Science suggests that improving soil health can bring taste and nutrient density back to our food.

​You see the red, tempting slice of delicious on your sandwich. It was labeled “tomato” in the produce section of the supermarket where you picked it up. It certainly looks like a tomato and even has the faint, familiar smell of tomato. But after just one bite, your taste buds aren’t buying it. Meh. Blah. It might as well be a slice of water-filled balloon for all the flavor it offers. 
This reaction seems to be increasingly familiar. And it’s not just the tomatoes that betray our sense of taste and smell. When it comes to most commercially grown fruits, vegetables, and meats, consumers across the country are increasingly asking, “Where has all the flavor gone?” Have our taste buds been dulled, or is something more nefarious stealing the taste from our food?
 Science suggests it’s probably not the food itself, but how we grow the food that matters most when it comes to increasing taste and nutrition. Research now shows that what passes as food and what actually tastes like food is most affected by a secret that’s hidden under foot. 
 For some time, we’ve known that a single teaspoon of healthy soil contains more life (bacteria, protozoa, fungi, nematodes, worms, etc.) than there are people on the planet. The soil biome is the single largest on earth, but is among the least understood. This mostly unseen and largely underappreciated ecosystem is responsible for all terrestrial life. 
Simply put, without our living soil, there would be no “us” or any other terra firma creatures roaming about.
 Today, scientists exploring this subterranean frontier are working not only to identify the microscopic organisms that make up this elegant ecosystem, but also to more fully understand the complex interactions and symbiosis between these organisms, the plants they feed, and the plants and animals that ultimately feed us. 

Read all about  An Introduction to Regenerative Agriculture
By Ron Nichols in our current edition. Order your copy today - quantites are limited!
Source: Soil Health Academy

We are honored to pay tribute to Frank and Jeanne Moore now married for 76 years - this is a story of love and dedication between  two inspirational conservationists and American heroes. 

Above: John Waller, Founder, Uncage the Soul Productions, sharing copies with Frank and Jeanne Moore.

Few Oregonians have had a more profound, positive influence on so many of their fellows in the Beaver State than Frank and Jeanne. This remarkable couple have been a role model to hundreds if not thousands of people over their decades of effort to protect Oregon outdoor treasures like the North Umpqua River. Rarely is there a time when they don’t have guests visiting — often from other states or Europe. Sharing conversation, meals, time on the water with a rod in hand. Looking for wildflowers in the woods. Casting lessons in Frank’s pond. Numerous Veteran’s Day parades. Frank and Jeanne are the centerpiece of all these activities, and more. 

"When dad returned from Germany, they moved to Roseburg, where they bought a cafe they renamed Moore’s Sportsman’s Cafe," says their daughter, Colleen.  "They owned it until the 1950s".  Frank would drive from Roseburg to the Steamboat Lodge, on the North Umpqua River, (then owned by Clarence Gordon), and guide some of the guests.  There is a story that some of the employees at the his cafe put a missing person’s ad in the paper saying he was last seen heading up the river! 

Frank proceeded to turn his passion for steelhead fishing into a profession and eventually bought the Steambaot Lodge and renamed it the Steamboat Inn. This locale has been a mainstay of the steelhead fishing experience on the North Umpqua since the early 1950s. 

Today, The Frank and Jeanne Moore Wild Steelhead Sanctuary on Oregon’s North Umpqua River designates approximately 100,000 acres of public lands in some of the best remaining wild steelhead spawning areas in the Pacific Northwest. It pairs a legendary river, treasured by Oregonians and frequented by thousands of foreign visitors yearly, with two inspirational conservationists and American heroes.

Frank and Jeanne Moore bind the people of the North Umpqua to its natural bounty. As stewards of the North Umpqua, Frank and Jeanne embody the resilience and grace of the landscape itself.  Their life together is documented in the film Mending the Line, and Frank was the subject of an OPB Field Guide special.

In World War II, Frank Moore stormed the beaches of Normandy along with 150,000 troops during the D-Day Allied invasion and was awarded the Chevalier of the French Legion of Honor for his bravery. He returned home after the war, started a family, and pursued his passion of fishing on the winding rivers in Oregon.

For 20 years, Frank and Jeanne ran the legendary Steamboat Inn on the banks of the North Umpqua. Frank served on the State of Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission from 1971 to 1974. He has been recognized for his conservation work with the National Wildlife Federation Conservationist of the Year award, the Wild Steelhead Coalition Conservation Award, and his 2010 induction into the Fresh Water Fishing Hall of Fame.

Jeanne Moore is a self-taught botanical expert who has spent her life identifying the myriad native plant species in the Steamboat Creek watershed. Her discovery of rare plants in the Limpy Rock area of the Umpqua National Forest in the 1970s led the U.S. Forest Service to declare 1,800 acres of land a Natural Research Area. 

The sanctuary proposal elevates steelhead as a management priority on high conservation value lands and waters in the Steamboat Creek watershed. The watershed provides over 50 river and stream miles of some of the most important habitat in the region for summer and winter steelhead, spring Chinook, coho salmon, rainbow trout, and other native species.

It serves as one of the few remaining cold water refuges for summer steelhead, which migrate from the main North Umpqua River to the cooler waters of Steamboat and Canton creeks in the summer months and hold in specific pools until the fall rains arrive. The Big Bend Pool of Steamboat Creek is one of the few places in the world where people can easily view hundreds of summer steelhead that use the pool as a refuge from warmer stream temperatures. 

Some places should stay wild forever. Thanks to the people and organizations that know the importance of the North Umpqua, we can take heart that this river will remain the storied stream it’s always been: a place of tenacious wild fish, emerald water, and ancient forests open to all. •
Sources: 
Western Rivers Conservancy
Dean Finnerty, a wild steelhead initiative manager for Trout Unlimited.
Photos and video by John Waller, Uncage the Soul Productions

Read more about the North Umqua River and the Steamboat Inn in our current edition - order your copy online today!
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Mending the Line is the extraordinary story of Frank Moore, WWII veteran and fly-fishing legend, returning to Normandy with his wife to fish the rivers he saw as a soldier in World War II. In 1944 Frank landed along with some 150,000 other troops on the beaches of Normandy, France for the D-Day allied invasion. Despite the cacophony of war around him, the young avid fly fisherman couldn’t help but notice the productive fisheries on the rivers he and his fellow troops crossed as they made their way into occupied France.  In 2015, Uncage the Soul Productions, along with over 500 crowdfunding backers, realized Frank’s lifelong dream of casting a fly onto these serene French rivers. 

John Waller, producer of  Mending the Line, grew up near the North Umpqua River.  One of his first summer jobs was picking blackberries for the Steamboat Inn.  John met Frank and Jeanne in 2013 while producing a series of short tourism videos about fly-fishing on the North Umpqua River.