Coon Creek Community Watershed Council members gather at the Burke Family’s hazelnut orchard, during the group’s October 2025 meeting. A statewide hazelnut expert will join the council in February to share tips on hazelnut establishment and selecting the right cultivars. Photo: Sydney Widell
For aspiring hazelnut growers, selecting the best cultivars and establishing successful orchards can be a daunting task. A regional hazelnut expert hopes to demystify the hazelnut establishment process at our Feb. 4th meeting.
UW Extension Emerging Crops Outreach Specialist Jason Fischbach will provide an overview of hazelnut production, updates on plant availability, and answer questions from prospective growers. He is making the long trip to Coon Creek from Ashland, WI., where he leads the Upper Midwest Hazelnut Development Institute (UMHDI).
The Institute sees hazelnuts as a climate resilient, ecologically beneficial, and economically promising crop for Driftless farmers.
As the UMHDI explains on its website, these perennial shrubs hold soil, tightly cycle nutrients, and don’t require annual tillage inputs. Hazelnut kernels have uses in food and fuel markets and the shells and stems have potential as biofuels. The shrubs can be harvested mechanically and thus grown on a large scale. Deployed in strategic plantings such as windbreaks, riparian buffers, or in alley-cropping systems, hazelnuts could be a pathway toward economically viable, regenerative agriculture in the Driftless.
The CCCWC has funding available for members interested in establishing hazelnuts where they live. In 2026, we’ll offer a cost share of $10/hazelnut for up to 200 plants per project. The cost share program is part of our effort to increase access to and adoption of land management practices that advance flood resilience and community well-being in the Coon Creek Watershed.
More information about hazelnut establishment and hazelnut cost share options will be available at the February 4th CCCWC meeting, at the Coon Valley Conservation Club. We will serve dinner at 6:00pm, and call the meeting to order at 6:30. Like all CCCWC events, attendance is free and all are welcome.