Farm Unfixed‘s mission is three-fold. We provide

1) restoration ecology research opportunities
2) residencies for visiting ecologists and land practitioners and
3) environmental science internships with local high-school students.

Farm Unfixed’s Teen Science and Art Internship connects West Plains High School students back to land and provides education on the science of managing healthy ecosystems. We observe deeply through field notebooks and drawings and conduct ecological research studies with resident ecologists, artists, and land managers. We have studied aquatic vegetation, water quality, and riparian edge effects. Some of our methods include butterfly transects, acoustic data collection, and plant surveys. The program site is a 140 acre parcel of grasslands, woodlands, and riparian habitat with 14 spring-fed ponds, the family land of director Jess Rath.

Interns build community, share responsibilities, and do team science in a relaxed and supportive environment. They often return to mentor the next cohort each summer. Our guest experts have included designer Jamie Topper, entomologist Merav Shemesh, avian ecologist Olivia Jenkins, and water remediation specialist Dalayna Williams. We are grateful for support from Metabolic Studios through the fiscal sponsorship of Ozarks Resource Center. And we would like to thank the plants and animals who welcome us back each year. For more information, please more details about day-to-day activities please see our instagram account. Any other inquiries, please contact on the Information page.

We work on Osage ancestral lands and are grateful to the diverse Native communities who steward Ozark lands today.