So you did send a note? If so, thank you. Let us know what, if anything, you hear back.

Some further context. It appears commonsensical to concentrate the great majority of the 700 Bud-9's in the safe hands of the HOS' grafting teams around Portland. Joanie Cooper should be picking them up this week and returning in triumph to Portland. These rootstocks come to us as the result of a generous non-charitable donation from Janet and Jerry Russell of Eugene. God bless their little cotton socks, as my mother used to say. If you play a role in HOS on-the-ground grafting teams, you may well find these rootstocks passing through your hands before too long. Keep those fingers safe, please.

As per a rescue purchase, yes, that may address one significant aspect of our challenge (though we would still need someone to manage the collection - please see my earlier posting relating to Austin Jones, the gentleman who will be making a short stay with the Botner's this very week. http://www.seedambassadors.org/avalon/n ... rchard.htm

In the off-list conversation which first grew up around efforts to tackle the Spearheart Farm conundrum, a core group of HOSers talked through a variety of options available to us. Will Newman, the Research and Education Director for the Oregon Sustainable Land Trust was involved in our early brainstorming. OSALT is designed to protect lands such as Nick's, and to support them in doing research and education centered around sustainable agriculture. If funding for a purchase becomes available, we do therefore potentially have the necessary legal and advisory support to make the process as painless as possible. Efforts were indeed made to secure funds for a purchase but there came a point when we realized we could no longer wait on the appearance, check book in hand, of a hoped-for savior. Grafting up the Collection as best we are able is a project we are now two-springs into. One further wrinkle to the tale - Nick and Carla's land abuts the Applegate Property url]http://applegatehouse.com/[/url], whose stewards are alert to our efforts, and to the pressing cultural and ecological imperatives of saving Nick's collection for posterity. Perhaps there may be a way of rolling the land into an existing non-profit which works well for both Apples and Applegates?

Gossip. I was at the USDA repository in Corvallis on Friday and was gratified to note that my posit that, just now, our bold little grassroots initiative probably amounts to the largest rescue effort of fruit diversity in the world, was confirmed by someone in a position to know otherwise. That nod, I sense, spoke volumes about a community of interest who have spent decades building the expertise, relationships, wherewithal and impetus necessary to make this vital act of responsible stewardship happen. Passionate orcharding, I tell ya.

I received the following from Michael Pollan's assistant:

Hello Joseph,
This is Malia, Michael Pollan's assistant. Thank you for your letter. Michael says his contact at Geneva has retired but he encourages you to reach out to them.
Best of luck!
Malia

Looks like there might be USDA grant money for such a project
Nelson County Virginia got one last year for Cider apple planting.

Has anyone looked into government money?

Apparently, I can't paste URL's as I'm a newbie.
Do a Google search for: Specialty Crop Block Grant Program 2012