Hedgerow Farms: The Restorative Power of Native Seeds¹

Stop by Hedgerow Farms in California's Central Valley and feast your eyes on a colorful expanse of native wildflowers. Stay a while, and you'll learn that these plants aren't grown for their beauty, but for their seeds, which are destined for ecosystem restoration projects statewide. You see, native plants help stabilize soil, block flammable invasive grasses, and sequester carbon, making them critical for revitalizing wildfire-ravaged regions, lost wetlands, and abandoned farmland. Native seeds are crucial for this work, and Hedgerow—California's longest-running native seed farm—is one of the few in the state supplying them.

The farm grows around 400 species of native plants from wild seeds its seed-collection experts gather from marshes, deserts, grasslands, and forests, facilitating restoration of hundreds of thousands of acres. Hedgerow's farm workers, uniquely skilled at gathering, growing, and preparing the seeds, are "some of the most important and irreplaceable people" working in California ecosystem restoration efforts, said Julia Michaels, a restoration ecologist at the farm. And the work is meaningful for those who do it. As one Hedgerow seed-cleaning specialist put it: "If one can play a small part in a larger effort, I think that's beautiful." We agree.

Denver Urban Gardens: Planting "a Cooler, Greener, More Resilient Denver"^{2 3}

The "Mile High City" may outperform in elevation, but it underperforms in shade, with some of the lowest urban tree canopy in the country at just 15 percent citywide. Linda Appel Lipsius, executive director of the nonprofit Denver Urban Gardens (DUG), is working to change that with a dual-benefit solution—food forests. Lipsius and her team have developed 29 throughout the city so far. 

These spaces, designed to mimic natural forests, feature food-bearing perennials including herbs, berry bushes, and fruit and nut trees—and their bounty is free for the neighborhood to enjoy, furthering DUG's mission of increasing fresh-food access. Agroforests also clean and cool the air, filtering and absorbing pollutants, and DUG’s spaces routinely measure five to 15 degrees cooler than the surrounding area.^{4 5} Despite recent setbacks due to federal funding cuts, DUG remains committed to the project’s long-term goal.⁶ Someday, they hope that when in Denver, "you can be anywhere in the city and be pretty close to a food forest."

Spirit of the Sun: Healing Soil with Mycelium^{7 8}

Spirit of the Sun, an Indigenous women-led Denver nonprofit, is training Native youth in the restorative power of mushroom mycelium. Executive director, Shannon Francis, created the "mycelium healing project" in 2021 in response to pollution from Commerce City's Suncor Oil Refinery, which disproportionately impacts the area's Chicano and Indigenous residents.⁹ Mycelium—known for its bioremediation qualities—can break down and detoxify pollutants, like those from the refinery, while building soil health.¹⁰

So far, the organization's youth leaders have created two mycelial "mother patches" under the guidance of local mycology experts. In the next phase, they plan to inoculate local residents' gardens and develop more mother patches, conducting soil testing throughout.¹¹ "When we're healing the soil, we're healing ourselves," Francis said. Healthy soil is "connected to our food, our ceremonies, our language, and our stories."

Spirit of the Sun also cultivates Indigenous foodways throughout Denver, runs a weekly food share, and focuses on youth education, starting at age two.^{12 13} Its mission is to “strengthen Indigenous resilience and self-determination” by honoring ancestral wisdom and empowering community. And, as Francis’s daughter told Civil Eats, they "empower Native communities one youth at a time."

"No one person can change the world, but one and one and one add up."
—Sylvie Guillem

References

1. Hampton, C. (2025, July 7). Farmworkers Heal Climate-Scarred Land With Native Seeds. Civil Eats. https://civileats.com/2025/07/07/farmworkers-heal-climate-scarred-land-…
2. Denver Urban Gardens. (2026, March 25). Food Forests - Denver Urban Gardens. Denver Urban Gardens - Cultivating Food, Community, and Climate Resilience on a Human Scale. https://dug.org/gardens-food-forests/food-forests/
3. Ramirez, R. (2025, September 29). Denver’s food forests provide free fruit while greening the environment. Civil Eats. https://civileats.com/2025/09/29/denvers-food-forests-provide-free-frui…
4. Air Pollution Removal by Urban Forests (U.S. National Park Service). (n.d.). https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/uerla-trees-air-pollution.htm
5. Ramirez, R. (2025, September 29). Denver’s food forests provide free fruit while greening the environment. Civil Eats. https://civileats.com/2025/09/29/denvers-food-forests-provide-free-frui…
6. Air Pollution Removal by Urban Forests (U.S. National Park Service). (n.d.). https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/uerla-trees-air-pollution.htm
7. Who we are | Spirit of the Sun. (n.d.). Spirit of the Sun. https://www.spiritofthesun.org/who-we-are-1
8. Nelson, K. (2024, March 25). Native Youth Learn to Heal Their Communities Through Mycelium. Civil Eats. https://civileats.com/2024/03/25/native-youth-learn-to-heal-their-commu…
9. MIT Solve. (n.d.). https://solve.mit.edu/solutions/90240
10. Camardo, A. M., & Camardo, A. M. (2024, July 8). Functional fungi: How mycelium can help remove soil contamination. www.cclr.org. https://www.cclr.org/project-highlights/functional-fungi
11. MIT Solve. (n.d.). https://solve.mit.edu/solutions/90240
12. Our farm sites | Spirit of the Sun. (n.d.). Spirit of the Sun. https://www.spiritofthesun.org/our-farm-sites
13. Food Share | Spirit of the Sun. (n.d.). Spirit of the Sun. https://www.spiritofthesun.org/food-share