It was a sad moment in the history of the Noyo Food Forest”s Learning Garden at Fort Bragg High School on Sunday when they had to lock the gate this week.
“We always left the gate open so that people could come in and work when we”re not there. Some of our volunteers can only get here during off hours,” said Susan Lightfoot, a founder of Noyo Food Forest.
The now daily locking is a result of a thief or thieves who have been making life miserable recently for the community teaching and sharing adventure.
Fort Bragg Police are investigating the latest theft which happened Saturday night.
Lightfoot said the thief was only interested in gardening equipment. The same thief or thieves have stolen items from the Food Forest several times this spring.
This time, the thief took about $100 worth of lattice and disassembled a watering system, which was left behind in a hasty departure.
“We are taking this seriously and have contacted the police,” Lightfoot said. “We encourage anyone with information about this to contact the Fort Bragg Police.”
The Noyo Food Forest operates a Learning Garden at Fort Bragg High School. Thanksgiving Coffee in South Noyo Harbor has opened its property for the planting of a community garden by the group. Although the Noyo Food Forest is a popular local charity, getting big turnouts and plenty of labor volunteers, it has very little funding compared to many local charities with far less energy.
Losing any money or equipment hurts the Learning Garden, Lightfoot says. She works full-time at the garden with local students year-round and works in a restaurant at night to pay the bills. Several key volunteers also put in long hours.
Currently vegetable and herb starts grown by students are being sold at the Wednesday Farmers Market in Fort Bragg.
Noyo Food Forest is seeking a grant writer or someone with administrative experience to help.
Noyo Food Forest is hiring student interns for the summer. During the school year it acts as the agricultural program for the school district.
The group has more than a dozen regular volunteers and always presents new ideas related to local food, organic food and farming. The latest is for Noyo Food Forest to facilitate linking up farmers with landowners.
“We are planning a coastal farm network meeting in July,” Lightfoot said. “We hope to get a lot of people who want to farm and don”t have land together with people who have land they are not farming.”
The thefts and vandalism at the Learning Garden are part of a series of incidents that bear the mark of inexperienced thieves and vandals, seemingly without conscience. The Ark — the Humane Society Thrift Shop — was burglarized twice in one night recently.
To contact the Fort Bragg Police about the Learning Garden burglaries, call 961-2800.
To contact the Noyo Food Forest write noyofoodforest@riseup.net or call 964-0218.
