Stories of People, Place, and Prosperity

Dungeness River Watershed Restoration

Tribespeople, irrigators, property owners, conservationists, and public agencies came together to restore threatened salmon populations.

Inaba Produce Farms

Lon Inaba explains the history of the Yakima Valley farm and continuation of family values: nurturing the workers, the crops and the insects that pollinate.

Locati Farms - Walla Walla Sweet Onions

From a small seed business to a 500 acre semi-organic farm, Michael Locati protects the legacy of the Walla Walla Valley’s onion.

Mike and Jean’s Berry Farm

Mike and Jean Youngquist are beating the odds by evolving with the marketplace, and lobbying consumers and policymakers for support of domestic food sources.

Paradise Fibers

With her family, Kate Painter followed her dream to a simpler life on a sheep farm and created a successful business that supports fiber arts around the world.

Sakuma Brothers

Three generations of the Sakuma family have built a fruit business operating in two states with a farm, research laboratory, and processing and packaging plant.

Shepherd’s Grain

Fred Fleming and business partner Karl Kupers are Food Alliance certified, use no-till farming, and sell their Washington wheat to local markets.

Thundering Hooves

Formerly a struggling conventional wheat farmer, Joel Huesby uses innovative techniques on his successful organic beef, chicken and turkey ranch.

Willows Inn, Nettles Farm, Lummi Reefnetters

From pasta hand-made with organic Nettles Farm eggs to reefnetted salmon, Riley Starks and Judy Olsen bring quality local food to diners at Willows Inn.

Left Foot Organics

A non-profit founded by Ann Vandeman provides opportunity for developmentally disabled adults and connects them to their community through organic farming.

Made in the Methow Co-op Store and Community Kitchen

Twisp, Washington residents opened a co-op and community kitchen to produce and sell local Methow Valley foods and goods as a way to boost their local economy.

Othello Sandhill Crane Festival

Othello, WA residents celebrate the migrating Sandhill crane with an annual festival and field trips to Columbia National Wildlife Refuge.

Sequim Lavender Festival

Sequim, Washington residents joined together to reinvent and revitalize the area’s agricultural heritage and celebrate with an annual festival.

Tenmile Creek Watershed Restoration Project

Dorie Belisle and her husband John worked with neighboring farms to protect the salmon and the agriculture on the Tenmile Creek Watershed.

JEA Farms, Ltd.

John Aeschliman promotes rich, moist soil in dry country using direct-seed or no-till farming to grow wheat.

Leonetti Cellar

Leonetti Cellar winemaker Gary Figgins and his son Chris, the winery's lead viticulturalist, cultivate soil health to create quality wines.

Limberlost Tree Farm

Herb and Grace Payne reclaim family land and replant cedars in the hope of recreating the old growth stands that were here a century ago.

Moccasin Lake Ranch

Preservation, conservation and production all blend together on Moccasin Lake Ranch which covers over 2200 acres in north central Washington.

Read, Deanna and Jeremy Smith Family Farms

Read Smith protects his topsoil with no-till farming on his ranch in eastern Washington’s Palouse region.

Two Rivers Farm

Nancy Denson and Nick Stemm celebrate the coexistence of the cultivated and the wild on their farm by supporting a balance between harvest and natural setting.

Blue Heron Farm

Anne Schwartz and husband Mike have been farming organically in Washington for nearly 30 years and promote local markets as a way to rejuvenate rural America.

Colvin Family Ranch

Fred Colvin balances conservation and restoration with grass fed cattle ranching on his 640 acre property in western Washington.

Double J Ranch

Peter Goldmark draws on his scientific and farming background to run his grass finished yearling and wheat breeding ranch in Washington's Okanogan Valley.

Full Circle Farm

Andrew Stout and Wendy Munroe own and run a community supported agriculture farm, with the help of interns, to provide local produce to the Seattle, WA area.

The Ranchers Stewardship Alliance

 

Wallowa Resources

Working with key agencies and private citizens, Wallowa Resources is making a difference in the long-term economic and ecological health of Wallowa County, Oregon.

Gibbs' Organic Produce

Grant Gibbs has been farming organically since 1975 and keeps it simple by selling his produce, grass-fed chickens, hogs and beef only to local markets.

Hedlin Family Farm

Dave Hedlin encourages long-range vision on his Skagit Valley farm and has joined with other local growers to preserve farmland, open spaces and wildlife habitat.

Nash Huber & Delta Farm

Partnering with PCC Natural Foods to create the Farmland Fund, farmer Nash Huber saved the Dungeness River Valley's Delta Farm from development.

S & S Homestead Farm

Henning Sehmsdorf and his family stay healthy by practicing biodynamic farming, and are moving towards self-sufficiency on Lopez Island, WA.

Forest Concepts, LLC

Forest Concepts promotes forest health and the local economy by using the by-products of forest restoration in constructing products that benefit watersheds.

Gies Farm

Dale Gies experimented with mustard plants and green manure to improve his soil quality and unexpectedly became a leader in the field of biofumigation.

IronStraw Group

Michael and Spring Thomas founded IronStraw Group to educate about strawbale construction and now teach building skills to disadvantaged rural youth.

