Implementation Services For Regenerative Landscapes
We offer the following implementation services to help homesteaders, farmers and ranchers make the absolute most of their landscapes. Click any of the subcategories below to explore specific offerings.
Water Systems
Water patterning is the foundation for every successful homestead design. How water interacts with the landform has everything to do with creating a productive, profitable and beautiful homestead that weathers disruption in stride. By implementing these water patterning elements in an integrated, self-regulating system, optimal hydrological function can be attained and while maximizing water sovereignty.
Getting your land right with the water that falls on it and moves through it is the key to tapping into the immense generative power of Nature.
Below are lists of the various elements, systems and techniques we can help you implement – click any bullet to jump to an expanded description.
Water Infiltration Elements
Primary Function: To enhance infiltration of water received by your landscape into soil storages.
Water infiltration elements function to capture run-off, slow it down, spread it out in the most advantageous location(s), and allow the excess water to sink into the soil, where it can used effectively by soil biology and plants, recharge aquifers and maintain base-flow for connected springlines and creeks.
There are many different types of infiltration elements that can be applied to serve a myriad of site-specific needs. Below are some of the more common earthwork structures we install.
Swales
Swales are shallow, level-bottom ditches that run along a contour line across a landscape. Swales slow water down, spread it out on contour and give it time to infiltrate into the soil. They are useful anti-erosion structures where there is significant sheet flow (uniform surface run-off) or concentrated sources of run-off (i.e. culverts, gutters, and hardscape shed points). The soil that is excavated to create the ditch is mounded immediately downhill to create a berm that further serves to maximize infiltration.
While not suitable to every landscape, swales can be very helpful in establishing tree belts and mitigating erosion while simultaneously providing a way for water to infiltrate into the soil instead of running off.
Digging the upper swale at PFH. 
Swale below media luna flow spreader. 
Swale above three terraces. 
Full swales following first rain event. 
Market garden swale at LPR. 
Digging a small swale above a soon-to-be market garden that will accept roof run-off from nearby structures. 
Uppermost swale in the newly formed Casitas Valley Farm swale system during its first rain event. 
Newly formed swale during first rain event. Casitas Valley Farm 2014. 
Freshly dug swale awaiting seed and mulch. 
Newly dug swale line following contour through an existing olive orchard. 
Level-sill spillway at the end of a swale discharging into a rolling dip. 
Swale line crossing an existing vineyard.
See Water Infiltration Elements > Swales to learn more.
Infiltration Basins
Infiltration and/or sediment basins are used to infiltrate seasonal concentrations of water, typically only present during larger precipitation events. Infiltration basins can range in size from small, backyard sunken rain gardens to football field or larger sized depressions graded to give extra water a place to collect, drop its sediment load if it has one, and infiltrate into the soil.
Infiltration basins are great for handling run-on from neighboring properties. In cases where there will be a known sediment load, deposition will occur, often yielding a source of nutrient rich material that can be dug out and re-used elsewhere in the landscape. Where sedimentation is known to occur we typically make the basins large enough to clean out with a tractor.
Detention basin full after first rain. 
Porous sandbag diversion doing its job – diverting water to fill the detention basins while permitting overflow down the main channel. Note the source of the inbound run-off, the neighboring broccoli field, in the background. 
Sandbag diversion from central drain into swale basin. 
DKR infiltration basins full after heavy rain with cover crop up. 
Infiltration basin at entry point of run-off from neighboring broccoli field. Armored sill in the foreground is marks the property line.
See Water Infiltration Elements > Infiltration Basins to learn more.
Terraces
Terraces are level or just off-level benches cut into hillsides to create flat ground where previously there was none.
Terraces are excellent for creating more usable land, improving access, improving soil production and retention and serve as backbones for some of the most productive growing systems the world round.
Terrace systems can be set up for orchards, food forests, market production, grazing animals and much more. Terrace size and spacing is dependent upon the nature of the system being installed, the existing terrain and soil type, and management requirements.
Planned terraces, swale, spillway and media luna flow spreaders. 
Three terraces below a swale infiltrating driveway run-off. Swale above three terraces. 
