John McDonald lives and works at the urban-rural interface.

The road running by his Washington County farm is now a busy highway. Eleven landowners around his 104-acre hazelnut farm have no connection to farming; they are city dwellers living in the country.

So because of where his farm is located, McDonald said, “I have to be much more careful when I do things and how I do things.”

Still, with 75 years’ experience of living on a farm, along with two master’s degrees, McDonald likes being a farmer.

Those sentiments were part of what he hoped to convey to students in the 2019 Urban-Rural Ambassadors Summer Institute.

“I actually enjoy being a farmer,” McDonald said later, when the year’s hazelnut harvest was finished and he had time to reflect on what he had told the students. “It’s a challenge. You have to be self-reliant. You have to handle things that are beyond most people because there is so much that goes into making this work.”

The course brought together 14 students from Eastern Oregon and Portland State universities. McDonald hosted them at his farm, discussing what it is like to farm in close proximity to an urban area and in today’s environment.

“I have to be very careful about the effects that my practices have on my neighbors and on the public that goes by — and that concerns noise, dust, chemical drift, odor and even disturbance,” he said.

Even though he might want to start work at 5 a.m. on a Sunday, he either starts later or avoids doing anything noisy near a neighbor’s property. He stays keenly aware of affecting weekday commuter traffic. He strives to keep his neighbors informed about anything that might create questions.

“If I’m going to spray something out there in my field, I have to let them all know what I’m doing and what the possible effects are,” McDonald said. “To me that’s just being courteous. That’s just being a good neighbor. I owe them that information.”

Students later sent notes to McDonald, which he greatly appreciated.

“The most important thing to me is they commented about the ‘feel’ they got. What does it feel like to be in my position?” he said.

“What does it feel like to wake up seven days a week and realize you don’t dare take a day off because you’ve got work to do and things are happening and stuff like that? What does it feel like to not be in control of your final results because you’re under the effects of weather and markets and bugs and everything else that literally can destroy your livelihood in a short period of time?”