Veterans engage in forest work in Sisters

Jake Dailey from central Washington is a military veteran and founder and forester of U.S. Rake Force, which he describes as a mobile response team for biomass reclamation and carbon negative conservation services.

“We use regenerative and permaculture strategies to restore ecosystems and individuals.”

Among his services, in which he employs other veterans, especially those living with PTSD, are practices for regenerating forests to their optimum level of health with the help of goats to reduce hazardous fuels and noxious weeds (see related story, page 3).

The Nugget caught up with Dailey Saturday as he was plying his trade on Forest Road 4606, near Peterson Ridge. Aided by Adrian De La Rosa, a Marine veteran and operations and program manager for Central Oregon Veterans Ranch, and Army veterans Robert Shaw and Michael Robinson, they were gathering wood remains from a prescribed burn, hazardous fuels, to convert them to carbon-rich biochar, and reapply to the soil at the Veterans Ranch, located in Bend. The Ranch is engaged in a regenerative agriculture

project as part of its veterans outreach work. For more information, visit www.covranch.org.

It’s all part of a burgeoning movement in regenerative agroforestry. Dailey,

who served as a medic in the Iraq War, will return to the Ranch for Regenerative Veterans Day Weekend, November 11-13, where he will lead a workshop. In describing the movement, De La Rosa summarized: “It’s soil to soul.”