Desert plants are typically placed on the west side of a greenhouse to ensure they receive a suitable balance of sunlight and shade throughout the day. This is because the sun sets in the west, and light becomes more intense as the day goes on. Desert greening is a process of afforestation or revegetation of deserts for ecological restoration, sustainable farming, and forestry.
Destiny greenhouses are often used in areas with high winds, as they can damage greenhouse glazing and snow. Climate change threatens the ecology of deserts by increasing wildfires and altering the environment. Desert plants have been using similar strategies to beat drought for thousands or millions of years. In the deserts of the southwestern United States and northern Mexico, native desert plants have managed to survive drought for thousands or millions of years.
The direction of a slope impacts how well the sun is able to warm soil and plants. Slopes that are south and/or west facing collect the most sun. Desert greenhouses are challenging in the summer, but many people insulate their north wall and part of the roof. Permaculture techniques and rainwater collection are used to grow food in these greenhouses. Some greenhouse models, like Ceres’ designs, allow year-round growth regardless of local climate.
Matshona Dhliwayo states that if seeds waited for perfect conditions to grow, there would be no plants in the desert. The cooling effect of the plants in the greenhouse is primarily due to the cooling effect of the plants. If the sun rises and runs the length of the structure east to west, it will bring optimal natural light, sun, and photosynthesis to crops.
📹 Is Arizona too HOT for GREENHOUSES?
If you live in a hot summer climate, you may have wondered if a greenhouse would be beneficial. Questions like: Would a …
What is the bad side of greenhouse effect?
Greenhouse gases have significant environmental and health impacts, including climate change, respiratory disease, extreme weather, food supply disruptions, and wildfires. They also cause species migration or growth. To reduce greenhouse gas emissions, every sector of the global economy, from manufacturing to agriculture, transportation, and power production, must evolve away from fossil fuels. The Paris Climate Agreement of 2015 acknowledged this reality, with 20 countries responsible for at least three-quarters of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions, with China, the United States, and India leading the way.
Technologies for ramping down greenhouse gas emissions include swapping fossil fuels for renewable sources, boosting energy efficiency, and discouraging carbon emissions by putting a price on them. These solutions aim to reduce the negative effects of climate change and ensure a sustainable future for all.
Do greenhouses need to be south facing?
Large greenhouses should be facing east-west, with the door at the western end, to fully expose them to the sun from the south, especially during winter when it captures more light. This orientation is best for over-wintering tender plants. North-south-facing greenhouses with doors at the south end benefit from summer sunshine but not the full force of hot midday sun, making them ideal for growing crops like tomatoes, cucumbers, and peppers.
Where not to put a greenhouse?
Place a greenhouse under tall trees to reduce sunlight and prevent glass damage. High walls, hedges, and trees can serve as windbreaks, providing shelter without blocking light. These barriers keep plants warm and prevent wind damage during storms. However, it’s important to ensure the trees are a suitable distance to provide shelter without blocking light. Providing ample room for cleaning and maintenance is crucial for maintaining a healthy greenhouse environment.
Where is the best spot for a greenhouse?
To ensure optimal growth, set up your greenhouse in a location with ample sunlight, natural daylight, and protection from harsh winds and frost pockets. Keep in mind that hot air rises and cold air sinks, so slopes may remain frosty longer. Avoid locating your greenhouse in damp or prone areas due to poor drainage and lack of sunlight. If planting in the ground inside the greenhouse, build it on level ground with good soil. However, this is less important for grow bags, pots, or raised beds with compost.
Where should you not put a greenhouse?
Place a greenhouse under tall trees to reduce sunlight and prevent glass damage. High walls, hedges, and trees can serve as windbreaks, providing shelter without blocking light. These barriers keep plants warm and prevent wind damage during storms. However, it’s important to ensure the trees are a suitable distance to provide shelter without blocking light. Providing ample room for cleaning and maintenance is crucial for maintaining a healthy greenhouse environment.
What is the best direction for a greenhouse?
Positioning a greenhouse with a North-South ridge orientation ensures equal light distribution on both sides. East-West orientations receive more sun on the South-facing side, making it preferable. If shading is used, it only needs to be on the South-facing side. Ideally, aim for about a meter of clearance space around the greenhouse for easier access and maintenance. This also reduces the amount of shade cast on the structure.
What side of the house is best for a greenhouse?
