To serve as a center for education, scientific research, and a demonstration of regenerative agricultural practices, highlighting the critical connection between land and ocean health. Ocean Hour Farm will provide a living example of sustainable agriculture and land stewardship – an integrated system where plants, animals, and people sequester carbon, clean stormwater, build soil and produce food and fiber for the community.
Our
Mission
Working With Nature
Permaculture works with nature and considers earth care, people care, and fair share to create successful systems that are sustainable over a long period of time.
At Ocean Hour Farm, we design with nature because it provides the best examples of regeneration and resilience.
Our work centers on improving water quality, carbon sequestration, and soil biodiversity in our bioregion.
IMPROVE AND PROTECT WATER QUALITY
Water is essential to all life on Earth. As it flows and changes state, it brings together the atmosphere, the ocean, the land, and all life forms into a complex integrated system. Our planet thrives when the water flows naturally and cleanly.
At Ocean Hour Farm, we improve water quality by slowing water movement and increasing filtration opportunities. For our land, this means building soil health to absorb more water, planting buffer edges along runoff areas, digging swales and utilizing water catchment devices. Through scientific monitoring, we track the impact of our land management practices on water quality and quantity.
INCREASE CARBON SEQUESTRATION AND CLIMATE RESILIENCE
Carbon is a key building block for all life. But after too many decades of extracting and burning fossil fuels, humans have created an imbalanced carbon cycle – far too much carbon in the atmosphere and not enough in the soil. Regenerative agriculture practices take farming from a greenhouse gas emitter to a carbon sink.
Whether it’s year-round ground cover, layered perennial root systems, rotational grazing, or supporting communities of beneficial soil microbes, we trial regenerative practices and implement traditional ecological knowledge concepts to put carbon back in the ground while gathering data to understand these benefits.
ENHANCE BIODIVERSITY AND allow life to thrive
Above and below the soil, lifeforms naturally organize into complex weblike networks, not simplified linear chains. Complexity in soil biology is the key to a resilient ecosystem. A robust, functioning web benefits the flow of essential nutrients by ensuring that if one life form fails, other connections between life forms will continue.
We work to foster a healthy, resilient, biodiverse web of life by studying the natural presence of microbes in the soil and encouraging growth through compost applications and mushroom cultivation.
Regenerative Agriculture Demonstration
Regenerative land management is at the heart of Ocean Hour Farm. Our land management plan integrates plant, animal, and human systems to sequester carbon, manage stormwater runoff, promote healthy soils, and enhance biodiversity.
We trial regenerative land management and agriculture concepts that have potential value for our bioregion and share what we learn so that success can be replicated and failures avoided.
Scientific Research
Ocean Hour Farm’s onsite scientific research includes ecological monitoring to create a baseline data collection to understand how our land management practices benefit water quality, soil health, and carbon sequestration capabilities.
We also collaborate with education and research institutions to explore climate change impacts, resilience, and how we can benefit ocean health through soil improvements.
Community education and engagement
Ocean Hour Farm collaborates with youth, community leaders, and land stewards through experiential programs and long-term partnerships focusing on soil health, watershed science, regenerative agriculture and whole systems design.
We aim to build ecoliteracy and systems thinking for all, with the long-term vision of protecting the soil and ocean by creating a more sustainable and healthy community.
