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Making education bloom Photo by Paul Fattig The nonprofit Pacifica Botanic Garden, taking root at the old Steve Miller ranch in the Williams Valley, will become a living museum and educational center, says Craig Dent. Plans for botanical center take shape in Williams By PAUL FATTIG WILLIAMS -- Ray and Peg Prag are taking the advice of the hit song by rock 'n' roll legend Steve Miller, "Fly Like An Eagle." The owners of the Forestfarm nursery in Williams are launching a regional arboretum and education center in the form of the nonprofit Pacifica Botanic Garden -- at Miller's old ranch. Though they have lofty goals, their work will remain solidly on the ground, they stress. "Some of the first things we need to take care of include getting grant money and donations, taking care of the soil, the irrigation," Peg Prag said. "Those things aren't very exciting, but they need to be done." Yet they are excited about the prospects of turning the 422-acre parcel into a botanical and education center in Southern Oregon, one which they hope will draw visitors from throughout the world. The site on Water Gap Road has had several owners since Miller returned to California more than a decade ago, including former Josephine County Commissioner Rebecca Brown. The Prags, who have been working in the nursery business in the Williams Valley for some 25 years, are two of three members of the board that will oversee the garden. The third member is an international businessman named Lee Price. The board is expected to be expanded to about seven members. The ranch's principal owner now lives in San Diego, and has provided an in-kind contribution to the project as part of the sale, explained Craig Dent, an Applegate Valley resident working with the Prags. When the land became available early last spring, the group began working to acquire the property, Dent said, noting the price was $925,000. Most of the funding is coming from an anonymous donor who lives Palo Alto, Calif., he added. "The money to purchase the property exists -- we won't have any indebtedness," Dent said, adding that includes several grants. The property includes several ponds, two dwellings, a barn and the sound studio used by Miller. This past weekend, the Prags met in a brainstorming session with representatives of the Hoyt Arboretum in Portland, and botany specialists from the University of Washington, the University of California-Berkeley, University of California-Santa Cruz and the rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden. The scientists toured the proposed Pacifica garden and took a field trip into the Siskiyou Mountains. "Rather than just bring on landscape architects and have them go design it, we wanted to know what we could do to create the best possible facility," Dent said. Adjacent to the ranch are public lands under the jurisdiction of the Bureau of Land Management. The group hopes to work closely with the agency as well as the Forest Service and organizations like the Applegate Partnership, a group dedicated to making the Applegate Valley economically and environmentally sustainable, Dent said. The facility will be a catalyst for a sustainable "green" economy, he noted. "But Pacifica will always be a neutral body," he stressed. "We're not going to be a political launching pad. There are enough people doing that. We are the middle ground." "It will be a nonprofit business," Dent said. "That may be offensive to some people but the fact is it will be a business in that it must be self-supporting." Long-term plans call for providing nursery plants that will be sold to the public, Dent said. The facility will also provide all types of classes dealing with plants, Dent said. "We want to move into things like organic growing of grapes," he said. "We want to work with local wineries so students can learn the production end. That would allow the winery industry here would have an available work source when these students graduate." The group also wants to work with Rogue Community College, Southern Oregon University and Oregon Institute of Technology as well as high schools in Jackson and Josephine counties, Dent said. "This will be a living and teaching museum," Dent said. "But we also want to provide jobs that are sustainable. We want to be part of this community in 40 or 50 years." A fund-raising plant sale featuring nurseries from Medford, Grants Pass and Williams, as well as tours of the property, will be offered from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday. The address is 14615 Water Gap Road. Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA