At B Street Farm, a little patch of land goes a long way.
Coming to the farm for the first or fiftieth time, it’s impossible not to notice the beauty of the land or the feeling that it is a well cared for community property.
The 3-acre property is a little less than a mile from the university and is tucked away behind the Waste Management Transfer station and across the bridge over Gales Creek. It’s not uncommon to see the occasional chicken running around, or hear the “baas” of one of the sheep that lives there. A patio filled with an eclectic array of furniture invites any weary worker a respite from their manual labor, while near the back of the plot two gardens grow a variety of plants.
On a sunny day, it’s truly a sight to see.
Pacific University and the Forest Grove Community School use the property as a classroom, teaching tool and central spot for permaculture and sustainable learning so it’s common to see several students out and about or faculty teaching one of the many environmental classes that uses the property as a living laboratory. Rain or shine they will be working on any number of projects the farm is host to.
It wasn’t always that way however, and the farm has had to endure several changes and challenges to get to this point. And still it continues to thrive and grow.
B Street Farm started as a small local project that few people in the Forest Grove community even knew about. In 2004 when Pacific University art professor Terry O’Day was told about a patch of Metro land off of B Street by a friend, she recognized the potential of this land and contacted the Metro employee in charge of it, Laurie Wulf, about the property.
Eventually O’Day got Pacific involved and they managed to strike up an agreement with Metro, a Portland based organization that owns and operates land to promote sustainable living, to use B Street Farm for free.
Stipulations of this agreement are that in lieu of paying for the property, Pacific acts as a steward of the site by maintaining the farm. The lease is a year-to-year agreement that automatically renews as long as Pacific keeps up their end of the bargain.
Wulf said she usually visits the property once a month or whenever she’s in the area to see what new things are happening there.
“It’s really come a long way since Pacific first started using this land,” said Wulf. “There used to just be a garden and a field and that was it. Now there is so much more projects and student involvement.”
O’Day could attest to that statement. In the beginning of B Street Farm, she said it was mostly herself and a small group of people that went out to the property twice a week.
O’Day added, “Oh, and we had a handful of chickens too.”
After a while the farm began to generate more interest.
O’Day said she was approached by Pacific’s Service Learning Coordinator Ellen Hastay, who asked if AmeriCorps volunteers could get involved with the farm somehow. Then Biology Professor Deke Gunderson also expressed an interest in the property and soon O’Day and other professors were holding classes there.
“Environmental studies at Pacific was truly born at that point,” said O’Day.
Not only that, but the Forest Grove community school also used the property to teach their students about sustainable living.
In 2007 things took a turn for B Street Farm, as Pacific’s insurance company Waltz Sheridon Crawford and some administrators realized that they could be liable if anyone were to get hurt on the property. And with children running around from the community school and a large creek nearby they saw potential lawsuits springing up and wanted to avoid that at all costs.
“There was just a lot of confusion and certain events that got people thinking, we should make sure it’s safe,” said Pacific’s lawyer Monica Marvin. “Administrators at the time were concerned with the nearby water and lack of supervision.”
At the time, there was limited supervision on the farm, with AmeriCorps volunteers and Pacific staff unable to fully monitor it at all times.
To remedy this problem Pacific decided to assess the property and do a site inspection, which resulted in a full shut down of B Street Farm. No one was allowed in, which caused a lot of speculation and fear that the farm was down for good.
“Students were upset,” said O’Day. “A lot of people didn’t know what was going on and students weren’t let in to the meetings about the status of B Street Farm.”
The inspection found that the house on the property was too much of a liability and wasn’t being kept up to code so they had it taken down. B Street opened once again a couple months after being shut down, but this time it had fences around the land and those not associated with Pacific had to sign a liability form to get access to the property.
Marvin said that the form was an important part in opening up B Street Farm to the public as it gave the person signing it accountability and responsibility for their actions, which takes that responsibility off of the University.
Although some believe this restricts public access to the farm, O’Day would disagree.
“We’re always working on increasing access,” she said. “The farm is open five days a week and if someone wanted to have access to the property all they would have to do is ask for, and sign a form.”
O’Day said that giving minor’s access is a little more complicated. She said that parents have to sign the forms for their children, but all community school students receive those forms in their orientation packets so they will have access to the property upon entering the school year.
For now however, she is happy with what B Street Farm has become and her, along with several others, have big plans for its future.
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