Know and care for the land
Read the terrain, water, forests, fields, and memories of settlements to decide where to begin.
Topics to explore- Forest and farmland management
- Long-term land use and landscape
- Local life and existing livelihoods
PJ VALLEY · COLLABORATORS WANTED
Work meets.
Landscapes grow.
Forests, farming, horses, food, craft, and digital work. We seek people who want to deepen their expertise, learn across disciplines, and shape a landscape that will last a century between Lake Tazawa and Kakunodate.
THE IDEA / OUR VISIONShape a landscape
Shape a landscape
through everyday work.
Our aim is to leave the land more beautiful a century from now. We want to tend forests, cultivate soil, work with horses, and make food and tools born of this place. Digital work can also reach clients beyond the region and become an income stream that supports locally rooted livelihoods.
No one needs to do everything. People with different specialties can study the same challenges and teach one another. We hope those exchanges create new work and new possibilities for each person.
This vision is still taking shape. We will start with one woodland, one field, and one service, and test what can truly last.
WHO WE ARE LOOKING FOR
01 / LAND
02 / CRAFT
03 / ENTERPRISE
04 / DIGITAL
Start with your craft. Expand your world.
We would like to meet people with experience in land stewardship, making, digital technology, and enterprise. We will shape roles and ways of working together as the vision takes form.
Bring practical skills together
Forestry, horses, architecture, cultivation, cooking, dyeing, woodworking: connect skills to the life of this land.
Topics to explore- Small trials and passing on skills
- Enduring goods made from local materials
- Combining work across seasons
Build enterprises that last
Turn a compelling vision into work that can be sustained. Test businesses that keep value circulating in the valley.
Topics to explore- Products and services for customers beyond the region
- Financial plans that start small
- Operations that support multiple livelihoods
Connect with the wider world
Build useful systems from real needs on the ground and grow services for customers beyond the region. We are looking for digital and IT specialists.
Topics to explore- Systems for field records, operations, and sales
- Software and services for external customers
- Turning small trials into recurring revenue
GROW ACROSS DISCIPLINESLearn another field,
FOREST × DIGITAL CRAFT × ENTERPRISE FOOD × LAND
Learn another field,
change your own work.
A developer can learn forestry in the field; a forester can learn data and sales. A chef can join in growing food; a maker can understand business numbers. We value specialists who cultivate knowledge and skills across boundaries together.
Build tools from field experience
Understand forest care and daily work before designing useful systems for records and planning.
Turn craft into sustainable work
Plan pricing, routes to market, and yearly output alongside the value of materials and skill.
Link the seasons through work
Learn across growing, processing, and cooking to make good use of what the land provides.
Crossing into another field can widen what your own specialty makes possible, without giving it up.
WHERE WE ARENow we are connecting
Now we are connecting
the vision to the ground.
The activities described here are not all established businesses, nor has every site been secured. Specific roles, employment arrangements, compensation, and locations will be worked out through further conversations.
Read the land
Study candidate sites, water, woods, fields, and knowledge built up by local people.
Try small things
Test forestry, growing, craft, food, and digital services against real needs and available resources.
Find what can last
Assess income, year-round workload, people, and effects on the land before expanding.
START A CONVERSATIONWhere would
Where would
you begin?
Whether you own or manage land, work in a craft or the field, specialize in IT, or want to build a business together, we would like to hear both what you know and what you hope to learn.
For more on the purpose and decision principles, read our vision note.
Read the PJ Valley vision noteThree things to start a conversation
- Your current specialty and a field you want to learn
- Which of land, craft, digital, and enterprise interests you
- One first step you would like to try together
PJ VALLEY / WORKING TITLE
Leave this land more beautiful a century from now.
We will build the work and daily life to support that aim, one rooted step at a time.
Read the vision and principles