Terraced food forest planting area complete. 
Lonely Palm Ranch old orchard before terracing. 
Lonely Palm Ranch new orchard zone after terracing. Top cut in the picture is a swale picking up driveway and roof run-off from the workshop. 
Cutting the bottom terrace at LPR.
See Water Infiltration Elements > Terraces to learn more.
Keyline Subsoil Ripping
Keyline subsoil ripping utilizes a specially-designed non-inversion sub-soil ripper (Yeoman’s plow) to create pathways for air and water to enter otherwise compacted or hardpan soils. The patented shape of the tines creates a pressure wave that fractures and flocculates the soils above it, which improves aeration and water infiltration without destroying soil structure or killing all of the soil microbiota (as happens with discing or soil inversion) because the soil is left mostly undisturbed is not exposed to sunlight or open atmosphere.
Riplines are generally surveyed slightly off-contour, from valleys to ridges, to help evenly distribute water throughout the landscape.
Yeoman’s Plow with 7 keyline shanks. 
5 shank Yeoman’s Plow being pulled through pasture. 
Orientation of parallel riplines that vary based upon location within the landscape. 
Keyline plow shank. 
Hypothetical annual progression of keyline subsoil ripping – deeper rips with each successive year and more root mass deeper in the soil profile. 
Freshly ripped keyline plow furrows.
See Water Infiltration Elements > Keyline Subsoiling to learn more about keyline plowing and the Keyline Design System.
Water Storage Elements
Primary Function: To store bulk water for potable and non-potable use.
Water storage elements function to store bulk water by impounding it in either open-to-atmosphere (ponds & lakes) or closed-to-atmosphere (tanks & cisterns) storages. Open-to-atmosphere storages are nearly always cheaper to construct, but have a reduced number of use cases, while close-to-atmosphere storages are generally more expensive per gallon of water stored, but have a greater range of use cases available (i.e., water can be stored with greatly reduced contamination risk).
Ponds
Ponds are a relatively cheap way to impound large amounts of water for a wide variety of potential use cases. Open water bodies provide a diversity of ecological benefits, and are tremendously productive when designed and managed holisticially. The amount of ecological niches increases exponentially when water is brought into the landscape.
See Water Storage Elements > Ponds to learn more.
1950’s-built pond in Santa Margarita, CA 
Different pond dam types laid out in a keyline system. 
Excavator remodeling pond dam wall at DKR. 
Finished remodeled pond prior to mulching the dam wall at DKR. 
START: Pigs penned into the pond basin, supplied by a small but persistent spring flow. IMAGE: Mike Newby 
MIDDLE: Pigs wallowing on the ever-expanding waterline edge created the new impervious ground that allowed the pond to continue growing in size. IMAGE: Mike Newby 
END: Pond is completely gleyed and holding water, filled to the top during a rainstorm. IMAGE: Mike Newby
Tanks & Cisterns
Water storage tanks, stock watering tanks and the distribution piping and plumbing are a part of most broad-acre and suburban water designs. Getting water where it is needed in the landscape is critical for successful establishment and maintenance of trees and plants and ecologically beneficial livestock management.
Whenever possible we aim to create gravity-fed water supplies to provide buffers during power outages or emergencies. Distribution piping is designed with access patterning and eventual planned locations for living systems in mind to allow for future access and maintenance of water delivery infrastructure without disrupting or damaging other functioning or living elements.
See Water Storage Elements > Tanks & Cisterns to learn more.
Water Drainage Elements
Primary Function: To move water via gravity in a non-erosive way across and through the landscape.
Any time water encounters anything but a perfectly level surface, it will move. This movement is called drainage. Water will always move at right angle to contour in response to gravity on a non-level surface – i.e it will move straight down slope. Water will continue to move straight down slope until its course is somehow altered by something in its path. In this way water movement is predictable at the macro scale. This gives us the opportunity to design the patterns of water movement throughout our landscapes to reduce or eliminate any potential for damage while maximizing its productive use and ecological benefit.
Road Cross Drains
Drainage from road surfaces (and whether or not they were designed from a whole-systems perspective) has a huge impact on the productivity, resilience and ongoing maintenance costs for broadacre landscapes.
