OAEC’s Response to Covid-19

updated August 2020

We at the Occidental Arts & Ecology Center are working to make a safe, proactive, and appropriately-scaled response and are committed to following state and county guidelines to prevent the spread of coronavirus. Keeping our program participants, guests, residents, volunteers, neighbors, and staff members safe is our highest priority and we acknowledge the dynamic and unknown nature of these conditions.  Below, you will find information about what we are doing and how this is affecting our programs and on-site activities.

• The Mother Garden Nursery is OPEN for physically distanced shopping on weekends Saturday – Sunday 10am-5pm now through October.

At the beginning of shelter-in-place, we offered online orders with curbside pickup, but since receiving the go ahead from county health officials, we re-opened our nursery for physically distanced plant shopping and discontinued on-line sales. Please wear a mask, wash/sanatitize your hands frequently, and maintain 6 feet of distance between you and other customers. Do not show up to the nursery if you are experiencing symptoms or if you have been in contact with someone who is ill.

•  As has always been our policy, the main OAEC site and gardens are not open to the public for drop-in visitors at any time.

Except for the nursery specific business hours listed above, OAEC is closed.

• All 2020 courses and retreats are cancelled.

OAEC has decided to cancel all of our courses and retreats, through the end of 2020, including the Permaculture Design Course tentatively scheduled for December. We will be reaching out individually to those who have enrolled.

We have temporarily suspended our normal cancelation policy for rentals and course participants. Any rental group or course participant wishing to reschedule or cancel their registration for a full refund (minus processing fees) may do so at any time by contacting:

Rental Program: Cooper Freeman, , OAEC Program Manager

Spring PDC: Jane Brelvi, , OAEC Office Manager

• Wednesday Garden Volunteer Days and Tours are cancelled until further notice.

OAEC has closed Garden Volunteer Day and suspended all garden/site tours. We recognize that the Mother Garden provides a healthy space for connection, beauty and restoration, so as this health crisis unfolds, we are hopeful that we will be able to open our gardens again in a way that is adaptive to the situation and safe for all.

• Off-site and virtual activities continue full speed ahead!

Our off-site staff are working from home and programs such as the Bring Back the Beaver Campaign, Movement Building, anti-pesticide and anti-plastics work and the Nicaragua Five Forests project continue adapting to the new realities of on-line meetings. While we deeply miss the in-person camaraderie, it turns out we can still get a lot done without driving so much!