Regenerative Skills

How to plant the rain in drylands and beyond, with Brad Lancaster, author of the Rainwater Harvesting books

In the last handful of episodes we’ve explored permaculture earthworks for water harvesting landscapes and keyline design on large scales. As a complement to those topics I got in touch with Brad Lancaster, the author Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands and Beyond, volumes one and two which have recently been re-released as expanded new editions.Brad is an expert in the field of rainwater harvesting and water management whose work I’ve been following for a long time. He is also a permaculture teacher, designer, consultant and co-founder of the non-profit Desert Harvesters, which teaches the public how to identify, harvest, and process many of the native-food plants people are propagating in their areas. He’s also been instrumental in helping to change water management policy and government incentives in the City of Tucson to help others implement water wise catchment and reuse features on their properties. 
In this interview we cover a wide range of topics from the difference between active and passive harvesting technology and reading the landscape to determine how to work with the natural surroundings, to the increasing importance for water stewardship in non-arid climates and why it’s so important to connect and invest in the place you already live rather than thinking that moving to another place will solve your environmental worries. 
Brad also gives great advice on home scale water harvesting and storage which are all topics that are covered extensively in his books. He’s done an incredible job with the help of many experts and collaborators to compile tons of resources that are available to help you get started on his website
Resources:
https://www.desertharvesters.org/
https://www.harvestingrainwater.com/
http://www.dunbarspringneighborhoodforester.org/
Check out the Global Regeneration CoLab TEDx event here!

Making the most of your water on any farm, with Mark Shepard, Author of “Water for Any Farm”

Since the last two episodes focused on earthworks, specifically water retention and catchment features, I wanted to revisit one of my favorite interviews that really helped me to understand the fundamentals of keyline design and how many different configurations it could take, even on the same piece of land. The keyline system was pioneered of course by PA Yeomans in Australia back in the 1950’s and has been a guide for farmers and land restorationists ever since.
Back at the beginning of this season I spoke with Mark Shepard, right after the release of his latest book Water for Any Farm. A culmination of decades of work on his own property as well as consulting and designing for others around the US and the world. Mark’s no-nonsense approach to permaculture and restoration agriculture have been attractive to me since I first got interested in these topics more than a decade ago. 
In this interview we start by talking about how the mismanagement of land and water has created the conditions we have today all over the world where topsoil is constantly eroded and water quickly becomes a destructive force rather than a rejuvenating one if it's left to run over bare landscapes. Mark goes into a lot of detail to describe how to read your landscape and identify key points that can be used as references for keylines to direct water all across your land in a way that slows it down and rehydrates it. We talk about what machinery and tools he recommends for major earthworks, the installation of different types of ponds, building soil over large acreage, and much more. I’m lucky to get sent a lot of books to look over and review before speaking with authors, and I often don’t have time to read them very thoroughly, but Mark’s latest book, Water for Any Farm is one I really took the time to understand because of the incredible potential that this system has for increasing the productivity and resilience of any landscape, not just from an agricultural perspective. Adjusting the water harvesting capacity of your terrain can have an important impact on any kind of regeneration project and help with weathering severe climate events too. It’s especially relevant to reforestation and agroforestry because the earthworks method outlined in the book is how Mark was able to regenerate a degraded farm surrounded by monoculture corn crops into the highly productive oak savannah mimicking ecosystem based around the pillars of hazelnut and chestnut orchards. I highly recommend you check it out. I’ve put links to where you can get the book and learn more about Mark and his work in the show notes for this episode on the website.
Resources:
Resources:
Welcome to New Forest Farm

A Permaculture guide to Earth Surgery, with David “Doc Spice” Spicer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xSoKv2x4H0o
Tying in perfectly with last week’s interview with Zach Weiss about building ponds and water harvesting features, I spoke with David Spicer, affectionately known as Doc Spice, an accomplished permaculture designer who has specialized in earthworks installation. Having taught and worked on various projects extensively within Australia and internationally, in places such as Morocco, Jordan, Palestine and New Caledonia, Doc has worked in a broad array of different soil types, topographies and climatic zones.
He’s also a valued member of the Permaculture Sustainable Consulting team headed up by Geoff Lawton and is registered Teacher #5 with the Permaculture Research Institute of Australia.
Doc is a master of practical and logical mainframe permaculture design and he's pioneered the design of water harvesting and storage earthworks which frames all regenerative farming.
In this episode we talk about why it’s so important to invest early on in a project to get your earthworks right because of what it can mean for the health of your land. Doc also shares some insights on his personal design process and what he looks for in a landscape to give him clues as to the most effective interventions on the form of the land. We also cover some of the risks of improperly installed features, the need to draw from as many sources of knowledge as possible and he also gives some valuable advice for people who are new to earthworks on how to get started. 
I’ve put some pictures of the projects that Doc has done to help to illustrate some of the concepts and techniques that he talks about so don’t forget to check those out along with further links on the show notes for this episode on the website. 
Resources:
https://www.docspicepermaculture.com/about-us
https://www.docspicepermaculture.com/
https://www.instagram.com/docspice_permaculture/
https://www.facebook.com/Docspicepermaculture/