By employing the right drainage treatments designed to meet site-specific load and function requirements at the right frequency, road maintenance expenses can be reduced by an order of magnitude, erosion can be reduced or halted completely, and the water harvested from the road surfaces can be put to profitable use hydrating large areas of productive landscape.
Negative grade roll-in, dip drain, variable positive grade roll-out transitioning into a long gradual tail. 
Looking uphill at the dip drain standing on the compacted road base roll out. 
Rolling dip empties into armored drain. 
Rolling dip drain handling overflow from LPR market garden swale. 
Rolling dip draining across a farm access road to an exit drain. 
Rolling dip entry into the receiving swale via an armored energy dissipation pool. 
Rolling dip transiting across compacted roadbase driveway into a swale. 
Energy dissipation pool installed at remodeled culvert discharge. 
Remodeled culvert discharge with self-cleaning energy dissipation pool. 
Armored Fill Crossing 1: Dozer creating the broad, U-shaped dip for the armored fill crossing. IMAGE: Handbook For Forest, Ranch & Rural Roads – Pacific Watershed Associates. 
Armored Fill Crossing 2: Backhoe excavated keyway on downslope side, underlain with geotextile supporting rock armor. IMAGE: Handbook For Forest, Ranch & Rural Roads – Pacific Watershed Associates. 
Armored Fill Crossing 3: Adding the driveable fill. IMAGE: Handbook For Forest, Ranch & Rural Roads – Pacific Watershed Associates. 
Armored Fill Crossing 4: Discharging water in first rain event. IMAGE: Handbook For Forest, Ranch & Rural Roads – Pacific Watershed Associates. 
Belt diversions moving water off low-standard farm road. 
Belt diversion crossing a farm road. Belt drains should cross the road at a minimum 30 degree angle. 
Belt diversions will pop back up after being driven over. 
Belt diversion diverting water across road surface.
See the Water Drainage Elements post for detailed write-ups on the functions of and when vs. when not to use the following types of cross drains:
Overland Drains
Overland drains move water across non-hardscape surfaces. Their primary functional design aim is to move concentrated water flows without losing any soil to erosion. Overland drains are always armored, either geologically (with stone, rip-rap, concrete) or biologically (perennial grasses and plants with hairnet root systems), and most ideally a combination of both.
See the Water Drainage Elements post for detailed write-ups on the functions of and when vs. when not to use the following types of overland drains:
Grassed waterway draining corn fields. 
Grassed waterways should not be plowed, tilled or driven once constructed, and will serve as new field edges. 
Broadacre terraces with grassed waterway down the center. 
Cross sectional diagram of a grassed waterway. IMAGE: OMAFRA 
Grassed waterway parabolic cross section. 
Armored drain accepting discharge from a rolling dip leading down to pre-existing valley bottom drainage, discharging over a media luna style flow-spreading lip. 
Armored drain connection a rolling dip to an armored drainage with zuni bowl. 
Armored drain connecting to large zuni bowl. 
Armored drain connectin to large zuni bowl. 
Same armored drain leading from the rolling dip down to the pre-existing drainge path.
Spring Development
Springs are the ultimate sovereign water source, and often provide very high quality water. When we tap into springs, or retrofit old spring water collection systems, we do so with the goal of providing water for your needs and maintaining or improving the sensitive riparian habitats that typically surround springs. Often times a spring will provide the primary source of drinking water for wildlife for miles in any direction, and we design our spring water collection systems to provide accessible water for wildlife while still getting clean, cold water into a pipe for your needs.
Spring development is very site specific as no two springs are exactly alike. We design and install spring water collection, storage, distribution and low-tech purification systems for both discrete point-source and diffuse seepage spring heads.
Below are two videos detailing the installation of spring water collection and distribution systems we have installed at two different diffuse seepage spring heads.
Diagram of collection piping through rhizome barrier wall. 
Spring box below collection wall. 
Diagram of collection wall across the seep 
Cross section diagram of barrage wall, collection piping and filter package at SHR. 
Spring box plumbed to split flows between neighbors with overflow. 
