This dissertation is a place-based and trans-disciplinary project that integrates archaeology, ethnography, surveys, qualitative analysis, agricultural field experiments, allometric models, participatory action research, and reconciliatory and decolonial methods. It focuses on the scientific study of temperate nut trees and traces the intersecting roots of ecological change, Indigenous relationships, and settler colonialism across time and space. The five chapters can be conceptually organized by their orientation to the past (Chapters 1 and 2), present (Chapters 2, 3, and 4), and/or future (Chapters 2 and 5). In Chapter 1, I synthesize archaeological, ethnobotanical, and historical ecological data to demonstrate the 4,000 year long relationship between temperate nut trees and Haudenosaunsee forest management. Chapter 2 begins with an historical synopsis of nut growing in New York (NY) state, and then reports on and analyzes survey results amongst current commercial nut growers, NY farmers generally, and Cornell Cooperative Extension educators to understand why nut production is rapidly increasing across the state. This chapter highlights an emerging opportunity for extension educators to support commercial nut growing as an agricultural transformation benefiting rural communities and supporting ecosystem services. Chapter 3 describes the results of a hazelnut orchard establishment field experiment evaluating the effects of plant genotype, fertility additions, and ground cover management on hazelnut plant growth in the first three years. In Chapter 4, I discuss the results of a statistical model to estimate above- and below-ground biomass carbon in Chinese chestnuts (Castanea molissima). The model was calibrated using destructive harvest methods and allometric measurements on N=41 trees, two to eighty years old. These modeled results were then scaled up across NY to estimate the total carbon sequestration potential of chestnut trees. Chapter 5 describes the Skarù•r__ Food Forest Project, which primarily took place at the Tuscarora Nation near Niagara Falls, NY. This project demonstrated a reconciliatory and decolonial approach to sustainable agriculture research and education.