What is the broad impact of the OCCUH?

Aside from growing and harvesting a wide variety of plants and crops, the Oak Creek Center for Urban Horticulture serves as a haven for students and other community members that wish to learn about all things horticulture.  After being at the center for only a couple hours, it becomes evident that it has deeply embedded itself in the surrounding community.  Delivering vegetables to local food shares, performing research projects such as a bee pollination study, and employing a variety of green technologies.  In addition to providing valuable information to the horticulture community, the OCCUH also serves as a canvas of sorts for local artists and those interested in permaculture.  Many innovative projects have taken place at the center, such as an outdoor classroom with stumps as seats, and annual trials of many beautiful flowers.  One of the many goals of the center is to usher in a generation of students that will have learned the value of a solid hands-on horticulture education.   Organizations like the OCCUH lay the framework for a desire for fresh grown produce and reduce the need for commercial products.  The impact of the vast and readily available knowledge of the OCCUH staff is obvious, and students are extremely receptive to the positive opportunities it provides. 


For more information about the OCCUH, please see their website: http://groups.hort.oregonstate.edu/occuh

OCCUH's outdoor classroom

One of many experimental bee hives at the OCCUH