Spring box and collection piping pre-assembled ready for installation. 
BEFORE: SHR spring head. 
AFTER: SHR spring head with collection wall, piping and filter package in place, ready to be capped. 
Water coming straight out of the rock – the best!
Water-Powered Pumping
Water can be pumped uphill using the energy in falling or flowing water. If you have a creek, river, or spring on your land and some fall to work with, you can pump water for free.
The type of water-powered pumping set up that may be right for your context depends on four primary criteria:
- Water Needs: Does your water source produce enough to meet your needs?
- Supply Head: How much vertical drop do you have to work with from your source to your pump location? This is what generates the energy to pump some of your water uphill.
- Flow Rate: How much flow you have will determine how much you can pump.
- Delivery Head: How high and how far do you need to lift and move the water?
Depending on the nature of your pumping scenario, generally on of the three following types of pumps will work; Hydraulic Ram Pump, River Pump or Bunyip Pump. See the playlist at right to learn more about these different water-powered pumping options >>>
Low-Tech Water Purification
Water filtration and purification is a critical component for grid-independent water sovereignty. Filtering water to potable quality for drinking, bathing and other use cases that require the highest quality water can be done at scale (hundreds to thousands of gallons per day) with simple systems that utilize readily available materials.
We help our clients set up properly scaled off-grid water filtration systems that require no electricity and no purchased filters that can be maintained by the owner for zero to no cost called bio-sand charcoal filters. Learn more about how bio-sand charcoal water filters work in this post and in this playlist >>>
Erosion Repair & Prevention
Soil erosion is the primary way that the productivity, function and long-term profitability of productive landscapes is diminished. Every erosion problem can be addressed to become an asset to the larger landscape in which it is located when implemented as part of a holistic water patterning plan.
At TSH we employ a range of time-tested structures and techniques using site-sourced or locally available materials that halt erosion damage and initiate natural revegetation and subsequent landscape rehydration processes.
Headcut Stabilization & Repair
Headcuts are particularly damaging to landscapes because once they form they continue moving up-watershed (kind of like unzipping a zipper, except they move uphill), growing in size and severity, causing ever-worsening erosion and dehydration of the surrounding terrain every time water flows through them. Headcuts are the primary way that incised gullies form.
Depending on the headcut size, the inherent characteristics of the contributing watershed, and on-site or local materials availability, different methods for stabilizing a headcut may be chosen:
- Zuni Bowls / Energy Dissipation Pools: Rock-armored plunge pools that create a pool of standing water to pacify inbound high-energy water flows.
- Armored Rundowns: Rock-armored ramps underseeded with perennial grasses or mat-forming vegetation.
- Log-Drop Structures: Step-down structures made from large logs, underlain with geotextile and bound together with wire.
Over time, these structures can be allowed to fill in with sediment and vegetation as the watershed repairs itself and healthy, lower-energy flow patterns are restored.
Illustration of headcut progression dynamics. 
Deep headcut incision eroding a pasture bottom. 
Leading headcut seen from up-watershed. 
Same headcut seen from down-watershed. 
Excavating the outlet of a clogged culvert to install a self-cleaning Energy Dissipation Pool to stop culvert plugging with sediment. 
Zuni bowl with optional 1% drain outlet to swale system. 
Zuni bowl with swale outlet activated by sandbags blocking the main channel discharge 
Zuni bowl in incised drainage. IMAGE: Ecology Artisans. 
Looking up-watershed at the zuni bowl and 1% drain. Large armored zuni bowl in incised drainage, fed by armored drain from rolling dip on road above. Energy dissipation pool installed at remodeled culvert discharge. Remodeled culvert discharge with self-cleaning energy dissipation pool.
Flow Spreaders & Concentrators
Most erosion processes result from too much water moving through too small an area too quickly. A major component of most erosion control systems is to restore sheet-flow (thin, uniform flow over a broad area) whenever possible. Conversely, in some cases it is best to concentrate dispersed flows, such as immediately before transiting a steep section of fragile landscape to move water into an armored drain.