How to install ponds, dams, and water retention features, with Zach Weiss from Elemental Ecosystems

Welcome back to the ongoing series on waterway regeneration. Today’s interview is the second conversation I’ve had with Zach Weiss, the Protégé of revolutionary Austrian farmer Sepp Holzer and founder of Elemental Ecosystems, a company that designs and implements water harvesting landscapes and features for clients around the world.  Zach is best known for blending a unique combination of systems thinking, empathy and awareness, in his projects. 
In the last interview I did with him, which I’ve linked to in the show notes for this episode on the website, he introduced me to the importance of a healthy water cycle to climate regulation and how it actually plays a much larger role than just the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere. 
In today’s session I wanted to focus more closely on a topic that I get a lot of questions about but have very little personal experience with, and that’s building ponds, dams, and other water storage features on the land. Zach is an expert at this and explains the difference in how sealed and unsealed ponds can have a very different effect on the ecology even if they both hold the same amount of water. He also explains his methods and techniques for reading the landscape to determine the best placement for water features that are sometimes contradictory to simple topography. Be sure to stick around until the end where Zach gives some amazing practical advice for people who are looking to get started on installing their own water retention features and landscapes. 
Before we start in with the interview I also want to give you a heads up that the next two episodes will also be deep dives into permaculture earthworks, water retention landscapes and actionable information on how to optimise your land for the best use and creation of water resources, so be sure to check out the next few weeks of episodes too. 
Resources:
https://www.elementalchange.world/
Elemental Ecosystems
Elemental Ecosystems on Facebook
Elemental Ecosystems on Youtube
Zach Weiss’ TEDx talk
Desert or Paradise with Sepp Holzer
The Flow Partnership

The Facts And Stories Behind Waterway Restoration, With Judith Schwartz

As we continue into this series on waterway regeneration, I reached out to Judith Schwartz, a wonderful author who tells stories to explore and illuminate scientific concepts and cultural nuance. 
Her two most recent books, Water in Plain sight, and The Reindeer Chronicles both feature incredible case studies of the importance of a healthy water cycle, to the health of our ecosystems and global climate regulation. 
Judith is known for taking  a clear-eyed look at global environmental, economic, and social challenges, and finds insights and solutions in natural systems. She also writes for numerous publications, including The American Prospect, The Guardian, Discover, and Scientific American. 
In this interview Judith begins by explaining some essential information on the water cycle beyond the simple rain and evaporation rotation we all learned in grade school. 
She also walks me through the ways it interacts with plant life to affect the rainfall of an area and hydrate the land. From there we explore some of the incredible examples of ecosystem regeneration that she highlights in her books and we even get into some mind expanding questions that you can use yourself to re-evaluate your own understanding of the potential of your own regenerative projects and dreams at the end of the episode. 
Beyond the clear information of water’s hidden functions in the global ecology, Judith is a great storyteller and helps to connect the hard facts with the personal and intimate side of these projects and journeys.
Resources:
https://www.judithdschwartz.com/
https://www.chelseagreen.com/writer/judith-d-schwartz/
http://regenerativeskills.com/abundantedge-neal-spackman-2/
http://regenerativeskills.com/abundantedge-desert-regeneration-and-showcasing-examples-of-permaculture-success-with-neal-spackman-of-the-al-baydah-project-and-sustainable-design-masterclass-019/
http://regenerativeskills.com/mark-shepard-water-for-any-farm/
http://regenerativeskills.com/abundantedge-zach-weiss/
http://regenerativeskills.com/abundantedge-pieter-van-midwoud/

How we can overcome the looming water crisis in our cities with “the Godfather of Green”Jerry Yudelson

