Russ Cohen
2 Courses • 1385 StudentsBiography
Russ Cohen, naturalist and wild foods enthusiast, grew up in Weston, MA, where he spent much of his free time in the woods, thereby cultivating a strong spiritual connection to nature. Russ taught his first wild edible plants class in 1974, his senior year at Weston High School. Since retiring in June 2015 after 27 years at the Mass. Dept. of Fish and Game, Russ now has more time to devote to his passionate avocation: connecting to nature via nibbling on it, and assisting others in doing the same. Russ is into his fifth decade of leading wild edibles walks and talks at a wide variety of venues in eastern Massachusetts and elsewhere in New England and upstate NY. In addition, since his retirement, Russ is playing the role of “Johnny Appleseed” for native edible species. He has set up a nursery (in Weston) where he is growing over 1,000 plants, representing more than a third of the more than 180 species native to New England ecoregions that are edible by people. Many of these plants were propagated from seed Russ gathered himself. He is then partnering with land trusts, cities and towns, schools and colleges, state and federal agencies, organic farms, tribal groups and others to plant plants from his nursery in appropriate places on their properties. Russ has initiated over two dozen such projects in the past five years.