If a greenhouse cannot face directly south, a southwest or southeast-facing greenhouse is possible. Southeast is preferable as it receives the morning sun, which helps heat up the greenhouse after it has cooled down overnight. The morning sun also helps plants warm up after being stressed and activates photosynthesis. However, caution is advised when choosing a southwest or completely west-facing greenhouse, as the afternoon sun can overheat the greenhouse.
Building a greenhouse without adequate southern exposure is not recommended unless there are limitations in what can be grown. Cool-weather and low-light crops thrive in east-facing greenhouses, while heat-loving crops like tomatoes and peppers thrive in west-facing greenhouses. Supplementing light may be necessary for proper fruiting.
Is East or West Green House the best?
East-facing greenhouses are ideal for plants that prefer cooler temperatures or are sensitive to excessive heat. They are located in the ‘Goldilocks’ location, not too hot or too cold, and receive morning sunlight, providing gentle warmth and promoting early growth. Automatic ventilation is necessary for these greenhouses, as the sun rises earlier in the UK. Advantages include receiving morning sunlight, protection from intense afternoon sun, and being ideal for plants that prefer cooler temperatures or are sensitive to excessive heat.
What is the least desirable location for a greenhouse?
The optimal location for a greenhouse is typically on the south or southeast side of a house, in a sunny area that receives the most sun from autumn to winter. If this option is not available, the east side, southwest or west side, or north side is the best option. The greenhouse should be positioned lengthwise from north to south, providing more light and less shade. The location near trees or bushes may result in leaves, sap, and sticky honeydew littering the structure. It is also important to avoid building the structure at the base of a slope, where cold air collects and is prone to frost. Ensure the area is level and well-draining.
What are the 5 disadvantages of greenhouse?
Greenhouse farming presents a number of challenges, including the necessity for expertise, significant upfront costs, the requirement for extensive knowledge to ensure successful crop growth, high operational costs, considerable maintenance, space consumption, and a lengthy project duration.
Should a greenhouse be east to west?
The sun’s trajectory of ascent and subsequent course along a given structure’s length, from east to west, provides optimal natural illumination, solar exposure, and conditions conducive to photosynthesis for crops. Conversely, a north-to-south orientation may result in some crops being subjected to shading.
📹 How This Woman Turned Arizona’s Desert into a Farmland Oasis
Southern Arizona is known for its desert climate, with very hot summers and mild winters. This climate has meant the region has …
🔔 Subscribe to youtube.com/@LeafofLifeMusicOfficial 🌳 Support our projects to restore degraded land and regenerate natural ecosystems: leafoflife.news/ 🎥 Support our article work, helping us to improve our articles, upgrade our equipment & share more informative articles like this one here: patreon.com/leafoflifefilms The results of restoring a watershed are astonishing!!! 💦🌿 What do you think, do we need more of this? Find out more about Dr Norman’s research for USGC in this article here youtu.be/c2tYI7jUdU0
There was a bunch of farms in Australia who ripped out trees and shrubs because it was believed that they just sucked up all the water. The land got drier as a result. One farmer went against the trend and put all those trees and shrubs back in and his farm flourished. The government was trying to force him to rip up all the plants he planted because they believed they knew better. Other farmers looked at his farm and started doing the same thing and their farms flourished too. Only until the government sold the land out from under him for a strip mine did the farmer fail.
To make a desert bloom is to add water. Here in the United State of Nevada,. a desert State, we have a species of Beaver, an aquatic mammal that build dams. Nevada’s Beavers build dams in streams that had regularly dried up in the dry season, and they transform the area into a lush desert oasis with trees and sweet water flowing year round. Maybe our Beavers can transform the dried up streams in Austrailia, China, Mongolia, and the Sahara to help reverse desertification. Beaver ponds sustain fish, wildlife, and can provide irrigation water. and water for livestock. The Beaver dams slow the water flow so the water can be absorbed by the land. Beavers work for no wages. They will build you fantastic dams, plus do all the maintenance, and all you have to do is keep the Beaver safe and happy.
Absolutely beautiful native American farming practices. The corn provide a stalk for the beans. The beans provided nitrogen to the soil, and the squash provided ground cover for the soil. That’s coming back into practice in large commercial farms. Laying two crops at the same time. One for ground cover and one for an addional crop. That way you can get twice the yield with the same amount of water, fuel and fertilizer. The natives had that down to a science hundreds of years ago.
That’s wonderful. Such simple technology…. In the dry Serengeti of East Africa they are employing a method of digging depression holes at regular intervals to hold the water. It’s making a difference as more plants and animals are returning to these areas. These old traditional technologies are often simple and the most effective.
Same as in Australia! Cotton is SOOO greedy for water. However, growing hemp would greatly reduce water use and it is fine for clothing whilst not needing so many pesticides etc! Anita Roddick founder of the ethical “Body Shop” chain used some of her wealth to push the use of hemp products and clothing I believe to no avail. The cotton industry is v powerful and refuses to embrace far more sustainable plants. Interestingly, ONLY 1% of cotton clothing is actually recycled around the World. Kind of says it all very sadly!
Something I just noticed yesterday was how soft the soil has become after a severe drought this summer was quenched by heavy rainfall. The soil was so parched, that it actually was splitting apart. After the rain, the top layer broke off, like a flake, and all of the soil, even underneath is extremely soft. It’s shocking. It makes me wonder if this actually is nature’s way of tilling the soil. Basically, even drought can have benefits.
The EXACT opposite is happening here in Arizona, we’re quickly turning in to one large desert as our forests are either being cut down or trees dying from severe lack of rain and snow. AZ’s largest natural lake is completely dried up and water is becoming more and more scarce. I suggest everyone to plan on leaving the southwest U.S. when you get the chance.
For those interested this is a practice called permaculture to my knowledge it is only used on private owners lands but should be used wide spread. That being said it is getting hotter and hotter every year here in AZ and we’re getting what feels to be less and less rain fall to compensate for the current usage
Great article, and amazing how older tried and true techniques, often adopted from indigenous cultures, can restore green growth in arid regions. We should all take a lesson from this, and these techniques should be promoted to regenerate productive agricultural land in arid regions around the globe. The results shown in this article speak for themselves! Why is this not being widely promoted and disseminated, so that all farms in arid regions could again become productive? One has to wonder why this is the case?
No doubt she also has had a decent moneypot to do something like this Good on her for not being greedy, for returning more to the planet than most, but its simply NOT possible if one doesnt have authority/ownership over the land in 1st place n that takes money and/or local government I DO love perusal restoration vids, seeing the difference people CAN make when they have access to resources etc for that hypothetical oneday when i might be able to do something similar
Rock dams, aka Leaky Weirs, Australian invention, Peter Andrews. Keyline Water management, Australian invention, P A Yeomans. He also invented the deep chisel plough to break apart hard pan, or compaction layers without turning over the soil and compromising whatever the underground life had already built. Work that has been followed by Regenerative Agriculture with names like Allan Savory (Sthn Rhodesian) with many others in both Science and application. Which all began in the 1950s with a paper by Andre Voisin (a Frenchman). Regen Ag farmers most of all needs informed customers (looking for increased nutrition) to help them buy or lease more land to wrest it from the greedy and reckless claws of Industrial Agriculture and Agribusiness. Regen Keywords, Ecosystem, Habitat, Rain water retention and sequestration, Carbon capture and sequestration, it’s all about the soil (not dirt), growing not killing, etc. Well worth a deep dive.
I will & want to volunteer to “REBIRTH” Mother Nature❤️ I have been educating myself & others (mostly children). The love for Mother Nature & all of the benefits, especially her soil. It truely makes me sick to know that alot of people like to use “weed” killer, they are NOT weeds. I know I am self taught & I can heal my own body, with the knowledge of my own hands on education ❤️ Thank you all for the REBIRTH of our LAND❤️🙏
really incredible. it should be noted that the primary technology here isn’t the rock itself but that theyre designed to slow and percolate water. vegetation or small earth dams and swales also work for this purpose! water the most effective sustainable design is locally should be used, and I figure there was a lot of rock available there in Arizona and Sonora
Good thing we didn’t use up all the rocks during the stone age.😁 This gives me some ideas for my own land. At this time we are going through a serious drought in Texas. Over 600,000 acres have burned so far. I hate to say this but many of my fellow Texans don’t seem to see this as a problem. Even after the disaster we had in 2021.
Great article. If you’re looking for an interesting topic for another article maybe you could look into terra preta soils in S. America. While there are vidoes about them, no one’s talking about how and where they are still in use today, what kind of food and abundance they are still providing. Just a suggestion
This is such good news. Thank you for sharing this and for all the work that you are doing. I was worried for Arizona, and I still am, because many ignorant people are farming out there and they are very unwise the way the suck the land dry of water without caring for the land. This woman and her organization are a breath of fresh air, a hope for all humanity. I pray to God that more people like her will be blessed to do work like this. I also pray that more journalist and media outlets will do more intelligent work like Leaf Of Life because the people need it. Thanks again
the last 7 years in Arizona has been in a very mild summers, we have had tons of rain and we have been cooler in the winters, this last year was the greenest it has been all over the valley. It will be a hot summer and most likely this winter it will still be hotter than the last 7 years. Prior to the last 7 years it has always been hotter and Decembers were always still in the 80″s. It is a cycle..and will continue to be a cycle..
Nice. Love this. I’m from central Texas. There were once two small creeks within our once-rural neighborhood that flowed and supported life, including fish. The series of creeks throughout the area would all empty out into a bigger creek a few miles away that’s the size of a small river. I would pick big red wild crawfish out of the waters with my fingers. We would catch some of the baby crawfish and take them back to my buddy’s house where they had a flowing water pond/feature in their backyard, and we would put the baby crawfish in there to hopefully grow. (Didn’t work, bad idea! We were kids.) Snakes and other wildlife were so abundant that it was almost a bit of a problem. Over the years in the wild land surrounding our neighborhood where the population used to be zero, they developed massive housing communities where there are now tens of thousands of people living in various types of buildings; from townhomes to condos to apartments, but mostly houses. The two creeks within our neighborhood went dry one summer from a mixture of the destruction of the wild land around them for construction, and also a summer drought. Construction crews filled in the bigger of the two mostly-dry (at the time) limestone-bed creeks with tons of dirt and concrete, turning it into a drainage runoff area with some concrete ditches throughout. The smaller creek never recovered. The bigger of the two, which is now a drainage runoff area, tries to recover whenever it’s a wet season, but it will only recover down to the tiniest trickle flow of water that is now guided along by concrete troughs where there used to be limestone creek beds.
Start from the flood plains of existing mayor rivers. Step 1: Excavate shallow, meandering canals and make the rock dams to allow the creeks to form. Step 2: Hire a family of beavers to make ponds and turn the plains around the canals into wetlands. Step 3: Once the beavers have made enough discharge canals for their ponds, use them as reference to start making chinampas (import the help of some expert xochimilcas). Step 4: Establish the system of companion crops (corn, squash, beans, etc.) to maintain the health of the chinampas. Step 5: Once you have enough chinampas and they’ve reached their maximum expected output within the rotation system, then you can plan business around the minimum yields.
Also a guy who did this in Switzerland or Austria, but on top of a small mountain. He basically terraformed it to create a pond and made it verdant and lively where as it was or used to barren and rocky. Idk his name. Also, the co founder of church’s chicken did the same. He used his money to buy a ranch and transformed it. There’s a documentary about him on YouTube. This is a cool subject.
We could probably have golf courses but when marinsi copper mines go around buying up pecan orchards and huge tracts of farm land at maximum price just to own the water rights and let the fields and orchards die and irrigation ditches fall into disrepair so they can feed their copper mountain eating habits): we must regulate the hunger of greed
Arizona is and has been in a stage 2 water shortage for the majority of the pandemic. We’re running out of clean drinkable water. Arizona is not a farmland oasis it doesn’t have any natural bodies of water all the lake water comes from the Colorado mountains. There’s a drought of almost biblical proprtions on the horizon for us still here in arizona
During the Great Drought, cities were abandoned to mountain canyons. There, they built series of dams up the canyons. This slowed runoff, and collected rocks and gravel. Water might flow for days carrying rich silt off the mountains. Cattlemen did much the same, using rock spreader dams. Today, ranchers cut the land into pastures. Each one might be grazed but once a year. Cattle have replace bison. Manure dropped by cattle is used by termites and dung beetles and buried. Grasses and brush are trampled to where insects can reach it to seed or otherwise use. This prevents wildfires. When Bighorn wildfire burned out of control, it stopped a few miles from town, right where cattle pastures began. niio
ive got land in NW arizona that needs this. there is a wash going through it and if i dont do something in the next 5 years the head cut at the bottom will reach my property line. i already decided to dig a 2 to 3 acre pond at the top of my property and tie the wash into it to feed it, was trying to figure out how best to do it, sounds like zuni bowls all down the wash is a good idea. i have tried swales and i had clover type plants growing in the places that retained the water, but they have gotten washed out in the 3 years since i had them cut…
How effective can intelligent water use be? Take a garden in a hot climate and water it every day and see how much water it takes even if you do it in the evening or however in the morning so it soaks in compared to same garden same climate only fill a 2 l jug with water that has a coat hanger size hole at the bottom in the lid slightly loosened as a regulator half buried next to the plants. You can grow the same plants with a fraction of the amount of water.
This lady’s work is amazing. I say this as someone who grew up in Arizona and saw firsthand just how hard climate change is destroying the entire state. The emergency water supplies and aquifers are drying up. Reservoirs and manmade lakes that were meant to store water for the population are practically gone. Look at the maps of Lake Powell and Lake Mead then and now just to get an idea on how much water the desert is losing.
In these very hot climates, if you have afternoon shade from compact, upright trees, the crops or grasslands grow better and need less water. With a system of protective afternoon shade, you don’t lose much in productivity. I notice here in South Texas on my sandy soil, the grass is lush and green where there is afternoon shade. The people who have removed trees have caused desertification. Unfortunately, growing two or more crops together makes automated harvest difficult. However with rows of tall cedars or junipers, shade is obtained, and there is room for harvesting equipment, and crops can be rotated. We need classes about sustainable practices available in evening classes wherever there is agricultural activity. The fact is that you don’t learn about these practices unless you get a 4 year degree or read a lot of books. Farmers and ranchers need classes on evenings and weekends to learn best practices, as they don’t have time or money to get a degree. In many agricultural parts of Texas, there are no practical classes on farming in the local junior colleges! This is utterly crazy. The water authorities should sponsor and promote classes with ranchers and farmers using the practices sharing their techniques.
i have an inquary about a River system that could benefit from rock dams or levies, the only down side is every 5 to 10 years the river floods and any and all structures with exception of 1 sustaining rock dam allow it to flood but retain water to a level or degree to be sustaining. especially since some areas of the river have underground natural springs all down the river. any incite to creating better levies as apose to actual dams would greatly increase the sustainability of the region since water is at times a scarcity in the largest parts of this river system. any incite to bettering this is appreciated
Based on data sets from local an the data from India you could turn Phoenix Arizona Megaplex in to a forest.. Which with the deserts east and west and south would aid in Dust for Moister capturing by the Trees etc. Interestingly THE Stoopid highway could be Façaded water reclamation through local Transpiration..
A lot of this type of article that I come across are about showing off the greenery, but never really touch on the processes used to water them. Greenery is great, but it needs to be done using some sort of sustainable water sourcing, if you don’t have that then it is just wasting time and effort. I am glad this article at least touched on the rock dams to explain it.
there used to be a article of selhma wells in texas, this guy bought overgrown mesquite land and removed the mesquite and tried drilling for water but found a sponglike rock formation that he drilled side ways into after putting grass in place. the grass also stops water and drained it to the more cistern but maybe aquifer. has 7 springs coming out i wanted to ty a massive scale swiss cheesing of a mountain and massive terraforming triangle cuts to force water to the drainage points. i thought at elephant butte lake the east montain chain would be a good place
If we could replicate this across the entire southwest, and up through the arid plains, just that increase in green biomass would sequester vast amounts of CO2 from the atmosphere. Adding well-managed herbivores into that system would take it to the next level… probably enough to reverse climate change right there.
Rocks increase the flow downdstream? Not if the rocks are used in building dams. The science is simple, water fills up the reservoirs in the wet season to be used in the hot season and prevent droaughts. So simple and yet A LOT of work. Its not really complicated. Plant local trees, build reservoirs, dont overgraze and long term the land will benefit and the humans. And rock dams have been used since the invention of agriculture, humans observed that either way its better to have small dams than no dams since water has a place to stay in for longer period of time. Dams, wells, ditches, small holes, pipes, terraces… its amaizing how people seem to forget about them
During this global warming period plants in the torrid regions seem to wilt and die, but there are lots of methodss like applying edible cactus to be planted in massive population in order to enhance the soil on retaining moisture but grinding or chapping harvested cactus and disperse it back to the dessert or feed it to animals which animal discharges can help dessert soil becomes more moisteneed
We look around the world and see that there a number of countries that are implementing large scale community paced projects to restore ground water and to stimulate farming ranching practices fortunately many items are shared on this platform our choice is to challenge our selfs our communities and our leadership to invest in trying old practices to change things for hopefully a positive return. Nothing ventured nothing gained
Arizona has different kinds of climates, land and soil, some of them are sandy deserts (Yuma, Lake Havasu), other are forest mountains (Sedona, Flagstaff) and others are the High sonoran desert (Phoenix, Tucson), that has cactus, brushes, trees, etc. so, where does this woman made this creek and trees? (oasis)?
Hopefully one day we might be able to consider a hypothesis currently hypothetically speaking it is possible to build a 3 square kilometer Mountain for 15 million dollars and because it is 3 km in height because humidity Rises it will put snow at the top of the mountain which in turn will form into water at the lower section and assuming we could build a second Mountain and connect the two mountains at the bottom the bottom portion will have an eternal watering system because the two peaks at the mountain are both 3 km High which against snow will form and will put water on the lower section which is all made by people and potentially with this system we will allow people to make their own land for farming which is separate from the land that people live on but this project would cost in the field of 50 million dollars somewhere in that ball field
looks beautiful but it doesn’t stop the large farms from drilling down into and emptying the aquifer. Just go to SE Kansas and see: they have been pumping up sand from their aquifer for a decade because they overused it. They knew that they were overusing it and still did it. We just have to change our habits. Some places, like the SW cannot stand up to this high water demand any longer. It’s just a fact.
It would be nice if as a Nation we would tranfer excessive fresh water from one place to another that needs it. In Florida every time there’s Hurricanes the state dumps fresh water from our canal system into the Ocean which causes damage. I could imagine the good it would do in places that are desert areas.
You shouod google the “Tucson swales” Its kretty cool. Just went out and built small damns in in arroyos. Niw there are these green islands out in the desert. Pretty neat example.. Ive sen sinilar exampkes in smal ppaces in Africa. I think theres a middle easten lricess with an intitiative doing something similar. I cant remember her name.
We need to understand that being at the top of the pyramid of creation means that everything we do trickles down the structure, from top to bottom. When it reaches the bottom, the inanimate level of reality, from which everything grows, it changes it. If we ooze ill-will, it creates negative changes throughout the system, which manifest in increasingly extreme climatic and geological events. In other words, when human relationships go out of balance, everything goes out of balance. When our relations become extreme, everything becomes extreme; when we become violent, everything becomes violent. Each summer, the ramifications of the linkage between our relations and our world become more extreme, until we acknowledge that everything that exists, exists in a connected, hierarchical system and that whoever is at the top determines the state of the rest of the system. It is not as if previously, we were better people than we are today. It is simply that there were fewer people, and therefore fewer elements that exude ill will. Also, relationships between people in the past were less toxic than they are today. While there are fewer wars today than ever, the levels of suspicion and alienation between people are skyrocketing, to the point where people can no longer trust their own family members. As a result, wars between countries are rarer than ever, but divorce rates, domestic violence, and violence in the community, are at an all-time high. Even the internet, which we invented purportedly in order to connect people, is being used to abuse, deceive, and exploit people.
This type of approach can be achieved on a large scale or small. Better on a large scale simply because it has a greater impact of the surrounding landscape. It does however, mean massive changes for those used to large scale ranching and mono-agriculture. Expensive changes they will eventually have to accept or lose their farms altogether to a lack of water. Generally speaking: People don’t like to change… they resist it. Inevitably, those who don’t adapt – fail. That’s probably what it will take. It takes people with fresh eyes to see the potential and start the process of change. We have the knowledge today to reclaim virtually ALL desert areas right across the world. We have a ridiculous narrative of impending doom through “climate change” — meanwhile the evidence these fools would like to assign to their mad theories is merely the poor custodian-ship of the land. We have the knowledge AND SCIENCE to redefine how we use the land in a way the nurtures as opposed to destroying it. We have the intelligence to PROFIT from this process but… we have a system of structural and entrenched thinking… the toxic industrialization of agriculture that supports a form of consumerism that is clearly obsolete. Change must happen – government gets in the way more often than not – and Green New Deal objectives are causing more problems than solutions. There are however… truly holistic solutions which get ignored by many because they are unable to separate the Green New Deal Nonsense from useful and highly productive environmentally sound practices and the potential they offer.
Modern farming is more akin to mining. And because the eternal parasitic interest rates hanging over the hardworking farmers head like a Damocles sword, there is a permanent urge for expansion. Never enough, always more, more, more. More artificial fertilizers, more herbicides, more pesticides, more GMO seeds. And it goes on and on, until the collapse of the ecosystem. “No.problem”, the eternal parasites don’t care, they just move to another planet and repeat their “game”. The woman in this story is a heroine, trying and succeeding in restoring our most precious environmental conditions. An example to be followed!!
The corporate food system needs to dismantled (brought to the US in the personage of Earl Butz, Nixon’s Secretary of Agriculture) and replaced with non-corporate farms and ranches. Individual farmers will figure out and do what it takes to stop the degradation of their land. Corporations won’t. They’ll just buy up more land and ruin that too.
