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There should not need to be a five hundred person staff studying the process <br /> of putting trees into the ground and making fruit. This is not rocket science. <br /> >There are community resources that may be already available to provide food <br /> >for the community. Mr. Mike Rimmer from Food for Lane County, 343 -2822, <br /> >states that there are many growers that have a surplus of fruit going to <br /> > waste due to an inability to collect and distribute it. With much needed <br /> >transportation, more of this already available fruit can be distributed. He <br /> >has expressed a desire to work with the City and he encourages the City to <br /> > become involved with the current program by providing much needed <br /> >transportation to gather and distribute available fruit from local growers, <br /> >and perhaps to provide funds for a volunteer coordinator to organize <br /> >community resources for the gathering and distribution of fruit. He feels a <br /> > better utilization of available resources is preferred over the creation of <br /> >new fruit orchards. Through Grassroot Garden, small orchards and large <br /> >local producers donate fruit. Last year 3000 pounds of a variety of fruit <br /> > were given by local growers and 10,000 pounds of apples form the Oregon <br /> > State University Plant Pathology Orchards were available for distribution. <br /> > With more contact, coordination, and transportation, this amount of fruit <br /> >might be increased substantially. Given these available and willing <br /> > resources, this approach may be the most cost efficient and productive way <br /> >to provide fruit for the low income community. <br /> This perpetuates a cycle of dependency rather than teaching self - reliance, <br /> requires the city to forgoe the secondary benefits associated with <br /> deploying fruit and nut trees, and misses the fact that synergies from <br /> a local fruit tree planting program will encourage interest in the other <br /> fruit distribution options. <br /> >The Urban Forestry Management Plan policy number 3 states "The City will <br /> >encourage citizens to grow trees that produce fruit ". An idea to implement <br /> >this policy is to have City staff work with the OSU extension service to <br /> >create a brochure about growing fruit trees. <br /> This is certainly a positive step, but doing a brochure need not forclose <br /> other fruit tree deployment options. <br /> > In addition, City staff can be <br /> >available to educate the community in the value and benefits of growing <br /> >fruit trees and provide direction of volunteer resources to assist in the <br /> >gathering and distribution of the fruit. By encouraging the community to <br /> >grow fruit, there would potentially be more available for distribution. By <br /> >providing direction of volunteers, City staff would be effectively using <br /> >community resources with minimal cost to the City. <br /> Coordination is good, by all means. But we should also have some city worker <br /> bees involved, rather than just city administrators. We don't need more <br /> studies and committees and reports, we need trees in the ground growing and <br /> progressing toward maturity. <br /> I mean after all -- what's the downside? If the program doesn't work, cut <br /> the trees down and chalk it up to experience. <br /> Recall that fruit trees don't grow overnight. If we are to make progress on <br /> this issue, we need to start with a vision NOW and aim at a goal several <br /> years in the future. <br /> Think about other cities and trees: don't you think of the flowering cherries <br /> in the springtime in Washington DC? How about the palms in Florida and <br /> Hawaii? What of the California redwoods and the monterey pines? <br /> Isn't it kind of pathetic that we, here in the heart of orchard country, in <br /> the land that's famous for environmental concerns, can't deploy a model <br /> Page 7 <br />