I learned a new word today.

But first, about my big brother Harper, for those of you who don’t already know. For the past couple of decades, he has been the leader of a very cool thing on the campus of the University of Oregon called the Urban Farm. As part of the school of Landscape Architecture, the Urban Farm has been a agricultural oasis on the edge of campus that has taught students from all different disciplines and backgrounds the basics and importance of land stewardship and food production. In its own words, “the Urban Farm is a model for alternative urban land use where people grow food, work together, take care of the land, and build community.” The place has been so successful and beloved that it has been featured in UO’s promotional materials; you probably saw it flash by whenever you watched the Ducks compete in a bowl game or national championship.

Recently, a guy you may have heard about named Phil Knight – the head of Nike and probably the most famous alum of UO – did a very generous thing and funded a new initiative at Oregon in his name called the Campus for Accelerating Scientific Impact. Its mission is, “to fast-track scientific discoveries into innovations that improve the quality of life for people in Oregon, the nation, and the world. The campus creates the intellectual infrastructure to establish Oregon as a center for both research and development, making Oregon a place where companies can start-up, grow, and stay.”

That is certainly a wonderful thing. Unfortunately, construction of the Knight Campus required bringing in a ton of construction equipment, which was staged on an unofficial section of the Urban Farm called the Back Forty, and which required the removal and relocation of numerous mature fruit trees and other plants. The university explained, “we regret that some trees planted outside designated Urban Farm space will be lost and are working to preserve a number of the affected trees.”

The irony of a “quality of life” development severely impacting UO’s most beloved green space was not lost on the students. In the spring of 2022, protests and editorials to Save the Urban Farm sprouted all over the campus. In response, UO’s College of Design facilitated a visioning process for the future, which eventually recommended adding a 60,000-square foot-parcel along the Willamette River “to accommodate displaced activities and provide additional cultivatable land” as a second section of the Urban Farm. After much discussion and politicking, and even more anxiety, the university eventually kicked in a million bucks to support the initiative.

So today I present you the video launch of something new. Take a look to get the whole story. And if you watch carefully, you will learn a new word, “HugelKulture” which I learned means, very roughly, the piling up of decaying wood and covering it with fertile soil, to create new and sustainable beds for future planting.

Part of the Urban Farm has died. But today, thanks in no small part to my brother, it is reborn.

It’s the coolest new thing at the University of Oregon. Presenting Urban Farm Riverside.