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CapitalPress.com
December 18, 2015
People & Places
Instructor helps rescue ag program
Kimler-Richards
puts know-how to
work, rallies local
farm community
Established 1928
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Mike Forrester ..........................President
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Kathryn Brown
Sid Freeman .................. Outside director
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Corporate officer
John Perry
Chief operating officer
Western
Innovator
By TIM HEARDEN
Capital Press
REDDING, Calif. —
When Shasta College’s ag-
riculture program was on
the verge of shutting down
because of a budget crisis in
2009, Trena Kimler-Richards
got busy.
A former high school and
California State Universi-
ty-Chico instructor, Kim-
ler-Richards had been hired
part-time at the community
college a year earlier. She
knew a few people, and she
picked up the phone.
“I started calling anybody I
could,” she said.
Kimler-Richards helped
rally local growers, coun-
ty Farm Bureaus and alum-
ni around the 60-year-old
program, bringing overflow
crowds to board meetings and
persuading trustees to keep
the college farm open.
Today the 90-acre farm —
which includes a dormitory
program that immerses stu-
dents in the operation — is a
money-maker for its commu-
nity college district.
“Now
we
produce
show-quality goats, pigs and
cattle and we’re able to sell
them at a premium,” said
Kimler-Richards, 55, who’s
now a full-time instructor
and program coordinator and
advises a student leadership
club. “The products off of the
farm are actually generating
revenue.”
Kimler-Richards is quick
to credit others — including
the farm manager, B.J. Mac-
farlane, and former Dean Eva
Jimenez — for the farm’s
success. But Kimler-Rich-
ards brought her experience
in helping rebuild the ag
program at Red Bluff High
School in the late 1980s,
which ballooned from 80 stu-
dents to 580 in three years.
“I was familiar with this
program,” she said. “I knew
Capital Press
Trena Kimler-
Richards
Occupation: Agricultural in-
structor, program coordinator
Age: 55
Residence: Dairyville, Calif.
Family: Husband Laird Rich-
ards, son Kegan Richards
Website: https://www.face-
book.com/shastaagriculture/
Tim Hearden/Capital Press
Trena Kimler-Richards, an agriculture instructor and adviser at Shasta College in Redding, Calif.,
holds a goat on the college farm. Kimler-Richards rallied the community to save the college’s ag pro-
gram from the budget ax in 2009. Now the farm returns revenue to the community college district.
what it should be.”
Kimler-Richards’ enthusi-
asm about ag shines through,
said Kari Dodd, who took
over as the Tehama County
Farm Bureau’s manager just
before the college’s 2009 bud-
get crisis.
“She is very passionate
about agriculture in general,”
Dodd said, “but also she real-
ly wants to educate our youth
and the students at Shasta
College and provide them
with the skills and knowledge
they’ll need to further their
education at a university, or
give them the tools to go out
and start their career.”
Growing up on a ranch
in Grass Valley, Calif., Kim-
ler-Richards developed that
passion for agriculture at an
early age. Her parents grew
up on farms during the De-
pression, and the family hayed
and raised hogs and cattle
while operating an ag broker-
age firm and later a feed store.
Kimler-Richards was in
the FFA at Nevada Union
High School in Grass Valley,
and her livestock judging
team was national champion
in 1977. She later earned an
agricultural business degree
from CSU-Chico, where she
returned as an ag education
instructor and outreach co-
ordinator for 11 years before
leaving to be a stay-at-home
mother in 2002.
Today she and her hus-
band, Laird Richards, raise
horses on a small farm in
eastern Tehama County, and
she and her mother, Jeannie
Gallagher, market gourmet
cooking sauces and dressings
under the Antelope Creek
Farm label.
“We named it that because
Antelope Creek runs through”
the farm, she said.
Kimler-Richards worked
for a computer data firm right
after college, but soon discov-
ered “I couldn’t do the high
heels and three-piece suits ev-
ery day,” she said. “It wasn’t
me.”
She earned her high school
teaching credential and took
the position at Red Bluff High
School in 1985, teaching there
until moving to Chico State in
1992.
She developed her desire
to teach while in high school,
she said.
“I had really good ag teach-
ers who took an interest in me
and helped me grow and be
successful,” Kimler-Richards
said. “In college I was a 4-H
adviser. I just really enjoy
helping the kids, helping them
grow and develop their inter-
personal skills. The whole FFA
component was a big factor in
my decision to go back and get
my teaching credential.”
Kimler-Richards returned
to teaching in 2008 at Shasta
College, where she was re-
cruited to take over for an ag
science instructor who decided
not to come back. The campus’
budget issues came to light
soon afterward, as the board
was looking for places to cut
and ag classes were only draw-
ing about 15 students per class.