Depending on the inherent characteristics of the contributing watershed, and on-site or local materials availability, different methods for spreading and concentrating flows may be chosen:
- Media lunas: Crescent-shaped level-topped structures made of knitted stone and undersown with perennial or mat-forming vegetation. Can be utilized to spread or concentrate flows depending on their orientation (tips up or down).
- Wood Chip Berms: Crescent-shaped level-topped shallow berms of wood chips for spreading flows and accumulating sediment to assist revegetation on sites with shallow grades.
- Brush Mineral Structures: Similar to wood chip berms, only made with brush and packed with subsoil.
- Vertical Straw Mulch: Leafs of baled straw set into the ground vertically in a shallow trench following contour – effective for maintaining dispersed flows, enhancing infiltration and aiding revegetation on bare ground.
Terracing and water patterning plan with media lunas slowing and dispersing flow in valley bottom at PFH. 
Final media luna flow spreader (right) just before the bottom swale at PFH. 
Last two media lunas spreading and slowing overland flow before bottom swale at PFH. 
Swale capturing driveway run-off set above terraced hillside orchard. 
Diagram of when to use media lunas “tips up” or “tips down”. IMAGE: Watershed Artisans.
Gully Restoration
Incised gullies do not get better on their own – at least on a time scale appreciable to people. Gullies are not neutral – they actively dehydrate the adjacent landscape by dropping the soil water table, encourage type-conversion from riparian to upland vegetation, and transport large amounts of topsoil and mineral subsoil down-watershed. This chokes small creeks and river with sediment, destroying fragile aquatic habitats.
Depending on the inherent characteristics of the contributing watershed, depth and grade of the gully, soil types, and on-site or local materials availability, different methods for initiating gully repair may be chosen:
- One-Rock Dams: Belts of knitted stone laid 4-6 rows wide across gully bottoms perpendicular to the direction of flow and one rock high. Used to create sediment deposition zones to promote moisture retention and revegetation. Built sequentially each season, ORDs help to aggrade (lift) the bottom of an incised drainage, ultimately reconnecting it with its former floodplain.
- Gully Packing: Laying and packing of cut, woody vegetation in gully bottoms with cut ends facing upstream, anchored with stakes and wire, to increase roughness, slow flow, increase sediment deposition and encourage revegetation.
- Plug & Spread: Knocking down gully walls with heavy machinery, creating “plugs” with the loose material, and patterning water from the plug points out on contour to level-sill spillways.
- Weirs: Constructed of posts and brush, or stone or masonry across the flow channel, weirs are small dams that are designed to be overtopped during a high-flow event, and are used for flood control, among other functions.
- Beaver Dam Analogues (BDAs): Man-made structures that mimic the form and function of beaver dams for flood control, bank rehydration and habitat creation.
- Post-Assisted Log Structures (PALS): Post-and-log structures set in a channel to mimic and promote natural accumulation of woody debris.
- And more…
Resulting erosion gully ripped open by the previously mentioned culvert discharge. 
18″ culvert that has ripped a 15′ deep gully down an entire steep watershed. Thousands of tons of soil LOST never to return. 
6′ deep erosion gully opened up by an unpacified culvert discharge point from a 12″ culver pipe. 
Diagram on a One-Rock Dam. 
One-Rock Dams in an incised gully. 
Setting in the splash apron for a One-Rock Dam.
Biological Erosion Control
Living erosion control systems get stronger and more effective over time. In addition to stabilizing the earth and protecting it from being washed away, living systems also enhance soil biology and water-storage capacity, yield valuable inputs in the form of mulch, feedstocks and crafting or building materials, and beautify the landscape (especially when compared to a concrete block retaining wall).
One of the most effective biological erosion control systems is planting vetiver grass on contour. Establishing perennial vegetation over bare soil is always a good idea, and every place has locally-adapted plant and tree species well-suited to the task
BEFORE: Eroding 65% grade slope. 
DURING: Installing the natural stone pathway. 
AFTER: Planted with vetiver grass and grown for several months. 
First cut of vetiver grass rows planted on contour. 
Slope covered in vetiver grass contour rows. 
Vetiver grass is a living retaining wall, capable of anchoring large stones in place with its stiff stems. 
Vetiver grass slips ready for planting. 
Vetiver grass planted for mulch retention and trunk shading beneath an Asian Pear tree. 
Mature vetiver grass grown in around rock pathway.
Access
The location of mainframe access is patterned around existing water flows to maximize year-round functionality and minimize maintenance time and costs. The functional requirements of the landscapes and systems an individual access route must serve are the primary determinants of its size and method of construction.
Aligning these factors to support the function of the whole system is the key to efficient movement throughout your landscape.
Vehicle Access
Low-standard (dirt, gravel, road base or native soil surfaced) access routes for motorized and animal-driven transport (carts, wagons).
We help you implement:
- New low-standard road patterning and implementation within production areas, such as terraces and ridge roads.
- Low-standard road remodeling, typically in conjunction with drainage modifications to enhance road function while also halting any associated erosion damage and improving the surrounding hydrology.
Pedestrian Access
Pedestrian access includes access routes for animal and human foot traffic. By designing efficient, user-friendly and low-maintenance access in from the start, the frequency and ease with which a homestead landscape can be observed and interacted with increases. The best fertilizer is the gardener’s shadow.
We help you implement:
- Semi-hardscape, softscape and bioscape paths as appropriate to place and required functions. This includes natural stone pathways and pavers interplanted with foot traffic tolerant groundcovers, as well as gravel, decomposed granite, and mulched pathways.
- Pathway stabilization and drainage for low-maintenance and longevity. The most frequent source of dysfunction for foot access is poor drainage patterning. By ensuring proper grading and pattering drainage water into infiltration elements, the footpath will require much less maintenance and contribute to the water harvesting potential of the landscape.
Steep slope switchback access path surveyed at 8% grade. 
Steep slope natural stone stairway access route. 
Public entrance to future nature school. 
Orchard plan on cut slope below the house, patterned on contour around footpath access. 
Market garden mainframe access layout at LPR. 
LPR market garden completed with mulched access paths. 
Natural stone pathway on steep slope anchored by vetiver grass and gravity glue. 
Natural stone pathways on steep slope anchored by vetiver grass and gravity glue.
Structures
The siting, orientation, mode of construction and design of built structures determines how well they function in their given climate context (i.e., staying cool when its hot out, and warm when its cold out). Everywhere people live they have developed ways to house themselves and other life forms using locally-sourced materials and inherited construction know-how.
By integrating time-tested natural building methods with appropriate modern materials and some basic DIY engineering, we can build healthy, comfortable, safe and affordable homes that will become a multi-generational asset.
Earthen Construction
Earth is the most widely-used building material on the planet – even today! It is estimated that a third of the global population still lives in housing at least partially built with earth. Earth is available everywhere, has excellent thermal properties, breathes and transmits moisture through the wall (instead of trapping it), enables free-form creative building and is beautiful to boot!
We have experience with small-scale earthen construction projects, including:
- Cob: Clay, sand and straw mixed to form monolithic walls and arches.
- Experience: Foundation bond beams, stick-frame wall infill, outdoor kitchen counter foundations, outdoor earthen pizza oven.
- Earthbag: Stacked woven polyethylene bags filled with damp soil containing at least some fraction of clay, tamped, with barbed wire used to connect one course to another. Capable of building domes and arches.
- Experience: Earth bag garden planters.
- Slip Straw Infill: Clay-coated straw packed into the voids within a stick-framed or wattle-and-daub structure to create lightweight, strong walls with a respectable R-value.
- Experience: Pallet-framed bath house with slip straw infill.
Pallet-framed Slip-Straw Infill Bath House
Bathhouse foundation with cob bond beam. 
Bathhouse foundation with cob bond beam and first pallets set. 
Bathhouse with first level of pallets complete and doorway framed. 
Pallets set into cob bond beam. 
Completed wall with slip-straw infill pallets. 
Window set into slip straw pallet walls. 
Bathhouse doorway with second tier of pallets and roof joists. 
Roof completed. 
Rough shape of the biological drain in the shower well. 
Shower well shaped and ready for pond liner. 
