What Land Stewards do

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Russell Kockx: We are looking at 30 acres of weeds and that's from the past 20-25 years the property has sat fallow and hasn't had any really work done to it. Through the Land Steward Program, we are working on bringing the soils back to life. In the Land Steward Program we created a vision statement. And so this is our vision statement and goals, the plan. "Create a family-friendly farm for our children to grow up on "and provide a little extra income for the family. "Utilize the property's 31 acres to provide a steady income, "reduce time away from work, and increase family togetherness. "Our goal will be to feed the curiosity and spirit of each child "by encouraging their innate desire to play outside, "rummage through the woods, care for animals, plan projects, "watch things grow, and build mud pies. "We will provide a neighborhood farm "where we extend the learning environment to local families "and encourage the prospect of 4-H projects "for all interested parties." Rhianna Simes: Russ and Tonya participated in the Land Steward Program 2012. They are a really great example of people who can significantly benefit from the Land Steward Program. The OSU Extension Land Steward Program helps landowners learn about how to effectively manage their natural resource programs through both site visits, mentoring, and volunteer community service. Each land steward is required to invest 20 hours of volunteer time in the community.

The Land Steward Program is necessary because in Jackson and Josephine Counties we have a huge influx of people who are buying properties and have either never lived rurally before, are inheriting property and they have very little experience, or they've been living on tracks of land or acreage but don't have a plan of what they want to do with their property in the next five, ten, fifteen years. Since the program began in 2009, 140 people have completed the training representing close to 5,000 acres of privately owned land. The OSU Extension Land Steward Program has had significant impacts in Jackson County. When we surveyed the Land Steward participants we found that 85% of participants have completed at least five natural resource management related projects on their property directly as a result of what they learn in the Land Steward Program. Oregon State University Extension Service is really the catalyst for this program. It provides support, infrastructure, administration, and the coordination of the program. Then we rely on a lot of different partners in our counties to be those content experts in most of the subjects.

Russell Kockx: OSU Extension and specifically the Land Steward class is a great resource and has helped us out a lot. It was a great incubator for ideas because some of the stuff we are going to be doing here I had never thought about until we took this class. And it's also created a lot of relationships for us that we go to for resources all the time or have people over and say, "Hey, how are you doing? "How are your projects going?" So we are in the process of bringing the soils back to life and creating a habitat for animals and creating a place where the family can grow.

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