While the administration
allowed the college’s ag in-
struction to continue, the pro-
gram was tasked with raising
some of its own funds, which
it started doing with an annual
fall harvest festival that fea-
tured farm tours, locally pro-
duced food and beverages, and
entertainment.
“Eva Jimenez was the new
dean, and she said, ‘Let’s do
a harvest festival,’” Kim-
ler-Richards said. “She also
hired B.J. Macfarlane as farm
manager. Those two key fac-
tors really helped position the
program.”
The college suspended
the festival this year, partly
because the program’s new
dean, Michael Sloane, had
just started, Kimler-Richards
said.
Another event is an an-
nual Country Christmas
Fair, which raises funds for
the student leadership team
that Kimler-Richards advis-
es. The fair, which includes
Christmas tree sales as well
as craft booths and kids’ at-
tractions, gives the students
marketing, customer service
and event-planning skills and
teaches them how to work as
a team, she said.
“It is a teaching tool,” she
said. “I just kind of oversee
and coordinate. … It’s an in-
credible learning experience
for the class.”
The farm also has made a
sustainability push, dusting
off and refurbishing old farm
equipment and growing all of
its hay and grain to avoid hav-
ing to purchase feed. Today
the farm is on solid financial
footing, partly because it gen-
erates some of its own reve-
nue.
The administration also is
supportive, having purchased
hay for the farm last summer
when the drought diminished
the farm’s own yields, Kim-
ler-Richards said.
For Kimler-Richards, the
students and her colleagues
are like family, she said.
“This is where it’s at,” she
said. “Our farm dorm program
builds high-quality students
who have good skills when
they leave here. We definitely
have a family atmosphere.
“We take care of our stu-
dents,” she said, “and they
take care of us.”
Capital Press Managers
Mike O’Brien .............................Publisher
Joe Beach ..................................... Editor
Elizabeth Yutzie Sell .... Advertising Director
Carl Sampson ................Managing Editor
Barbara Nipp ......... Production Manager
Samantha McLaren .... Circulation Manager
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Washington farm offers more than Christmas trees
By ANDREA BROWN
The Daily Herald
SILVANA, Wash. (AP) — It’s the
proud home of Charlie Brown Christ-
mas trees.
Not all are perfect, but all are loved.
For about 40 years, Happy Valley Tree
Farm has offered 25 acres of unsheared
happiness to generations of families.
“People who want a big, bushy, sol-
id tree, they waste their time coming up
here,” said retired pathologist Dr. Clay-
ton Haberman, 93, who runs the farm
with his wife, Barbara, 83.
“It’s not like a Christmas tree farm
where they shear the trees and they
look like a hedge. I just let them grow.
As a result they are natural trees with
distinct limbs.”
Clayton is a distinct figure as well.
Decked out in his big coat and hard hat
festooned with holly, he sharpens the
saws that Barbara hands out to shoppers,
who are more like friends than customers.
“They go out there and walk around
and pick their tree and cut it and drag it
through the mud,” she said. “They do
the work.”
There are big pots of hot apple cider
and a crackling fire to thaw cold fingers
and toes.
Ian Terry/The Herald via AP
In a Nov. 28 photo, 93-year-old Dr.
Clayton Haberman sports a hard hat
decorated with holly at the Happy Valley
Tree Farm, which he owns with his
wife, Barbara, in Stanwood, Wash. The
Habermans purchased the 25-acre prop-
erty in 1968 and began selling Christmas
trees in 1977. They say this may be their
last year selling trees.
All trees are $20. Have been for years.
“I don’t criticize the people who sell
trees for $50 or $60,” Clayton said. “If
you want to raise those sheared trees, it’s
lots of work. I tried it in the beginning. I
like a natural tree. I used to have a flyer
that said ‘Happy Valley Tree Farm, home
of designer trees.’ People say, ‘Well, what
do you mean by designer trees?’ “
Designed by nature, he explained.
Deer damage and all.
“Deer hit them with their antlers
and break branches and they make
some of the goofiest looking trees,” he
said. “Every year a few people come up
looking for the most grotesque tree. A
Charlie Brown tree.”
Of course, it’s more than a tree. It’s a
memory cut fresh every year.
Clayton bought the 25 acres as an
investment in 1968, a few years after
he and Barbara were married.
“I think it was about $2,000 an acre,
if I remember correctly,” he said. “A
real estate friend of mine convinced me
I should do this. I hadn’t planned to do
anything other than to buy it and hold it
and sell it sometime later.”
The land had been logged with min-
imal cleanup.
“I didn’t know anything about
growing trees or anything like that, oth-
er than when I was a Boy Scout years
ago I planted some trees back in Wis-
consin,” Clayton said.