Welcome back to the second episode in this series on waterway regeneration. In this series we’ll be looking into the often overlooked role of the water cycle and its effects on the climate crisis. I’ll be speaking with experts and innovators about how repairing the hydrological cycle and the health of our waterways can lead to the restoration of all sorts of ecological services and the health of entire ecosystems as a result. 
In this week’s episode I got to chat with Jerry Yudelson, the author of 13 full-length professional and trade books on green buildings, integrated design, green homes, water conservation, building performance and sustainable development. Dubbed 'The Godfather of Green' by Wired Magazine, Jerry’s passion for optimizing the built environment is reflected by his many years of professional experience in the green building and certification fields, serving as an elected LEED Fellow and as president of the Green Building Initiative. He also served on the national board of the USGBC and chaired the Steering Committee for the largest green building show, Greenbuild, from 2004 through 2009. 
Despite being best known for ecological building design and policy, in this interview we’re going to focus on his book Dry Run, which unpacks some of the best ways to manage scarce water resources and handle upcoming urban water crises. The book explains the most pressing water issues that urban zones face, and examines the vital linkages between water, energy use, urban development and climate change. Dry Run also demonstrates best practices for achieving "net zero" water use in the built environment through, water conservation strategies for buildings, factories, cities and homes, rainwater harvesting, greywater reuse and water reclamation systems, water efficiency retrofits, onsite sewage treatment, and new water reuse and supply technologies.
In this interview we specifically address the urgent changes that cities need to make to ensure longer term water security. Jerry explains his classifications of the colors of water that help to categorize the different sources and uses for water in cities that require different management systems, and gives a few case studies of municipalities that have started to make improvements in their aquatic infrastructure.
If you're interested in reading the episode as a full transcript. Click here.
Resources:
https://newsociety.com/books/d/dry-run
https://newsociety.com/search
https://jerryyudelson.net/books
https://www.reinventinggreenbuilding.com/

Why regenerating our oceans makes both public health and economic sense, with Dr. Enric Sala of National Geographic’s Pristine Seas Project

Welcome to the first episode in a brand new series focusing on waterway regeneration. In the last few years of hosting this show it’s become vividly clear to me just how important and yet overlooked an issue that the health of our water cycles are. 
While the climate change narrative has mostly focused on the concentration of CO2 and other greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere since the industrial revolution, we’ve ignored the essential role that the water cycle plays in regulating global temperatures. In this series I’ll be speaking to an incredible list of scientists, farmers, and restorationists who are dedicated to reviving the precious waterways of the world. From the urban environment to the deep seas, our actions will determine whether or not we preserve our aquatic resources and all the life that depends on them for future generations. 
In this first episode I got to speak with Enric Sala, a renowned ecologist making a clear case for why protecting nature is our best health insurance, and why it makes economic sense. Enric is the director of National Geographic’s Pristine Seas project (which has succeeded in protecting more than 5 million sq km of ocean and created 22 marine reserves). Dr. Sala has received the Young Global Leader Award by the World Economic Forum, a Research Award from the Spanish Geographical Society, the Lowell Thomas Award from the Explorers Club, and a Hero Award from the Environmental Media Association. In his new book “The Nature of Nature: Why We Need the Wild,” he tells the story of his scientific awakening and his transition from academia to activism. More importantly, he shows the economic wisdom of making room for nature, even as the population becomes more urbanized, and how saving nature can save us all, by reversing conditions that led to the coronavirus pandemic and preventing other global catastrophes.
In this interview we begin by unpacking the changes that have occurred in our oceans in the last few decades and how this is affecting people all over the world, even if you don’t live anywhere near the sea. 
Enric also offers a lot of hope that our oceans can recover if we act swiftly and give them the space and protection to regenerate. 
I learned a lot from this talk and as I begin to learn more about how marine health is closely linked to terrestrial health, I would encourage those of you listening to examine how your own habits and lifestyle choices are connected to ocean health in ways that can be hard to see. 
Resources:
Get the book The Nature of Nature
https://www.nationalgeographic.org/projects/pristine-seas/

Steps to food security: saving seeds, with James Ulager, author of Beginning seed saving for the home gardener

Today’s guest is James Ulager, the author Beginning Seed Saving for the home gardener, and though this certainly isn’t a talk about farm scale seed saving and propagation, I thought it was essential to include in this series. In my opinion, seed saving and selective breeding is one of the best ways that anyone with even a small yard or garden can participate in ensuring the food security of future generations. We live in a time when governments have deemed it possible to patent seeds and own genetic information. This not only threatens the sovereignty of our seeds, but of every aspect of our food system as life itself is now able to be patented and owned. Yet we all still have the capacity to grow and save seeds that keep the genetic history that is the foundation of so many cultures alive and evolving, not through technological genetic tampering, but through the stewardship and care that selects for adaptation and resilience. While this is a topic that I’m looking forward to exploring from a lot of different perspectives and advanced applications, James gives a wonderful talk in this episode that directly speaks to the novice gardener. 
In this session we break down just how easy it is to get started saving your own seeds and just how powerful an action it actually is. We cover all the essentials like knowing when the seeds are ready to harvest, the best way to store them for good germination rates, and we even get into more intermediate steps like working with biennials and plant varieties that don’t like to grow true from seed if they’re cross pollinated. 
James does a great job at making this practice accessible and fun and because I’m so excited to get more people saving and breeding their own seeds, I’ve teamed up with New Society Publishers to give away a free copy of the book. If you want to win a copy of Beginning seed saving for the home gardener just message me through our dedicated facebook group called Abundant Edge weekly regenerative skills and write a post about why you want to save your own seeds. I’ll select a winner one week after this episode comes out and send a hard copy of the book to you if you live in the US or Canada or a digital copy if you live anywhere else in the world.   
Resources:
https://www.seedsavers.org/
https://newsociety.com/books/b/beginning-seed-saving-for-the-home-gardener

