About Us

The Heritage Apple Corps is led by a small team of dedicated volunteers committed to preserving Central Oregon’s pioneer-era apple orchards for future generations.

The Heritage Apple Corps grew out of a community effort to document and preserve the pioneer-era apple orchards of the Crooked River National Grassland. In 2023, the Jefferson County Historical Society partnered with the effort to support preservation of these historic orchards.

In 2024, every fruit tree in the Grassland’s historic orchards was geo-tagged and mapped, and the first community volunteer workdays were held in the spring and fall, drawing orchard owners, U.S. Forest Service staff, arborists, and journalists to clear deadwood and reduce wildfire risk on the orchard floor. Around the same time, DNA identification of the trees began through partnerships with the Forest Service and Washington State University, and grafted material from the orchards was established at the Clarno Historic Apple Preservation Arboretum.

In March 2025, the first Heritage Orchard Rehabilitation and Maintenance Workshop was held at McCoin Orchard, where sixteen participants pruned 50 trees and began discussions on a long-term Orchard Management Plan. Forest Service partnerships with the Heart of Oregon Youth Corps and the Oregon Youth Challenge Program brought youth crews in to remove the resulting piles of cut wood. In June 2025, the group became a project under the School of Ranch, a local 501(c)(3), which enabled it to pursue grants and accept tax-deductible donations. In November, the organization held a field day at the historic Cyrus Orchard.

In January 2026, the organization launched the Heritage Fruit Tree Registry, an online database of heritage fruit trees across Central Oregon. That March it held two workshops, one on orchard rehabilitation and maintenance and one on grafting and propagation, through which volunteers propagated more than 80 scions from heritage trees. In May 2026, the Heritage Apple Corps left the School of Ranch and became formally fiscally sponsored by Discover Your Northwest, a 501(c)(3). That spring, the organization collected DNA samples from 150 trees and, working with the Forest Service, began developing a formal Orchard Management Plan for the Crooked River National Grassland orchards.