Isn’t this article out of date last I heard there has been a massive refill of of water change to rainfall and snow build up that most of the reservoirs are nearly full plus the drained lake o taho ( or similar name don’t recall it’s spelling ) has flooded for first time in 25 years to the point its expected to take two years at least to drain
I admire that womans’ fore thought and vision. Most of The Northern Sonoran Desert can be sown, as long as the ones who develop and build those huge ‘planned living communities ‘, lile Anthem, to the north, eat up all of the water in support of their multibillion dollar dollar developments. They blame the ranchers in an effort to wipe out the means for us to have access to high quality protien at an affordable price! This is propaganda, people! Don’t believe anything they are saying!
The system is called Low-Tech Process-Based Restoration. This is nothing new. Bill Zeedyk was the man who developed this form of bioengineering. They are also known as “Zeedyk structures” in which multiple types of structures are used for water retention and erosion limitation. Combined with the LTPBR steps, watershed’s that were once dry are being completely restored in the Intermountain West and the Pacific Northwest. This woman is doing what has been taught at Utah State University for over 20 years. beaver dam analogues (BDAs) and post-assisted log structures (PALS)—for initiating process-based restoration in structurally-starved riverscapes. NRCS has been providing assistance in restoration efforts. Just goes to prove, nothing is new.
I was an Environmental Engineer. This article has many facts scrambled. There were never many trees here in the Desert. Leaf of Life is probably referring to the high country, which is not a desert. There is also the remarkable assumption that by doing special things, plants grow, and thus we can do that everywhere. No. There is still going to be a limited amount of rain falling from the sky. Those special things are Taking Water from One Area and Concentrating it in Another. The result is Most areas get even Less Water than they naturally had, and now humans have stressed or even damaged the majority of the land. That means plants, animals, insects, and the whole biodiversity is kicked in the teeth. The birds, ground creatures, bugs, etc are now going to come to your nice gardens. Then you’ll be doing additional “creative things” to kill them. OH! you merely discourage them with healthy, wholesome things like cayenne, garlic, rosemary, and Dawn dish soap. Ummm, that means they can’t eat; they starve. You killed them. Sure, call me a grump. I’ll continue calling you naive. — Actually, there ARE RIGHT WAYS to do it. I am making an oasis, but there are more wrong ways to do it than correct ways. This article says, “Valer Clark Austin from New York City knew nothing of rural life…” and “I’m an old lady with no training, and if I can make a difference, anybody can do it. Anybody with a good will can go out and do something.” But WHAT is that difference? Making 40 beautiful acres and 400 ruined acres.
why do they have a study talking about anthropogenic climate trends is disenengenous when the reality is the drought is caused be these areas being logged and cleared. if anyone has been perusal leaf of life may realize is that the environment is destroyed and changed into desert because man uses grazing and farming. these clear the land, this then leads to no top soil, then wind erosion, then it rains but because of no top soil and vegetation and trees, there is no slowing of water, then there is no sponging of the water into the land, this leads to drier soil and less green and more browning that we call then as desert like environment. so yes, it is anthropogenic but it is definitely not climate trends!
It is amazing that people keep working against Nature with failure, and more damage to the soil as a result. Shouldn’t farmers be the ones with the knowledge of how to sustain the land? But farmers learn how to use pesticides instead. Israel has managed to turn their deserts into lush, tree-grown land with the help of drip irrigation. Trees are rooted and grown successfully with the Growasis-box, even in deserts and on mountain sides. When trees and bushes grow, they change first the micro climate, and then rain starts falling again.
Odd that this article began by explaining how important and valuable Arizona’s (industrial) agriculture is, and then praising a practice that will never be able to compete with industrial agriculture. And will never be able to feed even Arizona’s own population. Don’t get me wrong: I love regenerative land use. It’s truly exciting to see the land come back… but it won’t fix every problem people think it will.
For millennia farmers preserved the land without knowing the science. Then, for convenience, they adopted new ways that were unsustainable, causing deserts. This practice is being reversed by a more conscious approach, e.g., understanding the soil health as the basis of farming. For example, controlled grazing stimulates the pasture, naturally, intelligently without use of chemicals. But, it requires thought. It takes paying attention to specifics of your area, making small changes based on observations. This rewards experience, self ed.
I live there. This just isn’t true. People just don’t live there in about 30 mile radius. Flood flows off the mountains just sink in anyway. Communities of consequence are usually 30-40 miles apart. That’s a lot of rain competing with soil for space AND a lot sponged off the bedrock mountains. As long as you don’t have to be polite with neighbors and contribute to the tax-man’s arsenal . . . SURE, you’re going to be pastoral and serene. But the water’s going to do what they’re claiming THEY’RE doing. And the taxman’s going to tell us we’re trespassing on ‘their’ planet.
