Hedgerow Farms

Our Great Valley Phacelia (P. ciliata) fields at Hedgerow Farms are starting to bloom and attract pollinators. Want to see them for yourselves? Register now for our annual field day on April 4th, a fundraiser for the CA Native Grasslands Association! https://cnga.org/Events

Registration is now open for our 17th Annual Field Day at Hedgerow Farms on April 4th, put on by the CA Native Grasslands Association! Check out this recap video from last year and snag your spot at https://cnga.org/ .NativeSeed Group

If there’s anything we can take away from the last year, it’s that our community is everything. Last year we hosted over 1,000 visitors to our farm, strengthening our network of passionate conservationists. Check out some of our favorite moments from last year’s tours, which included groups from universities, agencies, nonprofits and the public.

Thank you California Climate & Agriculture Network (CalCAN) for capturing these photos from October! We loved hosting this group of producers, researchers and advocates for native habitat restoration on agricultural land. Hedgerow Farms NativeSeed Group

Based on the best available science, we are proposing to list the monarch butterfly as threatened with species specific protections and flexibilities to encourage conservation under section 4(d) of the Endangered Species Act. We are also proposing to designate critical habitat at the overwintering grounds in California. Through spring 2025, we are gathering public comments and encourage the submission of any new information. Over the rest of the year, we will analyze these comments and issue a final decision. Comments submitted on this social post, do not count toward these public comments. Public comments must be submitted officially via the link below. Photo of monarch on blooming swamp milkweed by Jim Hudgins/USFWS

Last week the restoration community celebrated the historic levee breach for a 3,000 acre tidal wetland restoration project at Lookout Slough. At Hedgerow Farms we have been preparing for this moment as well! In 2021 we collected seed from several species in the remnant habitat at Lookout Slough, including CA Hibiscus (Hibiscus lasiocarpos var. occidentalis). We have been growing these plants in our production fields to amplify this small collection into hundreds of pounds of seed. Now that the levee has been breached, some of this seed will be planted right back into this newly restored environment. This rare native perennial herb grows in marshes and wet places, so we are looking forward to seeing it thrive in this California Department of Water Resources project! NativeSeed Group

Proud to be featured by the Yurok Tribe's Senior Riparian Ecologist, Joshua Chenoweth, in a recent presentation on the Klamath River Revegetation Project to the California Native Plant Society. Over the last 8 years, we have collected and grown many of the native species that were planted after the Klamath dam removal. These have included Asclepias speciosa, Croton setigerus, Lupinus microcarpus, Amsinckia menziesii, and Hordeum brachyantherum. Check out this beautiful photo of the CA poppies we grew thriving after dam removal. For this project we also provided over 1800 lbs of CA poppy seed! Watch the webinar here: https://lnkd.in/gahfpuMg NativeSeed Group

This morning we got to host the Yocha Dehe Wintun Nation, Yolo RCD, Center for Land-Based Learning, and Putah Creek Council at Hedgerow Farms! We took at look at the future site of a new 1,000-ft native hedgerow that will be installed this fall by high school students and volunteers. We are so grateful for this partnership and looking forward to creating even more habitat alongside our production fields.

I am constantly impressed by the dedication & expertise of the people who produce native seed for restoration. Most of our staff at Hedgerow Farms and NativeSeed Group have spent 20+ years working with us, learning through trial & error how to collect, grow, and clean over 400 species of native plants. It is such a pleasure to work with and learn from them!

How do we meet the demand for native seed as ecological restoration projects increase in ambition and scale? It's not just about collecting and growing the seed, it's also about making sure it is free of weeds and clean enough to ethically plant back into our wildlands. At Hedgerow Farms we clean up to 2000 lbs of native seed every day. Through decades of trial and error, we have figured out how to use traditional agricultural equipment (meant for cleaning wheat, barley, etc) to clean over 400 species of native grasses, shrubs and wildflowers. Check it out this short video made by Rhizo Media highlighting our state-of-the-art cleaning facilities. NativeSeed Group