Denver, Colorado Bursts with Dozens of 'Food Forests'

A network called Denver Urban Gardens (DUG) is growing the region’s tree canopy through hundreds of community gardens and food forests, reports Riley Ramirez in Civil Eats.

The movement started in the 1970s with a vacant lot transformed into a community garden. “DUG officially became a nonprofit in 1985, and over the past four decades, it has grown and distributed more than 62,000 pounds of food throughout the metro area.”

Now, DUG has expanded its work to food forests, which, unlike community gardens, don’t charge residents for plots, instead offering free fruits, nuts, and berries to neighbors. “Beyond providing fresh food in neighborhoods that need it most, these agroforests reduce the urban heat island effect, create pollinator habitat, and combat pollution and climate change by absorbing and filtering harmful gases.”

DUG built 26 food forests in three years and plans to add more sites. However, the organization recently lost two federal grants totaling $850,000, forcing it to reduce the scope of its Dig Deeper Initiative, which would have built six community gardens and nine food forests in the working-class Denver West neighborhood.