The purpose of Etzel Sugar Grove Farm is to establish an environmentally and economically self-sufficient farm using regenerative and organic practices. This farm models what the future of agriculture needs to look like for a more resilient and sustainable world. The Nature Center shares what it learns, and encourages others to adopt effective regenerative practices.

As a Champion of Nature and a leader in sustainability, Indian Creek Nature Center is uniquely suited to this challenge.

In February 2018, the Nature Center unveiled a two-phase plan to establish ecologically sustainable permaculture farming practices at Etzel Sugar Grove Farm. Phase I included certifying the 8-acre Frontier Co-op Permaculture Field as organic, hiring a full-time farm manager, establishing a chicken flock and planting perennial crops using permaculture practices.

Now in phase 2, we are:

Permaculture is an agriculture system that creates efficient, self-sustaining ecosystems, effectively reusing energy and resources as much as possible before they leave the system – rather than solely pulling resources from the earth, as industrial agriculture does. The benefits of permaculture farming include improving water quality, producing valuable goods for market, providing habitat for wildlife and creating corridors for their travel, sequestering carbon and other greenhouse gasses, and more.

Sustainable agricultural practices core to regenerative farming include: