From Pasture to Forest: An Afforestation Project on San Juan Island

The Farm at Krystal Acres is a 42-acre alpaca farm located in a small bucolic valley with rolling green pastures on San Juan Island. Since acquiring the property in 2021, owners Anne Brahic and Jon Kusner have been transforming what was once a heavily manicured, commercially fertilized area into a thriving, diverse landscape. Committed to regenerative agricultural practices, Anne and Jon had already been planting hedgerows and trees across the farm when they learned that the San Juan Islands Conservation District (SJICD) was looking for a suitable area to implement a Garry oak afforestation project.

“We first heard about the opportunity for the oak restoration and afforestation grants when we met Cathi Winings [SJICD Forestry Manager], at a chance encounter at the farm during a local tour group visit. I was talking about multiple projects we had undertaken on our own, such as planting hundreds of linear feet of hedgerow, planting trees in our pastures for silvopasture and shade, and our desire to reforest some of the pastures. Cathi mentioned there were grants to help jump start and maintain some of these types of projects through the local CD. We started exploring these ideas a short time after that encounter, and after a year or so of planning, we got started on a multi-phase project of afforestation, riparian restoration, and more.”

--Anne Brahic, The Farm at Krystal Acres

What is Afforestation?

The farm has a familiar story for San Juan County properties, one that includes decades of intensive management that left the soil and landscape depleted. But the land has some beautiful, large remnant oaks, suggesting the area may once have been an oak woodland or savanna. The owners saw this as an opportunity to expand tree planting into a larger area in which they didn’t plan to use for grazing--in other words, afforestation. In contrast to forest restoration, which attempts to repair existing, damaged, or degraded forest ecosystems, and often involves reforestation (replanting trees on recently degraded forestland), afforestation creates new forest where trees haven’t existed in a long time.

When asked what motivates them to pursue conservation projects, Anne pointed to the interconnected goals of soil health, livestock welfare, and ecological recovery.

Figure 1: Garry oak tree at The Farm at Krystal Acres

“We are very interested in soil health as well as restoring and maintaining healthy ecology on the farm we took over from previous owners. The property was largely mowed and grazed pasture, some acreage that had been hayed for years, pastures that had been fertilized using commercial, non-organic soil amendments, and heavily mowed and manicured for 20-plus years. With hotter summers, we desperately needed shade for livestock on these pastures and didn’t want to add more built shelters, so we began planting trees along fence lines to create shade rows. We also started planting hedgerows along the roadsides to create dust, noise and visibility barriers for the livestock, as well as habitat for insects and songbirds. We raise honeybees and adding flowering, local shrub species meant more food for our honeybees as well as many wild species. We also wanted to reforest a few hay fields and shade riparian areas on the farm that were drying up faster than needed during the summer months. All of this would also hopefully improve our soil health and therefore our herd health too!”

--Anne Brahic

Project Planning

Formal project planning began in 2024. To better understand conditions across the site, thermal infrared and 4-band (red, green, blue, and near-infrared) drone imagery was captured during the month of August, typically the driest time of year. The imagery was used to map differences in vegetation stress and soil moisture, helping guide decisions about which plant species would thrive in different areas.

The project area focuses on an ungrazed parcel of about seven acres of pasture and a one-acre pond, divided into three phases based on soil conditions and funding sources (see Figure 2).

Figure 2: Thermal intensity map used to help understand soil moisture conditions

Phase 1: Garry oak afforestation on a 2-acre drought-tolerant site

Phase 2: A 1-acre vegetated swale planting with trees and shrubs suited to fluctuating moisture conditions

Phase 3: Afforestation of a larger area below the oak planting and the pond (in planning)

“From mapping out the phases of the project on paper, to species selection, to thermal imaging of the areas to check for water retention in our soils, the project has been a great learning experience, and we are excited to see the projects grow and mature!”

–Anne Brahic

In addition to the phased upland work, SJICD is also assisting with a riparian restoration project along Garrison Creek, a priority watershed for salmonid restoration in San Juan County. That effort expanded after Anne and Jon added an adjacent lower parcel to the farm in 2025.

Figure 3: A sea of wire cage protectors around the oak plantings will protect the seedlings from deer browse.

A Larger Effort

The Conservation District partnership is just one piece of a larger effort at Krystal Acres. Beyond what the CD has provided and planted, Anne and Jon have been investing in trees and shrubs on a remarkable scale and on their own initiative.

“We have planted thousands of trees since acquiring the farm, in addition to what the CD has provided and planted. The first few years before engaging with the CD, we purchased native shrubs as well as trees to buffer the roadside areas of the farm. We have also ordered large bare-root trees every year from a local nursery to plant in clusters for silvopasture and shade in our pastures, as well as along fence lines, roadside areas and more. This year, for example, we planted about 100 large, 8-10 feet tall, bare-root trees purchased from a nursery in Mt. Vernon. We also planted 1,000 smaller trees we received from the Carbon Capture Foundation. Every year has been different, but we have been planting hundreds of shrubs and trees every year for the last five years since we acquired the farm. This year, that number was about 1,100 trees planted above and beyond what the CD put in the ground!”

--Anne Brahic

Looking Ahead

With multiple phases already underway, Anne and Jon have no shortage of plans for what comes next. Riparian work along Garrison Creek will continue to expand, and they are exploring additional restoration techniques and plantings to further increase ecological diversity across the property.

“We have plans for adding beaver dam analogs to the Garrison Creek restoration area where we have been doing a large riparian project since adding that lower parcel to the farm in 2025. We have a Phase 3 plan with the CD for afforesting a large area below the oak planting site and the pond. We will continue to augment the hedgerows and silvopasture we have been doing on our own or with the CD. We are excited to watch all of these areas grow and become integral to the health and ecology of the farm in the years to come!

--Anne Brahic

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Funding and Acknowledgements

Phase 1 of this work was funded by the WDFW-DNR Habitat Strategic Initiative Lead using EPA Puget Sound Geographic Program funds.

Phase 2 and the Garrison Creek riparian planting was funded by the Riparian Grant Program, which is supported with funding from Washington’s Climate Commitment Act. The CCA puts cap-and-invest dollars to work reducing climate pollution, creating jobs, and improving public health. Information about the CCA is available at www.climate.wa.gov.

Special thanks to Skagit Conservation District for leading drone image acquisition in support of this work.