New people means new ideas and new energy for A Greater Applegate
It’s a new season for A Greater Applegate. Co-Executive Director, Seth Kaplan, is retiring, but Megan Fehrman remains at the helm–along with new co-Executive Director, Angelique Stewart. We also have some great new community members on our board. Here they are:
ANGELIQUE STEWART
Angelique moved to Applegate Valley almost 10 years ago after making many trips to explore the area and its beautiful lakes, rivers, and trails. Prior to moving here, she was a writer, copyeditor, and project manager in a Silicon Valley marketing agency. Her clients included HP, Google, and Apple (and yes, it was as crazy busy and hectic as you think). That intense experience taught her the importance of organization and tight budgeting, how to coordinate teams and work with very different people who have a wide range of philosophies and skillsets, and how to approach every person and project with kindness, openness, understanding, and diplomacy—all skills required in an effective community organization. She is excited to work within Applegate Valley on issues the community has identified as important to them and to address the needs of rural Southern Oregon. In her spare time she is a textile artist and reads, hikes, gardens, and plays with her two dogs.
DON TIPPING (BOARD)
Don Tipping has been farming and offering hands-on, practical workshops at Seven Seeds Farm since 1997. Seven Seeds is a small, certified organic family farm in the Siskiyou Mountains of SW Oregon that produces fruits, vegetables, seeds, flowers and herbs, while raising sheep, poultry and people. The farm has been designed to function as a self-contained, life regenerating organism with waste products being recycled and feeding other elements of the system. Lauded as one of the best examples of a small productive Biodynamic and Permaculture farms in the Northwest by many, Seven Seeds helps to mentor new farmers through internships and workshops. In 2009 we began Siskiyou Seeds, a bioregional organic seed company that grows and stewards a collection of over 700 open pollinated flower, vegetable and herb seeds and is constantly breeding new varieties that we distribute nationally. Siskiyou Seeds produces about 50% of the seed at our home farm and then sources the remainder from a network of organic seed growers throughout the PNW.
Don is active in the Seed Stewardship movement and educates regionally on seed saving through the Seed Academy, the Student Organic Seed Symposium, Seed Schools and numerous conferences. He currently sits on the board of a new non-profit called Seeds of Light that is developing educational programs from Gap year students and workshops aimed at growing humans through their head, heart and hands.
Other collaborations include: Top Leaf Farm (Berkeley, CA), Ecological Farming Association (Watsonville, CA), founder of Siskiyou Sustainable Cooperative (Applegate, OR), the Family Farmers Seed Cooperative, contributor/educator Our Family Farms Coalition(Ashland, OR), Organic Seed Alliance (Port Townsend, WA), OSU Extension Small Farms Program (Medford, OR), the National Heirloom Expo(Santa Rosa, CA), the Ecology Center (San Juan Capistrano, CA), the Organicology Conference (Portland, OR), the Organic Seed Growers Conference (Corvallis, OR), and numerous other small organic farm conferences and organizations.
KIM ZWEMER-MARGULIS (BOARD)
Kim grew up in the suburbs of the East Bay Area while always dreaming of and scheming to get to more rural and wild places. In 2002, Kim and her family bought their home on Sterling Creek, two weeks before the Squire Fire broke out. They were evacuated for four long days to town with friends and caring for their 6-month old baby. In 2008 Shadowchaser of the Siskiyous, a wildfire ecology and local nature children’s book was released and so began her journey of educating others about our beautiful area and the dangers and benefits of wildfire. Currently, Kim continues to have a part-time private practice in Mental Health Counseling and enjoys gardening on her land on Sterling Creek. She is passionate about bringing the community together to enjoy our shared agricultural, cultural and social gifts and opportunities.
JIM REILAND (BOARD)
Jim moved west after earning a B.A. in Political Science from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He worked for twenty-five years in the 
contract furniture industry, holding positions in management, marketing, and training. After moving to the Applegate he began a second career in construction, specializing in energy-efficient, carbon storing buildings and rainwater catchment systems. Now retired, he continues to consult and teach. A board member of the California Straw Building Association since 2006, he developed a workshop program, managed a book writing effort, and now produces training videos. Jim has been the volunteer maintenance coordinator with the Siskiyou Upland Trails Association since 2009, helping to keep both the Jack-Ash and Sterling Mine Ditch Trails open. He has been involved with AGA’s Nonprofit and Business Working Groups, and is a steering committee member of the Rogue Valley Prescribed Burn Association. Jim and his wife enjoy hiking, gardening, and expansive views from their hillside home.
SETH MOODY (BOARD)
Seth Moody and his wife Becca Deysach own and operate a small herbal wellness products business, “Nymph and Woodsman Wellness LLC”, from their home/farm residence at “Full Bloom” on Yale Creek, Little Applegate Valley. In addition to his work wildcrafting and cultivating medicinal plants, product development, and customer sales and marketing. Seth manages facilities and maintenance for “Earth and Sky LLC”, “Full Bloom Community” and “Rise Up” artisan bakery. Seth is also an “LLC” member land steward for “Earth and Sky LLC”, the managing structure and land holder at “Full Bloom”. As well as cultivation of herbal medicinals Seth cultivates for seed a variety native perennial pollinators for the non profit “Understory Project” which supports ecologic restoration projects in the Klamath/Siskiyou region.
Seth enjoys growing “things”, searching for treasures (living and inanimate), finding creative solutions to challenging problems, developing skills for deep communication, inner development and living in community at “Full Bloom”.
Before moving to Southern Oregon in 2017 Seth worked at PAE (Portland/Eugene offices) as a mechanical engineer supporting architects and contractors in the design and construction of high performance buildings, primarily schools. He worked as a laboratory manager for the “Green Building Research Laboratory” at Portland State University (Department of Mechanical Engineering) where he earned a masters degree in mechanical engineering (thermal dynamics), as a Niihau dive master for “Bubbles Below Scuba Charters” in Kauai, Hawaii, a self-employed aircraft mechanic in Big Lake, AK and a medic in the US Army.
Seth graduated from high school in Newport, Oregon, class of ’87; in 1995 he received an associates degree in Aviation Maintenance from University of Alaska Fairbanks, Fairbanks, Alaska; and in 2012 he earned a masters degree in Mechanical Engineering from Portland State University, Portland, Oregon.
Seth was born in Corvallis, Oregon and was raised in South Beach (Newport) and Siletz, Oregon. As a youth Seth’s positive life experiences with the Boy Scouts in combination with growing up in rural Oregon provided him with a deep connection to the natural world, high integrity, accountability, openness and honesty. He continuously strives to actively and creatively balance ecology and the human-built environment.
