about Tryon life community farm
Willow Creek Forest School is a program of Tryon Life Community Farm, a 501(c)3 non-profit that runs off the 7.5 acre land. TLC Farm's mission is to "bring people together to root into relationships with each other and the land, by sharing tools for community-based sustainability and social change, and tending resilient ecosystems."
Along with Willow Creek Forest School, TLC Farm hosts events, classes, workshops and school groups who come and learn about gardening, natural building and more.
The Farm is nestled against Tryon Creek State Park, 650 acres of diverse forest with a creek running through it. It is Oregon's only state park located within a major metropolitan area and is frequented by Portland area residents.
On the land live 19 people who live communally and share the responsibility of tending the land.
Saving the land
In 2003, the land was a rental property until one day when the (then) residents were served with an eviction notice. The owners of the land had sold the land to a developer, who planned to turn it into a 24-home sub division. Over the next year, the residents of the land created a community campaign to save the land, and founded TLC Farm in the process. In 2005, just 1.5 years later, after rallying support from the City of Portland, Metro, the state park and hundreds of individual donors, the (then) 15 residents were able to raise the $1.4 million needed to save the land from development.
