Moab Historic-Orchard Revitalization Project

The orchards on 500 West have a long-standing tradition and history in the Moab community, shading, nurturing, and sustaining families and others of the area for over a century.

With most of the orchards gone to make way for development, Our Village Community Center is preserving a piece of this local culture by expanding one of the last-standing old orchards at the Old Alger Farm, for which Our Village now serves as stewards. We have received funding from the Grand Conservation District for expanding this orchard. Over 50 fruit and nut trees have been purchased to be planted during a tree-planting workshop April 3rd - 6th, 2022.

Due to Moab's monsoon storms with extreme rainfall, this area is at risk for flooding. Working together with TerraSophia to create natural rain harvesting catchment systems, the land will be shaped to divert the flood waters into rain gardens, directing the excess water to be absorbed and used by the soil and plants. This will save potential hazardous flooding to the new orchard and to our new neighbors next to the farm.

We are seeking community support to complete this legacy project before planting the new orchard. We have a conceptual plan drawn up and we're working with a local contractor, TerraSophia, a full-service ecological design firm.

This project will not only help to honor the local history of fruit orchards, but will also serve as an education area for regenerative agriculture, how to sustain the health of our watershed and soil, and at the same time engage local community members through hands-on educational learning about our food source and ecological systems for generations to come.

We invite you to participate in all aspects of this project!