On the suggestion of Suzuki Roshi, Green Gulch Farm was purchased from a local rancher by the San Francisco Zen Center in 1972 for use as a rural retreat center or farm practice site. Students of the newly purchased farm, renamed the Green Dragon Temple, sought to restore and protect land that had suffered from various forms degradation. In an effort to restore the land, Zen Center residents designated twenty one acres to organic farming and gardening, reintroduced various native plant species, created a buffer zone of trees to protect the fields from the ocean winds, and transformed the barn and other farm buildings into a meditation hall and a retreat center. Suggestions for further restoration initiatives were made in a preliminary Green Gulch landscape ecology report in 1991. The Center has sponsored many events since 1975, including the annual Arbor Day tree planting. In the past decade, special classes, walks, lectures, and practice periods have been added to address a range of issues pertaining to natural history, land use, and the link between ecology and meditation practice.