“I decided, ‘Well, we ought to plant
some trees on it.’ So I bought 2,000 seed-
lings, not knowing what I was doing and
planted them on this logged-off piece
of property. I just planted it amongst
all this slash and brush and everything
else on the property. All the other weed
brush grew vigorously and we lost all of
the seedlings we planted except there’s a
couple still standing which are now big
trees.”
The couple devoted weekends over
the next few years to burning brush,
then turned to the county extension
agent for help.
“He gave me some idea of what
should be done and how to do things,”
Clayton said. “I got the idea to maybe
sell some Christmas trees.”
A tradition was born.
Year after year, the couple planted
new seedlings.
“He carried the trees and would dig
the hole,” Barbara said, “and I’d put the
tree in and finish the spot.”
Year after year, people came back, fill-
ing the forest with holiday spirit.
“One group, the guy was the choir
director and he’d come up with a lot of
his choir members and they would bring
lunch and be back in the woods and then
they’d start singing,” Clayton said. “We’d
get churches come up and I’d give them a
tree. A big one.”
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Thursday, Jan. 7
Convention, Orlando Convention
Center, Orlando, Fla.
Convention, Orlando Convention
Center, Orlando, Fla.
Sunday, Jan. 10
American Farm Bureau Annual
Convention, Orlando Convention
Center, Orlando, Fla.
Far West AgriBusiness Asso-
ciation annual winter conference,
College of Southern Idaho, Twin
Falls, Idaho.
Monday, Jan. 11
2016 Precision Farming Expo,
Three Rivers Convention Center,
Kennewick, Wash.
American Farm Bureau Annual
Convention, Orlando Convention
Center, Orlando, Fla.
Idaho Irrigation Equipment
Show & Conference, Nampa Civic
Center, Nampa, Idaho.
Tuesday, Jan. 12
Friday, Jan. 8
2016 Precision Farming Expo,
Three Rivers Convention Center,
Kennewick, Wash.
American Farm Bureau Annual
Convention, Orlando Convention
Center, Orlando, Fla.
Saturday, Jan. 9
American Farm Bureau Annual
American Farm Bureau Annual
Convention, Orlando Convention
Center, Orlando, Fla.
Far West AgriBusiness Asso-
ciation annual winter conference,
College of Southern Idaho, Twin
Falls, Idaho.
Potato Expo 2016, Mirage Hotel
and Casino, Las Vegas, Nev.
Wednesday, Jan. 13
American Farm Bureau Annual
Wednesday, Jan. 27
Thursday, Jan. 21
Thursday, Jan. 28
Potato Expo 2016, Mirage Hotel
and Casino, Las Vegas, Nev.
2016 EcoFarm Conference, Asi-
lomar Conference Grounds, Pacific
Grove, Calif.
Thursday, Jan. 14
Friday, Jan. 22
Tuesday, Feb. 2
Oregon Mint Growers 67th An-
nual Meeting, Salishan Lodge and
Golf Resort, Gleneden Beach, Ore.
Potato Expo 2016, Mirage Hotel
and Casino, Las Vegas, Nev.
Friday, Jan. 15
Oregon Mint Growers 67th An-
nual Meeting, Salishan Lodge and
Golf Resort, Gleneden Beach,
Ore.
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Index
Wednesday, Jan. 20
Far West AgriBusiness Asso-
ciation annual winter conference,
College of Southern Idaho, Twin
Falls, Idaho.
2 years U.S. .................................$89.99
2016 EcoFarm Conference, Asi-
lomar Conference Grounds, Pacific
Grove, Calif.
2016 EcoFarm Conference, Asi-
lomar Conference Grounds, Pacific
Grove, Calif.
Saturday, Jan. 23
2016 EcoFarm Conference, Asi-
lomar Conference Grounds, Pacific
Grove, Calif.
Monday, Jan. 25
Oregon Blueberry Conference,
Red Lion Hotel, Portland, Ore.
Tuesday, Jan. 26
Northwest Agricultural Show,
Portland Expo Center, Portland, Ore.
Northwest Agricultural Show,
Portland Expo Center, Portland,
Ore.
Northwest Agricultural Show,
Portland Expo Center, Portland,
Ore.
Spokane Ag Expo and Pacific
Northwest Farm Forum, Spokane
Convention Center, Spokane,
Wash.
Wednesday, Feb. 3
Spokane Ag Expo and Pacific
Northwest Farm Forum, Spokane
Convention Center, Spokane,
Wash.
Thursday, Feb. 4
Spokane Ag Expo and Pacific
Northwest Farm Forum, Spokane
Convention Center, Spokane,
Wash.
Dairy .................................... 14
Idaho ...................................... 8
Livestock ............................. 14
Markets ............................... 16
Opinion .................................. 6
Oregon ................................ 10
Wolves .................................11
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