Kodama Farm & Food Forest
Kodama Farm & Food Forest
Acres Preserved:
44
Year Conserved:
2020
Category:
Conservation Easement
Natural Features:
Through this partnership with Jefferson Land Trust and North Olympic Salmon Coalition, our goal is to provide an example of the cooperation between salmon habitat restoration and regenerative agriculture. By increasing biodiversity and improving the health of the land and waterways, our farm can work with the patterns of nature to produce food for our community.
- the Kodama Farmers
A Birds-Eye View
Tucked in misty Beaver Valley near Chimacum, on the east fork of Chimacum Creek, you’ll find 45-acre Kodama Farm & Food Forest, an organic and regenerative farm ripe with innovation.
Integrated borders of perennial plants and trees, planted strategically to attract pollinators and predatory insects, wind along the permanent raised beds, festive flower patches, and five-acre food forest — designed to emulate the layers, diversity, and nutrient recycling of a natural forest.
Wander into the geodesic dome greenhouse, heated passively by thermal mass and a solar-powered “climate battery,” and you’ll be transported to a lush, humid world where cardamom, mandarins, limes, and even bananas grow.
Beavers, birds, and other wildlife thrive here in the Chimacum watershed, and the portion of Chimacum Creek that meanders through this property is excellent rearing habitat for Puget Sound coho. Working with many friends, willing landowners, and partners including North Olympic Salmon Coalition (NOSC), Jefferson Land Trust’s conservation efforts in the Chimacum watershed span more than two decades. At Kodama, about half the property (21 acres) was set aside for a Chimacum Creek salmon and habitat restoration project led by NOSC.
This project may be the best example yet of our important partnership with North Olympic Salmon Coalition. Because of it, Kodama Farm is a place where conservation, restoration, and productive farmland work in concert to benefit people and wildlife.
- Sarah Spaeth, Jefferson Land Trust’s Director of Conservation and Strategic Partnerships
The Preservation Story
In Japanese folklore, "Kodama" are tree spirits that watch over forests. The farm’s original three founders, Matt Montoya and siblings Ben and Grace Thompson, chose the name to reflect their reverence for the interconnected diversity and health of old-growth forests. This model inspired their vision: to use organic, permaculture-based techniques to provide fresh food for the local community, while at the same time transforming the land into a sustainable, healthy ecosystem supporting plants, animals, and people.
In 2016, they began leasing the Beaver Valley property, living out of tents while they built, planted, and created the farm. Through creative collaboration with NOSC, and many friends and partners, the Land Trust was able to help the farmers navigate a path to buying the farmland by compensating them for designating some of the land as permanently protected habitat through a conservation easement, which also keeps the farmland forever available for agricultural use.
In 2017, NOSC secured a larger grant for work in the Chimacum watershed in partnership with Washington State University, the Jefferson County Conservation District, and Jefferson Land Trust. The grant from the National Estuary Program, administered by the Washington Department of Ecology and the Environmental Protection Agency, included funds for a conservation easement on Kodama Farm.
In 2021, with the knowledge that this conservation easement would make the land affordable and allow them to expand the farm’s infrastructure, the young farmers took the leap to buy Kodama Farm, setting aside 21 acres for salmon and habitat restoration.
The Protected Property Today and Tomorrow
Kodama Farm is a local model of regenerative agriculture and a testament to the hard work of its friendly farmers. Grace, Ben, and their team grow a wide array of fresh organic produce and also raise chickens, turkeys, and friendly Nigerian dwarf goats.
You can find the fruits, vegetables, and flower bouquets of their labor at local restaurants and shops, or stop by their farmstand in season (spring through fall) to choose from a rainbow of produce and purchase their signature goat-milk soap, ceramics, and more.
In the meantime, the Kodama farmers continue to work closely with NOSC to plan and implement a large-scale conservation and restoration project along a portion of Chimacum Creek. By re-meandering the creek and planting thousands of native plants, they’re restoring essential habitat for generations of salmon to hatch, grow, leave for the ocean — and return again to spawn in this very special place.
Jefferson Land Trust is also pleased to have been hosted at Kodama Farm during the annual Jefferson Country Farm Tour weekend for several years running.
More Information:
The Kodama farmstand is open seasonally, spring through fall, and they also sell their produce at the Port Townsend and Chimacum farmers markets.
