Community food forests in US

Anyone know of any food forests on public land in the US?

I know that there is one in Seattle but I'm sure there are more around. Can we compile a list?

Demeter's Garden at The Evergreen State College, Olympia Washington.

I believe there is also a demo site at South Seattle Community College.

Seattle has more going on than just the Beacon Food Forest.
In particular, City Fruit has supported the establishment or renovation of fruit tree stands on public land. You can read about some of the orchards here.

http://foodforests.org/Main_Page is trying to compile a database of all the community orchards/food forests worldwide. Austin, TX has one planned and it received positive feedback from local news and the residents http://www.myfoxaustin.com/story/23106947/food-forest-planned-for-east-austin

Here's the Beacon Food Forest website: http://www.beaconfoodforest.org/.

This image shows phase 1 that Paul and myself visited and talked about in Podcast 291.

Lukas Martinelli wrote:http://foodforests.org/Main_Page is trying to compile a database of all the community orchards/food forests worldwide. Austin, TX has one planned and it received positive feedback from local news and the residents http://www.myfoxaustin.com/story/23106947/food-forest-planned-for-east-austin

That's a good list, though it didn't include this one planned for Helena, MT: http://www.insideedgedesigners.com/6th-ward-park/ or see this news article: http://helenair.com/lifestyles/montana-s-first-edible-forest-to-grow-in-helena-s/article_cdf8dfac-e6cd-11e2-9808-001a4bcf887a.html.

Olympia WA also has an edible food path and I and others have been working with the local parks to place fruit tree areas in some of the parks in the Portland, OR metro area.
John S
PDX OR

I'm not sure how integrated this is in the community, but I find it really interesting, especially for those in the northeast- http://blogs.cornell.edu/mushrooms/nutgrove/

The George Washington Carver Edible Park in Asheville, North Carolina. It's been around for over a decade. It could use a little TLC, but it's cool spot tucked just a few minutes away from the bustling downtown area.

I know there had been a kickstarter campaign to fund an edible park in Lincoln, NE as well, but I don't think that ever got off the ground, which is a shame. I'm guessing that's because of the surprisingly high pricetag they were shooting for.

Hello my friends,

We have a community food forest here in Kauai, we gather every saturday to tend to it.
Our forest is the fruit of regenerations seed bank and seed exchange that has been happening for the last 6 years, and malama kauai community garden.
RobCruz
#Permaninja

https://www.facebook.com/groups/kauaifoodforest/

That Kauai video is a great example of a tropical community food forest. Lots of the things you grow there won't grow in most of the United States, but will in many other places. We need to share this knowledge so everyone in all climates can figure out how to have good food in cooperation with nature. I also love how you humbly share that you don't know everything yet and you share ideas with each other. It helps the rest of us feel like we can try to start something even if we're not the most amazing experts yet. Great video.
John S
PDX OR

Although it may look very different from "food forests" in other climates, I think Brad Lancaster's "streetside commons" is an excellent community food forest. Entire streets are lined with native Sonoran desert food plants like Velvet Mesquite, prickly pear, chiltipine and more. During mesquite bean harvest time, neighbors and strangers show up to harvest the bounty. The pods are then dried and when it cools off (Oct/Nov), they get the hammermill out and grind the pods into a delicious, sweet flour with the consistency of medium cornmeal. This event sets off a series of mesquite pancake breakfasts (with prickly pear syrup) all over the place. There are competitions for cooking with mesquite flour and other native foods.

What's even better is that the urban food forest is grown on storm water which would otherwise run erosively off the landscape and cause downstream flooding in our desert communities (any rain in the desert can cause massive flooding due to our soils and the way our homes and landscapes are designed to SHED water instead of harvest it - craziness). The same trees that are growing food are also helping to alleviate flooding, providing much needed shade, cleaning water and building soil (they are legumes). Awesomeness all the way around and a true desert solution.

See more here: http://www.harvestingrainwater.com/2009/01/07/street-orchards-for-community-security/

A bit north of Seattle on Whidbey Island, Oak Harbor has a Community Food Forest going in. www.ImaginePermacultureForest.org. I've heard rumors about it for about a year now, and have been living in Oak Harbor since April but just found out the thing is just about right under my nose!

It's the white tarp to the right of the Motel sign and left of the spruce tree. The trap covers their in-progress Cobb bench.

I'd love to see the Whidbey Island and Seattle beacon forest ones in about 3 years.
John S
PDX OR

While these are both smaller projects compared to most of those on this list... There is a community food forest being planted in Manitou Springs, CO called the Zee Bird and we are planting one at the elementary school in Cripple Creek, CO--we don't have an official name for it yet as I'm going to let the students name it next year. I'll will get some pictures and more details posted here as they progress this summer.

Here is a short (4 minutes) video of the Beacon Food Forest

The Parks and Recreation Board in Bangor Michigan (of which I am a member) has been discussing starting a community food forest in one of the parks in the city. So far we have started small with raspberries, but are interested in building it up.

Don't know if you guys have listened to this yet, but here is Paul and Jocelynn discussing the Beacon Food Forest in a podcast.

There is also the Community Orchard of West Seattle, located at the South Seattle Community College campus.
http://fruitinwestseattle.org/about.html

I think this is my favorite reference of community food forests aka the conversion of Bradford Pear tree lined "Main St. America". I hope anyone that reads this, joins in Hats off to the Guerrilla Grafters!!!
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2012/04/07/150142001/guerrilla-grafters-bring-forbidden-fruit-back-to-city-trees

That is so awesome. Guerrilla gardening, guerrilla grafting, I love it all!