Triple Impact Nursery in Patagonia: Growing Regeneration from the Ground Up

Patagonia is one of Earth's last wild frontiers—and it's disappearing. Fires, overgrazing, and climate chaos are rapidly transforming this irreplaceable biodiversity hotspot.

Nearly a decade working alongside Doug and Kris Tompkins to create Patagonia National Park taught us something crucial: it is possible to create real change with our own hands. A degraded sheep ranch became a thriving protected area that now inspires the world. That success sparked a crucial question: What should the next generation of conservationists stand for?

Naturaleza Pública was born from that quest. We're ½ gardeners, ½ activists. We use native plants as a catalyst for change—restoring ecosystems, transforming public spaces, and mobilizing communities.

The Triple Impact Nursery: Infrastructure for Change

Our nursery is more than a plant production facility: it is a cultural and ecological hub that empowers Patagonian communities to restore their own territory from within. A place where human scale and territorial scale meet — weaving together geography, people, knowledge and nature.

We're building local capacity by:

Collecting seeds and propagating Patagonian flora with community members, strengthening local ecological sovereignty
Activating participatory gardens in strategic public locations, demonstrating regenerative ways of coexistence (already in +11 towns!)
Training the next generation—children, youth, educators, organizations and municipalities—in restoration and gardening skills

The Next Step: Making It Permanent

For years, we've operated from rented land with basic infrastructure. Our lease expires soon, and we're ready to scale. Over the next 12 months, we'll secure permanent land next to our town and build a resilient nursery featuring 50,000 liters of water-storage capacity, solar energy, 4 greenhouses for propagation and year-round classes/workshops, 2 hectares of native plant production, 200 sqm of demonstration gardens and a learning space for students, apprentices and community members.

In Puerto Guadal, where there is no high school and young people must leave their families to continue their education, this nursery becomes a beacon: we will create the first technical facility where local youth can learn hands-on regenerative skills.

Alongside Huerto Cuatro Estaciones — our partner farm, a biointensive organic garden led by my husband, which feeds more than +400 families every week and trains new farmers through an internationally connected learning model — we will consolidate a local model for another way of inhabiting Patagonia: rooted in community-led activism, regenerative education and collective care.