California college to open “food forest”

LOS BANOS, Calif. — Merced College’s Los Banos campus on Friday held a dedication and groundbreaking ceremony for its Food Forest, a garden area that will be arranged with fruit-bearing trees, berry bushes and herbs along the area between the campus parking lots and the Los Banos Creek.

The two professors responsible for the project, biology professor Cary Coburn and English professor Susan Kimoto, were present at Friday’s ceremony. Also attending were Los Banos Dean Brenda Latham, Merced College President Ron Taylor, landscape architect Margarett

Harrison and Merced College trustees Joe Gutierrez, from the board’s Los Banos area, and Wayne Hicks.

“This piece will be a lot about environmental science – understanding how plants work together and, even in the construction phase, understanding how we can retain the water we have, the couple of inches we get each year,” Latham said. “Opportunities for education abound.”

The campus was selected among 54 environmental nonprofits to receive Wells Fargo environmental grants. Wells Fargo representatives were on hand to present a $50,000 check Friday.

Hicks, while supportive of the project, said he took issue with the process behind it. The dedication and groundbreaking took place Friday, but board approval is on the agenda for today. The project was made possible from $99,000 worth of matching in-kind contributions from the district, as well as the contract with Harrison to design the project. The matching in-kind contributions were non-cash, such as land and equipment.

Hicks said he didn’t know about the project until he read about it in the Merced Sun-Star.

“I’m not saying I’m against it. I think it’s a great idea. My vote will be public (tonight),” Hicks said. “But myself as a board member, I was taken aback that I had to read about it in the Merced Sun-Star, and as you see, we had the presentation