Noyo Food Forest Earth Day event in Fort Bragg gains an even bigger and diverse audience

FORT BRAGG, 4/22/24 — The Noyo Food Forest’s Earth Day event, held Saturday, April 20, attracted 1,212 people through the gates, up slightly from last year’s 1,206. It’s a happy revival for an educational program that was threatened not just by the pandemic, but by the decline of the local food movement on the Mendocino Coast. The organizers were delighted and exhausted by the big, sunny event and by the increasing diversity of ages, ethnicities and politics, a primary goal of the organizers who started it back in 2006. This iteration was all about the thrills of spring, from topsoil to slow dancing. While cannabis was not offered or consumed on Saturday and the program bans all bud, that was where part of the money came from originally. Now a broader base of support has been found, organizers said.

The Noyo Food Forest Learning Garden at Fort Bragg High School revived the beloved but moribund agricultural program back in 2006 when Susan LIghtfoot and two other women created it. The first Earth Day celebration began with a hand-holding circle and a prayer from a Native elder.