Owens Farm Community Engagement

By Silvia Arizmendi and Barton Robison

Photo provided by Meredith Petit

Over the summer, we were honored to host Silvia Arizmendi for one of our Health & Outdoors fellowships. Silvia, a Public Health major at Oregon State University, was working with community partners in Corvallis on a planned universal access trail. Alongside our friends at Greenbelt Land Trust, Silvia interviewed local community members about their experiences in nature, their favorite things to do outside, and what would make them want to visit the new trail once it’s constructed.

After the interviews, we got to participate in some group outings, rambling through Owens Farm with a diversity of people to get some in-person reactions to the space. Our end product is the Owens Farm Community Engagement Report, which you can check out here.

This is just one step in a broader community engagement effort the Owens Farm partners are taking this year to ensure community participation in the design of the trail system. We couldn’t be more proud to be a small part of the project, and we couldn’t be more proud of the awesome work Silvia did over the summer!