Volunteers with the Heritage Apple Corps are racing to document and preserve Central Oregon’s century-old apple trees planted during the homesteading era, using DNA testing, grafting, and community efforts to save these heritage varieties before they disappear.
The nonprofit Heritage Apple Corps has created an online registry documenting century-old apple trees that survived abandonment during the Great Depression.
To better understand the history of fruit in the region, the Heritage Apple Corps has launched a new Heritage Fruit Tree Registry, tracking heritage fruit trees—some going back hundreds of years.
Outback Films spent a fall work day with the Heritage Apple Corps, following volunteers as they cleared encroaching juniper and tended the century-old apple trees scattered across Central Oregon’s high desert.
A feature story on the Heritage Apple Corps’ work preserving Central Oregon’s pioneer-era apple orchards, including DNA identification of potentially one-of-a-kind varieties.
A profile of the In Cahoots collaborative and its work with the U.S. Forest Service to restore heritage orchards on the Crooked River National Grassland.
Announcing the May 30 volunteer restoration day at the Cyrus Orchard, one of the historic homestead orchards near Grey Butte now maintained by the Heritage Apple Corps.
Sixteen volunteers—now known as “The Apple Corps”—attended a four-day Heritage Orchard Rehabilitation and Maintenance Workshop at the McCoin Orchard, pruning 50 trees under the guidance of horticulturist Amanda Snodgrass.
Reporting on the November volunteer restoration day at the McCoin Orchard, organized by the In Cahoots Heirloom Apple Orchard Collaborative and the Crooked River National Grassland.
Introducing the partnership between School of Ranch, In Cahoots, and the U.S. Forest Service to restore the 1886 McCoin Orchard on the Crooked River National Grassland.
A feature by Deschutes National Forest plant ecologist Maret Pajutee on the discovery and preservation of pioneer-era apple orchards in Central Oregon’s high desert.
Heritage Apple Corps