ABOUT OUR NURSERY

The Forest Exchange is a nursery producing trees and shrubs for agroforestry practices.

We offer plants with exceptional traits for food production, habitat creation, and climate resilience.

We believe that woody plants play a vital role in a future that is resilient to climate change.

They help us to imagine abundant futures where food literally falls from the sky.

The nursery is located in Delaware County NY, on the north-western edge of the Catskill Mountains, in a valley where the Susquehanna and Delaware watersheds meet.

We have both spent all our lives in these two watersheds,

which have been tended to for thousands of years by the people of the Lenape Nation and Haudenosaunee Confederacy.

Agroforestry

Agroforestry incorporates trees and shrubs into otherwise annual agricultural landscapes.

The peoples of the world have been using these practices for millenia to keep their animals fed and shaded, their streambanks stable, and their homes heated, all while supporting thriving pollinator networks, and of course - producing massive volumes of nutrient dense food.

Today, the USDA outlines five key agroforestry practices:

windbreaks
riparian forest buffers
alley cropping
silvopasture
forest farming

All of the plants we grow are suitable for at least one (and likely multiple!) of these practices. We are propagating these plants to support farmers who want to adopt agroforestry practices on their farms. We're here to share resources and our experience as farmers developing our own 3 acre forest garden.

Even if you are planting at a 'backyard' backyard scale, there are things to learn from agroforestry!

Learn more about agroforestry from the USDA here.

Our Offerings

We offer bare root and containerized plants and hardwood cuttings from carefully selected cultivars. Some are named (Thomas black walnut, and Wyldewood elderberry for instance) others are exceptional wild specimens.

We encourage biodiversity in our nursery, including beneficial insects and fungi in order to minimize the use of external disease and pest management inputs.

You can purchase plants in our online store for most of the year. During the warmer months, we attend pop up plant sales and offer on farm pickup for containerized trees and shrubs. During the winter, you can purchase "bare root" plants online for spring shipping. We also sell wholesale to farms, garden centers, and landscape designers. The farm is not open for drop-in sales at this time. Sign up for our newsletter and follow us on social media for the latest info!

Some of the plants we grow:

Nuts:
- hybrid chestnut
- hybrid and european hazelnut
- hickories (shagbark, pecan, yellowbud)
- black walnut
- butternut
Fruits:
- american elderberry
- currants (black, red, pink, white)
- pawpaw
- honeyberry
- american persimmon
Silvopasture and other agroforestry uses:
- thornless honey locust and black locust
- hybrid poplar
- willow (varieties suitable for basketry and riparian buffers)
- oaks, (bur oak, white oak, northern red oak)

Visit our online store to purchase our plants for your farm, business, or homestead!

For wholesale inquiries, please complete this form and we will reach out directly!

About Us

The Forest Exchange is owned and operated by Cameron Wygent and Rhiannon Wright.

Cameron leads seedling production in the nursery. He has worked as a nursery tech in commercial nurseries, public gardens, and apple orchards.

He brings a deep understanding of northeastern forest ecology to the nursery. You're likely to find him in the forest studying the interactions between flora and fungi, or in his shop building a windsor chair, table, or banjo.

Rhiannon leads cutting production in the nursery, focusing on willow, elderberry, and currants. They are a fiber artist, printmaker, and a learning herbalist. Rhiannon is a leader of the Catskills chapter of the National Young Farmers Coalition, and is a working board member of West Branch Commons.

In the past, they have provided business planning support for farmers at CADE, a nonprofit ag business incubator, managed the Doylestown Farmers Market, and graduated with a B.S. in Community Development from Temple University with a focus in Sustainable Food Systems Planning.

Through The Forest Exchange, we hope to provide plants that will feed and shelter you and unknown beloveds for generations to come.

Collecting chestnuts in PA's Endless Mountains, Oct 2021