News & Insights

In 2020, The Lumpkin Family Foundation partnered with the Savanna Institute and Canopy Farm Management on a ten-year grant to establish and maintain 250 acres of agroforestry in Champaign and Piatt Counties. Since then, the Foundation has contributed over $500,000 to this effort and outreach to local farmers, legislators, and the communities of East Central Illinois on the benefits of agroforestry integration. Now in its fifth year, the Savanna Institute has continued to build Hudson Farm as the premier agroforestry research and demonstration farm in the Midwest.

The 2025 growing season saw new row crop partners, their first commercial-scale elderflower harvest, and the return of livestock to the farm. In addition, the Savanna Institute staff welcomed over 275 people to the farm during the 2025 event season and educated an additional 5,000+ through public presentations, videos, podcasts, and media hits.

Their Story:

“One of the greatest joys of helping this farm grow and succeed is seeing wildlife return to the farm. This year Savanna Institute and Canopy Farm Management staff observed many new bird species including a great horned owl and bobolinks, otters swimming in the waterway near the farm, and bats that regularly visit the farm right after dusk. Sitting in the hazelnut prairie alley cropping is its own sensory delight with dragonflies, butterflies, moths, crickets, praying mantis, and all manner of bees and insects zooming from plant to plant. In just four seasons, biodiversity has exploded on the farm, and we’re working on research that can help us better understand the scale and speed of that transition.

Ecosystem Scientist Nate Lawrence has installed multiple bio-acoustic monitors, which record soundscapes in multiple locations on the farm. These recordings will be analyzed for bird and insect sounds to give a snapshot of who is on the farm when. This, paired with the other data being collected on carbon sequestration, water quality, and soil health, will provide compelling evidence, as well as beautiful sounds and stories, on the impact that agroforestry at scale can have on farms and in neighboring communities.”