Bringing farmland back into the hands of our communities, with Ian McSweeny of The Agrarian Trust

One of the biggest challenges that I’ve heard repeatedly both in the interviews in this series on regenerative agriculture as well as with peers and clients that I’ve collaborated with, is the difficulty for aspiring farmers to get access to land. This is true back in the States as well as in Europe and other parts of the world where I’ve traveled, and it’s part of a much larger problem in the trends of land ownership that reduce land to a commodity. As prices for land soar and the rapidly aging population of farmers struggle to keep their businesses afloat, we’re entering into a tipping point. Massive amounts of land are now set to change ownership in the coming decades, and the hands they’ll end up in are yet to be determined. Though from what I can tell, there’s no shortage of young and motivated people looking to get into farming, this land ownership issue is keeping many of them from getting started. 
I’ve been looking for a while at creative approaches to farmland access and tenure, and in my search I found Ian McSweeny the organizational director of Agrarian Trust through his role in organizing and advocating for a return to community owned land and commonland management. Far from being a new or novel approach to land stewardship, these forms of management are much older than private ownership and might just hold the key to large scale landscape regeneration by returning this precious resource to the whole community. 
Ian’s career and his life’s work has been focused on the human connection to soil and food. He first worked as a social worker focused on developing outdoor experience based education programs. Later he sought more direct work with the connections to soil and food in real estate, by founding a brokerage and consulting company to focus on prioritizing conservation, agriculture, and community within typical land development. Most recently, he served as Executive Director of the Russell Foundation, a private foundation focused on assisting landowners and farmers through customized approaches to farmland ownership, conservation, management, and stewardship. 
Ian has also participated in many farmland and food systems initiatives and has served as a consultant to a number of organizations, and was recognized as a “40 under 40” leader in New Hampshire and was also selected for the Leadership Institute at Food Solutions New England. 
In this interview Ian speaks about farmland transfer, conservation, secure tenure, and fundraising models across the US. He also gives inspiring examples of the first handful of members across the country that are blazing a new trail for communities invested in their agricultural future and the diversity of people who steward their farms. This is just one potential way to bring land equity back to the commons and I’m still very interested in exploring other models and ways for a whole new generation of people looking to care for the natural capital that we share to gain affordable access to land, so if you know of any other ideas or organizations that are working on these issues, please reach out to me through email at info(at)abundantedge.com or come and join the conversation on our dedicated facebook page. I’m really looking forward to bringing more voices on these topics to the podcast.
Resources:
The Agrarian Trust website
https://agrariantrust.org/resources/farm-business-resources/
http://agrariantrust.org/resources/media/
http://agrariantrust.org/resources/accessing-land/
https://agrariantrust.org/

Uniting women in agriculture for a regenerative food future, with Lisa Kivirist

Lisa Kivirist
Though this series on regenerative farming has covered a ton of different farming models, land management techniques, food production methods and design methods, one of the glaring absences in the perspectives I’ve included has been that of women, and I’m well aware of it. I did reach out to a lot of women farmers in an attempt to set up interviews, but many of them either didn’t want to be interviewed or were simply too busy to be able to schedule a call. I can imagine that with all of the nonsense and instability around the pandemic it must be really challenging for all farmers in the last 6 months. I was however finally able to get a hold of Lisa Kivirist, one of my favorite authors of homesteading skills and small scale farming. She’s the author of the farmstead chef, rural renaissance, ecopreneuring, homemade for sale, and the book that will be the center of our interview today “soil sisters: a toolkit for women farmers”
She’s also the host of the podcast: “In her boots” which focuses on interviews with and about modern women farmers, which I’ve been a fan of for over a year now and highly recommend to anyone interested in farm stories and general advice in the USA.
In her extensive work helping to build support for women in farming and to create a community network of their peers that they can rely on, Lisa has helped to highlight the stories and experiences around the immeasurable contributions from women in agriculture and set stronger foundations for their continued success into the future. 
In this interview Lisa helps me to understand the complex history of women farmers in the US and the obstacles that they’ve had to overcome in the past as well as those that are still in their way. She also explains the unique talents and perspective that they bring to this fast changing sector along with the growing support network that they’re building together. 
I’ve been a big fan of Lisa’s books for a while and her podcast is a really valuable resource too, but this book Soil Sisters really opened my eyes to the blind spots that I’ve had and that the farming industry at large has had to the essential role that women have played in advancing and strengthening farming through some of America’s toughest times. 
Resources:
https://homemadeforsale.wixsite.com/freshbaked
http://innserendipity.com/
http://innserendipity.com/news/news.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lisa_Kivirist