Regenerate Wheat Ridge Marks 1-Year Anniversary

By Brandon Altenburg, Grant and Special Project Administrator, City of Wheat Ridge

Wheat Ridge Parks and Recreation (WRPR) and the Jefferson Conservation District (JCD) created the “Regenerate Wheat Ridge” program in spring 2021 with generous funding support from the National Association of Conservation District’s (NACD) Urban Agriculture Conservation grant program. Over the past year, the team has put on community Arbor Day and Harvest Festival events, hosted 7 free educational workshops at the city-run Happiness Community Gardens, convened local landowners, food producers, and industry experts to discuss the potential of increasing food production opportunities locally, and created a technical assistance guide detailing the efforts as a roadmap for other communities looking to undertake similar goals. The 2021 Arbor Day event partnered with a local elementary school, and the 2022 version will partner with a different elementary school and include a volunteer tree planting event along 38th Avenue, Wheat Ridge’s Main Street, with the support of tree donations from the Colorado Tree Coalition. The Harvest Festival was a standalone event in 2021 with educational booths, pumpkin painting, live music, food trucks, and more. The 2022 Harvest Festival will be part of a National Public Lands Day event hosted by Wheat Ridge and Jefferson County Open Space. Free educational workshops consistently saw 25-30 attendees and focused on different regenerative agriculture topics such as soil health, pollinators, utilizing goats, sustainable ecosystems, planning gardens, and a “Kiss the Ground” screening and discussion. These were a big hit with attendees and resulted in pre-registration requirements for 2022 to keep the workshop size manageable. Wheat Ridge resident Karen Berry, an active participant in the program, said “Regenerate Wheat Ridge is a unique project that connects people with the soil and the source of their food as well as with each other.”

Workshop participants

Workshop educational session

Bee-Keeping workshop

Harvest Festival 2021

The goal of the landowner-producer partnership component of this program is to increase regenerative urban agricultural production in Wheat Ridge by identifying eligible parcels of land and providing technical assistance to the resulting partnerships. The technical guide will serve as one resource for partnership participants, the Jefferson Conservation District has significant resources and experience with supporting landowners with conservation efforts, and the program has seed funding available to assist with the transition of existing land into food producing areas. “The Regenerate Wheat Ridge program has been a great way to connect longtime local gardeners and growers with new families interested in their local parks and positive steps they can take in their own backyards,” said Wheat Ridge City Councilmember and Five Fridges Farm owner Amanda Weaver.

2022 programming will again feature Arbor Day and Harvest Festival events, 8 free educational workshops, and continued facilitation of partnerships between landowners and food producers. There is also the possibility of supporting a community garden visioning event, which will invite residents to discuss what they would like to see in Wheat Ridge community gardens and potentially lead to the creation of a second community garden site in Wheat Ridge. The team is excited for another great season!

"Why Goats" Workshop

Growing Community landowner-producer partnership meeting