Mobile Meat Processing Unit, Lopez Community Land Trust

A revolutionary innovation in small farming on Lopez Island, WA - a mobile meat processing unit that allows consumers to support small island ranchers

Peshastin Creek Growers Association

Dr. John Dunley helps the Peshastin Creek Growers Association develop a soft pesticide program for their orchards and move away from conventional farming.

Quillisascut Farm School of the Domestic Arts

LoraLea and Rick Misterly use small-scale farming methods to provide high-quality products and hands-on education for aspiring chefs.

Rendezvous Reclamation

Sam Lucy reclaims abandoned Methow Valley farmland using crops rather than chemicals to bring weeds under control and the soil back to fertility.

Stillaguamish Old Channel Restoration

Chuck Hazleton and the Snohomish County, WA community on the Stillaguamish River installed a water control structure to repair habitat for endangered salmon.

Goldsborough Dam Removal

The Squaxin Island Tribe and Simpson Timber company teamed up with state and federal agencies to take out an old dam and bring salmon back upriver.

Healing Hooves LLC

Craig Madsen uses goats and sheep instead of chemicals for invasive weed control and also helps clients develop long-term ecosystem and herd management plans.

Hines Marsh Restoration

Martha Jordan and others overcame hurdles to protect and restore Hines Marsh and the surrounding dunes to support swans and other wildlife.

Jimmycomelately Creek Restoration

After a massive flood, local, state and tribal agencies came to a radical conclusion: return a section of Jimmycomelately Creek to its natural floodplain.

Nuqua’lum - Restoration at Maple Creek

Developer turned conservationist, Gary Gehling opted to restore the North Fork of the Nooksack river for wildlife habitat and low impact human use.

Skykomish River Bank and Haskell Slough Restoration

After two major floods, Dale Reiner, with state and federal agencies and Northwest Chinook Recovery, restored his cattle land in a fish-friendly manner.

Tucannon Restoration – Don Howard

Don Howard has worked with local, state, tribal, and federal agencies to meet his objectives as a rancher while providing habitat and shelter for native fish.

A-1 Builders, Inc.

Rick Dubrow combines his environmentalist values with good business sense to build and remodel energy efficient homes in Bellingham, Washington.

A.J.’S Auto Repair, Inc.

Bob Anderson has incorporated energy saving devices to minimize the environmental impact of an inherently toxic industry, and business is better for it.

Clover Stornetta Farms, Inc.

Under the leadership of Dan Benedetti, Clover Stornetta Farms produces high quality organic and conventional milk products and continually strives for improvement.

Emma's Eco-Clean

A group of low income women in Northern California banded together to create a successful co-op cleaning business using environmentally friendly cleansers.

Ecohaus

Matt Freeman-Gleason acted on his commitment to sustainability and started Environmental Home Center, now Ecohaus, an eco-friendly building materials supplier.

New Leaf Paper

Jeff Mendelsohn took on one of the most polluting industries in the world, the paper industry, with the goal of producing the best environmental paper.

Cart'M Recycling

Frustrated by the lack of recycling resources in Manzanita, Oregon, Lane deMoll and Kathleen Ryan started a citizen-run dump, recycling center and community center.

FREE GEEK

Oso Martin pursued a good idea and created a successful non-profit that refurbishes unwanted computers for free and recycles what isn't given away or sold.

Potawot Health Village

To meet health care needs in a more comprehensive fashion, United Indian Health Services integrated individual, community, and environmental health.

Rebuilding Center

To reunite and meet the needs of the neighborhood, Shane Endicott started the non-profit Our United Villages, and the Rebuilding Center was its first success.

Wallowa Resources

Formed in 1996, this non-profit has opened up the dialogue in the Wallowa County community about land owners' responsibility for Chinook salmon habitat.

Celilo Group

Nik Blosser and Tom Koehler launched their ecomarketing business as a way to create positive environmental change. The popular Chinook Book is one of their products.

Interfaith Network for Earth Concerns

The Ecumenical Ministries of Oregon created the Interfaith Network for Earth Concerns to better organize the faith community around environmental concerns.

Governor John A. Kitzhaber

Governor Kitzhaber issued an Executive Order to direct state government to become a leader in sustainable practices and this Order has since become state law.

Procession of the Species

Eli Sterling formed Earthbound Productions, a non-profit that raises environmental awareness through media programs that challenge cultural norms.

Quillisascut Cheese and Farm School

LoraLea and Rick Misterly are preserving small-scale farming traditions and introducing culinary students to the source of their work: from the farm to the table.

Oregon Garden

The City of Silverton, Oregon found a unique way to process wastewater to the benefit of the community - by creating the Oregon Garden and wetlands.

Sierra Business Council

The Sierra Business Council is the first business-led regional campaign in the U.S. promoting the idea that environmental quality is a cornerstone of economic health.

Fort Lewis

Fort Lewis’s 40,000-acre forest became the first piece of federal land in the U.S. to be certified by the internationally-recognized Forest Stewardship Council.

Thirteen Mile Lamb and Wool Company

Dave Tyler and Becky Weed raise grass-fed sheep in a predator-friendly fashion on one of the oldest homestead sites in Montana’s Gallatin Valley.