Very commendable, but, this is one microscopic part of the issue. I reckon the bigger challenge is the issue of wholesale destruction and overuse of the planets resources on a global scale. It strikes me that there are far too many people in zones that are no longer able sustain the population. Combine that with the impact of economic activities on the eco-systems and there is only one conclusion to be drawn. There are far too many people conducting their lives in a way that it detrimental to the planet. Most of whom live in western industrialised nations. There needs to be a managed global population strategy aimed at reducing the population alongside a culture/strategy of re-using and recycling what we have already, to reduce the need to consume more. I feel if we don’t do this ourselves in a manner that is managed globally, we’re looking at increasing conflict and turmoil as never seen before on a scale that will be utterly catastrophic for humanity. Which in essence will be ‘Nature’ doing it’s own thing – regulating and balancing things out. If this turns into a humanity ending war, the planet will survive in the longer term. The sad thing is, we as a species don’t seem capable of working at scale to find a solution. These types of projects need to be up-scaled in their millions all over the world.
It’s defies belief that countries as arid as Australia and SW USA are huge cotton producers. It is a abhorrent crop that has no place in these countries and we know in Australia it has devastated land and rivers. The fact it took a 20 year megadrought to even start acting in Arizona is also an utter disgrace. Farming around the world is unsustainable and has been sucking our rivers and lakes dry and only a small % are using responsible approaches that help the land not decimate it. 100000 acres is pretty small area compared to what’s been destroyed.
It’s always non-Arizona people talking about Arizona, first of all our state is only a third desert, a third savanna-grasslands, and a third forest, a real Forest!! third of our state is Forest in with gigantic huge tall Ponderosa‘s, my particular area gets over 9 feet of snow a year and that’s a small amount. That’s the average though and it can come in just two days, Arizona is home to the farthest south tundra region in the United States, also, outside of Tucson is the farthest south ski resort in the United States of America at Mount Lemmon, also contrary to belief, southern Arizona is less hot in central Arizona or Phoenix, Scottsdale, a Mesa, Tempe, Glendale, and other towns that lie inside was known as the valley of the sun, the hottest region is in south west Arizona, along the Colorado, which is just on the opposite side of the hottest places in California, in northern Arizona we have tons of farmland that are naturally watered from the rain storms come through, most of northern Arizona gets 26 feet of snow and over 20 inches of rain. That’s the minimum on average each storm varies from region to region on one side of strawberry Arizona, you can have anywhere from 2 to 12 feet of snow and just 2 miles away in Pine. It could be raining, our topography is very varied, like Colorado having 3 distinct zones, eastern Colorado, be in grassland Savannah, central Colorado being forced into Mountainy and West, Colorado being a similar desert climate to central Arizona, some parts of Arizona never get above 55° in the summertime, two mountains in Arizona never lose the snow on the highest peaks, aquifers in northern Arizona, can’t even be reached without extreme amount of cost due to the fact that aquifer is over 3600 feet below the surface, and that’s the same in the southern part of the state so a lot of the aquifers never get touched because it’s too expensive matter fact, the town of Williams put in a well that cost over $4 million just to tap in to the aquifer up there, that probably will never happen again due to the cost, this is why Arizona has the most reservoirs compared to any other state for its size, most of our water does not come from under the ground.
When I was in Arizona a few years back there were hundreds of thousands of acres for sale because of the drought. The land was being bought up by foreigners to ship what they grew to their native country. At harvest time the crops were being placed on cargo ships to transport. The water they had in the canals was from recycled sewer water. They put chienese carp in the water to purify the water and used it in Irrigation. There were cases of diseases in the crops. That were sold at the store with recalls. The 99 years lease for water between the states ended at that time. The water commission was disbanded for a while. The monsoons bring water but it’s containated because Arizona has septic systems. When the water gets over a 1/4 inch it floods. Plus rain water isn’t pure to begin with.
Well I live in Arizona for my whole life. Please go away and do not come here. This article is pretty much a lie. We are in a horrible drought situation. Large companies come and buy swaths of land and also the water rights designated for residential areas. They build huge where houses that house either water cooled computer servers or factories developing various projects requiring large amounts of water. Our aquifer is practically depleted to the point of no return.
Rock dams are fine until they fill with sediment, then will not hold anymore water and just run down the creek. She even said she does not run much cattle and some fields none at all. So if this was used everywhere, there would not be enough food to eat and people will starve. That’s why concentrated ag. can feed the world.