Growing Oaks Project Update

This year, LIVE & the Willamette University Growing Oaks team have set a goal to collect 30,000 acorns to plant 11,000 saplings that will be made available for LIVE members & community partners. 

About Growing Oaks 

In 2021, LIVE learned about Growing Oaks, a student-led organization at Willamette University that was collecting Oregon White acorns then growing them into saplings to distribute to the community to plant. This effort, alongside other efforts in advocacy and community engagement, are all part of Growing Oaks’ mission to raise awareness of the keystone species that has great cultural significance in the area and is a host to over 200 species of native wildlife in the region. 

When LIVE learned about this initiative, we were intrigued and saw an opportunity to expand these efforts by involving the sustainable winegrowing community. As the majority of the remaining Oregon white oak population in the Willamette Valley lives on private land, vineyards play a big role in the preservation of these trees. Many LIVE members are involved in the protection of Oregon white oaks and have old-growth Oregon white oak trees on their properties (with many acorns to share!) Last year, with help from our members and community, we were able to collect over 40,000 acorns.

Why 11,000 trees? 

On average, the Oregon wine industry contributes to an average of 85,000 tons of CO2e emissions a year. As a thought experiment, we wanted to see how many trees it would take to offset these emissions. Based on the calculations of our expert carbon accounting advisors, growing 11,000 trees for 50 years would store enough carbon in our soils to sequester roughly 85,000 tons of CO2e emissions. 

Help us collect acorns! 

We are hosting two volunteer days this fall. Join us for a fun day of acorn collecting and potting at Left Coast Cellars. The more the merrier! 

• Saturday, October 5 - Register Here
• Sunday, October 27th - Register Here

If you have acorns on your property that you would like to collect and send to us, please email isabelle@livecertified.org to coordinate. 

Saplings available! 

If you are interested in growing Oregon white oak saplings on your vineyard or property, we are offering one free pot (three saplings) per member with additional pots available for a suggested donation of $10 per tree, which will be split between LIVE and Growing Oaks. Please fill out our pre-order form if you are interested! We will be hosting pickup days this fall with dates to come. Oak plantings are most successful in Fall. 

Thank you! 

Without the support from our community, this project wouldn’t be possible. Big thanks to: 

• Stirling Fox who has generously offered to host greenhouse space and planting support for 11,000 saplings
• Left Coast Cellars & Joe Wright for hosting our micro nursery of 5,000 saplings and to Joe for his help in managing this site 
• Recology Donated compost for 2024 planting needs 
• Highway Fuel Donated soil for 2023 planting needs
• Stuewe & Sons Donated 7,000 acorn pots