Steve Kruger works in places where conservation, sustainable livelihoods, and cultural traditions come together. He began his career in western North Carolina, doing folklife surveys and working on the Blue Ridge Music Trails cultural tourism initiative. Many of the musicians and craftspeople he met had made part of their living from torests, selling roots and herbs, sourcing craft materials and tone wood, harvesting wild foods and medicine, and in some cases doing what he would later learn to call forest farming. He wanted to learn more about how to integrate these long-standing traditions with new efforts to sustainably manage forests and find more resilient economic opportunities for the communities that have historically relied on them. This led to pursuing a Ph.D. in Forest Resources and Environmental Conservation at Virginia Tech where he studied Agroforestry and the trade in non-timber forest products in Appalachia. Later he helped grow the forest farming program at VT’s Catawba Sustainability Center, and researched the history of maple sugaring in the Appalachian South. For the past 3 years, Dr. Kruger has worked for Live Work Eat Grow, a non-profit supporting local food systems in the New River Valley, and has a fledgling forest farm and sugar bush in Giles County in Southwest Virginia. At LiKEN, Dr. Kruger serves as the Director of LiKEN’s Forest Farming Program.Steve Kruger works in places where conservation, sustainable livelihoods, and cultural traditions come together. He began his career in western North Carolina, doing folklife surveys and working on the Blue Ridge Music Trails cultural tourism initiative. Many of the musicians and craftspeople he met had made part of their living from torests, selling roots and herbs, sourcing craft materials and tone wood, harvesting wild foods and medicine, and in some cases doing what he would later learn to call forest farming. He wanted to learn more about how to integrate these long-standing traditions with new efforts to sustainably manage forests and find more resilient economic opportunities for the communities that have historically relied on them. This led to pursuing a Ph.D. in Forest Resources and Environmental Conservation at Virginia Tech where he studied Agroforestry and the trade in non-timber forest products in Appalachia. Later he helped grow the forest farming program at VT’s Catawba Sustainability Center, and researched the history of maple sugaring in the Appalachian South. For the past 3 years, Dr. Kruger has worked for Live Work Eat Grow, a non-profit supporting local food systems in the New River Valley, and has a fledgling forest farm and sugar bush in Giles County in Southwest Virginia. At LiKEN, Dr. Kruger serves as the Director of LiKEN’s Forest Livelihoods Program.