About

About Me

My research is dedicated to profiling community food forests across the United States to better understand the successes and challenges in the management of both the vegetative and social components. I use the Community Capitals Framework as a lens to view how community assets are used to develop them as well as these stocks (human, social, cultural, environmental, economic, political and built) are transformed, re-invested or created through the processes of a site. My hope is that the research will lead to best practices for future initiatives in this emerging trend in resilient communities. I will try to keep the website updated periodically until then with interesting information pertaining to community food forests and related topics.

I have learned first hand about a community food forest when I designed, wrote grants for, and installed one at the YMCA Community Garden in Blacksburg, VA.

A recently recorded webinar for the Agroforestry Center at the University of Missouri showcases the community food forest research in terms of urban agroforestry. The webinar has free access and (approx 1 hour) is archived here.

If you are involved in a community food forest, please feel free to contact me to share your information or find out more about my research.

~Catherine J. Bukowski