Permaculture Resources. Permaculture Free Press | Interview With Mark Shepard of New Forest Farm. Mark Shepard has created something of an environmental oasis at his Wisconsin homestead, New Forest Farm. Shepard, a farmer and author, is a longtime proponent of restoration agriculture, the practice of recreating healthy, naturally occurring, economically viable perennial farms. Packed with biodiversity, these restored ecosystems are a far cry from the large scale mono-cropping so prevalent today. However, according to Shepard, who literally wrote the book on the subject, “Restoration Agriculture,” this radically natural approach to farming is exactly what the earth needs. Read our fascinating interview with Mark: What is restoration agriculture and how does it differ from farming practices most commonly used today? Restoration Agriculture is essentially producing staple food crops in systems that are designed after natural native ecosystems.
New Forest Farm has been called one of the most ambitious sustainable agriculture projects in the country. Your family has an interesting story. Perma. Permaculturists. Permaculture Voices Podcast 013: Darren Doherty on Regrarianism and Why Regenerative is Better than Sustainable | Permaculture Voices. Podcast: Play in new window | Download meaning you need water before you can grow vegetation and get cash flow, and you need water before you can be profitable and put some carbon into storage in the soil.
This is a system that borrows and includes tools from multiple disciplines like permaculture, keyline design, the transition movement, carbon farming, and the work of of people like Joel Salatin, Paul Stamets, and Dr. Elaine Ingham. These tools give you the ability to design a system that ultimately regenerates land while producing numerous agricultural products. The system deals with everything from the work done on the land to how you can synergistically stack multiple enterprises in the same system, and ultimately how to market and distribute those products to the people that actually want them. The system emphasizes participating in all 4 legs of the farm income stool – production, processing, marketing, and distribution.
Get ready, this episode is dense. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. Viola farmer committed to restoring land. VIOLA – Just 20 years ago, Mark Shepherd's farm was a wasteland. The 106-acre property in Viola was nothing but bare, blackened corn stubble, and dry, degraded soil, stripped of its nutrients after years of plowing and tilling for annual crops.
Most farmers would have considered it a bad investment, but Shepherd saw an opportunity to restore the land to its former ecological glory. "This land was abandoned," Shepherd said. "But we can take some of the worst land and restore it using nature. " Shepherd, 51, is an internationally known expert in reclamation agriculture, permaculture and agroforestry — eco-friendly farming techniques that emphasize perennial crops, natural biodiversity and sustainable land management. "For years, people couldn't understand what I was talking about," Shepherd said. He set to work planting trees — oak, beech, chestnut, apple and cherry — between the traditional row crops to begin the farm's transition back to the natural oak savanna ecosystem. Permaculturists. Keyline design.
Landscaping to optimize water usage Keyline design is a landscaping technique of maximizing the beneficial use of the water resources of a tract of land. The "keyline" is a specific topographic feature related to the natural flow of water on the tract. Keyline design is a system of principles and techniques of developing rural and urban landscapes to optimize use of their water resources. Australian farmer and engineer P. A. Yeomans invented and developed Keyline design in his books The Keyline Plan, The Challenge of Landscape, Water For Every Farm, and The City Forest. Application[edit] Keyline designs include irrigation dams equipped with through-the-wall lockpipe systems, gravity feed irrigation, stock water, and yard water. Keyline Scale of Permanence[edit] ClimateLandshape (topography)Water supplyRoads and means of accessTreesStructures (edifices)Subdivisional fencesSoil Keypoint[edit] Applications[edit] Darren J. A topographical example of Keyline design is available at ( WikiMiniAtlas.
Keyline Design with Darren Doherty | TreeYo Permaculture. Keyline, keypoint, keyway – what’s what in the world of harvesting water? There are many keys within Keyline that seem to mystify people on this relatively simple technique that eludes most from explaining it eloquently except Darren Doherty. P.A. Yeomans water harvesting techniques and land management process called the “Keyline Scale of Permanence” directly reflects the ideas Bill Mollison represented in the Designer’s Manual.
Keyline is not just about a plow or dams, it is about a planning process based on how easily changeable those factors are. You see this directly in how Bill Mollison laid out his design principles and structured the Designer’s Manual. The following is the process: 1. This reflects the old adage of Water, Access, Structures that Geoff Lawton uses as a guide for the design principle. The course itself was the highlight of the Carbon Farming Program as it by far lived up to my expectations.
Keypoint location slide from Darren, notice the green patch at the confluence.