Pond liner underlayment for biological shower drain. 
Biological shower drain exit through wall into greywater bed outside, just before filling with gravel. 
Biological drain to greywater pit outside bathhouse. 
Rough but functional interior of bathhouse. 
Rought but functional exterior of bathhouse before plastering.
Walnut Slab Outdoor Kitchen Counter-Top
Living Systems
Living systems designed and managed in alignment with site-specific natural pattern and your own Quality of Life needs are the most resilient and effective way to create a homestead that works for you and appreciates in value over time.
The living systems you choose to implement and make a part of your life will be a direct reflection of who you are and what is important to you as well as the inherent characteristics of your landscape and bioregion. As such, it is worth investing the time, energy and resources to implement these systems well – because they will be providing for you for years (and hopefully generations) to come.
The greater the life expression capacity of your landscape, the greater your ability to live healthy, wealthy and free will be.
Agroforestry Systems
Agroforestry is a catch-all term for managing multi-species tree-based systems for the production of valuable products (food, fiber, fodder, fuel, timber, medicine and more) often in concert with livestock and annual crops. The benefits generated by agroforestry practices are both economic and environmental. Agroforestry can increase farm profitability by increasing total aggregate yields per unit area with mutually beneficial tree/crop/livestock combinations, reducing the harmful effects of wind on crops and livestock, and by generating additional products that add income streams for the enterprise.
Agroforestry systems are managed intensively as whole systems – it is the relationships between the various living elements that make for a resilient, productive and profitable whole.
Silvopasture
Silvopasture is the intentional combining of tree systems and livestock, often with the addition of livestock fodder trees. Holisticially managed silvopasture systems can dramatically increase the number of calories grown per acre to feed livestock and thus significantly increase the carrying capacity of the landscape, in addition to providing a wide array of additional yields such as fruit, nuts, timber, fuelwood, medicinals and more.
Read our article Silvopasture: Sustainable Food Systems For The Era Of Energy Descent to learn more about the power of trees in pastures.
Goats enjoying black locust shoots. Image Credit: Brett Chedzoy. 
Paulownia coppiced fodder trees. 
Cattle grazing a stand of leucaena. 
Carob trees provide a carbohydrate rich pod during the driest, droughtiest times of the year – a favorite for pigs! 
Tagasaste is a non-bloating high-protein legume tree that can be coppiced or grazed several times in a season. 
American persimmon is an excellent late-fall through winter carbohydrate crop loved by just about every grazing animal. 
Mimosa can be used as fodder for goats late in the summer when its foliage has matured. Makes excellent bee forage too. 
White ash leaves can be eaten by livestock fresh or ensiled and stored for winter feed. 
Linden leaves are highly palatable to a variety of livestock. 
The widely-hated yet incredibly functional autumn olive – makes excellent feed for all types of grazing livestock. 
Cows enjoying the shade of and browsing the branch tips of a honey locust tree. 
Cows enjoying some ensiled shredded leaf material. 
Poplars make excellent browse crops for grazing livestock – and they grow incredibly fast! 
White Mulberry – one of the nearly universal standby fodder trees. 
Sheep grazing on cut willow branches. 
Black locust poles harvested in a silvopasture system. IMAGE: Brett Chedzoy 
Cows enjoying the dappled shade of a black locust silvopasture block. Image Credit: Brett Chedzoy
Forest Gardening & Food Forestry
“Gardening like the forest.”
Perennial polycultures of multi-purpose trees and plants, arranged to mimic the 7+ layer structure of natural forests, intentionally designed to produce the 7 F’s for humans (food, fuel, fiber, fodder, fertilizer, “farmaceuticals” – a.k.a. medicinals – and fun).
Orchard Retrofits
Conventional orchards tend to sacrifice resilience and ecological function for efficiency and maximized yield of a single or few crop varieties. We help clients with conventional orchards looking to increase profitability, production and function to diversify their yield, grow their own fertilizer, reduce pests by growing habitat for predators, integrate livestock and integrate passive water harvesting structures amidst existing orchards.
All of these aspects and more serve a whole-systems approach to managing and producing tree crops.
