not seen a need to impose any kind of rule or sanction to make sure that happens.
Won’t people just take all of the produce, stripping the forest bare?
First of all, entire organizations like the Pierce County Gleaning Project exist for the purpose of gathering urban fruit that people do not otherwise harvest. It is highly unlikely that the forest would be ‘stripped bare,’ and even if it were, we would see that as a good sign, because it means we need to expand the food forest beyond one acre to meet the community need!
All in all, we don’t believe it should be audacious for us to trust one another in our community. We are hoping the Swan Creek Park Food Forest can be a place where community comes alive for people as they care for and enjoy this shared resource together, gaining a relationship with the land and with one another.
What about those who take from the forest and sell the produce for profit?
Organizations like the Tacoma Farmer’s Market go through a vetting process with their vendors, including visits to their farms to make sure everything is grown and harvested on-site. Regarding other places where people could sell either the produce or items made from the produce, we would have to deal with that on a case-by-case basis.
Is this a solution to food insecurity and hunger?
There is no one single cause for widespread food insecurity, in the same way that there is no one single answer to such a problem. The problem is complex, and requires an equally complex response. At the Swan Creek Park Food Forest, we seek to arm community members with knowledge of agroforestry, foraging, and the harvesting and preparation of native foods as a nutritious food source that is abundant in Pierce County.
The Swan Creek Park Food Forest is a community resource in a public park, managed and cared for by volunteers. Anyone is welcome to help, and our group is comprised of people who have years of experience with food producing plants and trees, newcomers who find active, hands-on volunteering as a fun way to learn more, and everyone in between. All are invited to our community work parties, which occur on the third Sunday of every month, unless otherwise posted.
What about weeding?
We employ Permaculture design; that is, we take a holistic understanding of the Food Forest as a whole, and see all of the different plants and fungi therein as pieces of a whole that work together. This means there is no such thing as a “weed” as understood in a traditional gardening or agricultural context. Many plants that are considered “weeds” are actually edible, nutritious, and even beneficial to the soil and the ecosystem around them. Part of what we aim to do at the Swan Creek Park Food Forest is to re-envision what makes a plant considered desirable and edible.
Do you at least weed invasive plants?
As much as good Permaculture design should be able to create self-sustaining landscapes, invasive species running unchecked do need to be dealt with, as they threaten the native and naturalized species as well as the biodiversity of the whole. Himalayan Blackberry removal is a focus of many of our work parties, though we hope that in time, we will be able to crowd out the invasives with a resilient and flourishing understory. We never use herbicides or chemicals; removal is always manual.
Some invasive species can actually be helpful to the whole, and do not necessarily need to be removed so much as crowded out by other species in succession. An example of this is Scotch Broom, which is actually a helpful nitrogen fixer. To deal with this invasive, we simply cut the aboveground parts of the plant away, allowing the root to continue to fix nitrogen as other plants flourished around them.
What about watering?
Part of Permaculture design is looking at the landscape and predicting the ways in which it will interact with natural rainfall. Using this information, our designers specifically placed the more “thirsty” plants in areas that will collect more water. We even made sure to dig the holes in which we planted trees and shrubs in a way that will maximize water retention, and are careful to plant during the times of year that have the most rain, assuring that new plants will be generously watered by our climate’s own rain cycles. If you are interested in learning more about this approach, feel free to come to our work parties and workshops to learn more! We believe this approach to be much more sustainable way of using water.
Don’t food-bearing plants and trees require an enormous amount of stewardship?
A lot of the food plants that are currently in the United States are not native to North America. Because they are adapted to a different part of the world, they do require quite a bit of upkeep. At the Swan Creek Park Food Forest, we give native plants and plants that are well-adapted to this area a privileged position in the forest. Because the plants are well suited to the Pacific Northwestern landscape, they require less care, and fit into a natural system of check and balances just like any forest.
Is the food produced at the Swan Creek Park Food Forest really free and available to all?
That is the idea. No one should have to pay to visit, and all workshops offer education for a suggested sliding-scale donation, thereby making education accessible, as well. We trust people to take what they need, and share with their neighbors, and have not seen a need to impose any kind of rule or sanction to make sure that happens.
Won’t people just take all of the produce, stripping the forest bare?
First of all, entire organizations like the Pierce County Gleaning Project exist for the purpose of gathering urban fruit that people do not otherwise harvest. It is highly unlikely that the forest would be ‘stripped bare,’ and even if it were, we would see that as a good sign, because it means we need to expand the food forest beyond one acre to meet the community need!
All in all, we don’t believe it should be audacious for us to trust one another in our community. We are hoping the Swan Creek Park Food Forest can be a place where community comes alive for people as they care for and enjoy this shared resource together, gaining a relationship with the land and with one another.
What about those who take from the forest and sell the produce for profit?
Organizations like the Tacoma Farmer’s Market go through a vetting process with their vendors, including visits to their farms to make sure everything is grown and harvested on-site. Regarding other places where people could sell either the produce or items made from the produce, we would have to deal with that on a case-by-case basis.
Is this a solution to food insecurity and hunger?
There is no one single cause for widespread food insecurity, in the same way that there is no one single answer to such a problem. The problem is complex, and requires an equally complex response. At the Swan Creek Park Food Forest, we seek to arm community members with knowledge of agroforestry, foraging, and the harvesting and preparation of native foods as a nutritious food source that is abundant in Pierce County.
