The Cedar Creek Corrections Facility Moss Project

Coordinated by: Nalini Nadkarni, Raymond Price, and Adrian Wolf.

In Partnership With: The Research Ambassador Program

Moss Harvest and Culture:

Collection of moss and other “secondary forest products” from the forests of Washington and Oregon is a growing industry for the horticultural trade. Recent studies have shown collecting mosses from branches and trunks of trees in the wild – particularly in old-growth forests – is NOT sustainable – yet collecting continues on an illegal basis. There is a need to develop ways to grow mosses under non-forest conditions, i.e., to “farm” them in order to reduce pressure on natural habitats.

Plants and Prisoners:

Working with plants can be beneficial for incarcerated persons. Exposure to growing plants can be therapeutic, and the skills learned in growing plants can be applied to earn money once prisoners are released. To date, no prison has a program to grow moss. However, mosses lend themselves well to the prison environment because their small stature requires the use of no sharp implements and they are extremely hardy.

Objectives

We have initiated an innovative moss-growing project at Cedar Creek Correctional Institution, Little Rock, WA. Our three objectives are: Investigate optimal ways to grow mosses for the horticultural trade by developing techniques of growing mosses and measuring their growth rates. Develop value-added products (e.g., small “moss gardens”) that prisoners can create that could build vocational skills once they return to the outside world. Communicate our results to the ecological community so that our experimental farming efforts might lead to reduced pressure on natural habitats.