Turning desert arid wasteland green – swales, water retention dams and zai holes - How to achieve sustainable food production for increased profit and well-being

Retention ponds are ponds or pools designed with additional storage capacity to attenuate surface runoff during rainfall events. They consist of a permanent pond area with landscaped banks and surroundings to provide additional storage capacity during rainfall events. They are created by using an existing natural depression, by excavating a new depression, or by constructing embankments.

The Chihuahuan Desert, is the largest desert in North America. Its considered to be the most biologically diverse desert in the world and it is home to an abundance of life insects, amphibians, fish, birds, reptiles and mammals that all coexist in the harsh desert environment with blistering daytime temperatures and below-freezing temperatures at night. However because of human activities such as farming, cattle ranching & oil drilling the desert is losing thousands of hectares of grassland, which is becoming severely degraded and is having a detrimental affect on wildlife, such as the Mexican wolf now listed as endangered The Chihuahuan Desert grasslands serve as wintering grounds for a large proportion of North American Great Plains birds including a number of significantly declining species such as mountain plover, ferruginous hawk, and Baird’s sparrow.

53 percent of the grassland bird species that breed on the Great Plains in the United States and Canada during spring and summer travel hundreds of kilometers to winter in the grasslands of the Chihuahuan Desert, which encompasses the states of Arizona, New Mexico, Texas and spreading across the northwestern region of Mexico. This is why we decided to fund a project, through our regenerative membership program, where our viewers can contribute to amazing sustainable initiatives across the world, you can learn more here: https://www.leafoflife.news/regenerat…

This project to protect grassland birds and restore vital grassland habitat is located in the southern part of the Chihuahuan Desert, it’s a semi-arid region with extensive grassland and scrub cover as well as a temperate forest in the high mountain areas, but is not exempt from the environmental problems associated with land use changes in favor of agricultural and livestock activities. In this region, extensive areas of scrub cover have mostly been converted into new croplands and pasturelands. Our mission is to restore this over grazed cattle ranch and bring back native grasses to this eroded zone by digging several retention ditches, creating a swale on contour, a small water retention pond and zai holes to capture and hold water which will create a haven for wildlife such as birds.

If you wish to volunteer on this project, we are looking for conservation biologists who would like to monitor the site, then please get in touch with us here: https://www.leafoflife.news/contact

***

Family of 6 creates the first permaculture berm and swale on their off-grid desert homestead property. It will provide fire and wind break, increase the water capacity of the soil, catch and divert water to protect their buildings from flooding during monsoons, and help build increased biodiversity to green the desert. Come along for the ride as we recap this 2 month project from planning to digging to hand work to planting trees and grasses to irrigating, and more.

***

Food forest designer & teacher Louis De Jaeger gives you a tour of the Greening the desert site in Jordan, built by Geoff Lawton and his team.

***

Permaculture swales – results after 7 years

We designed our projects to be in harmony with nature. We are committed to mimicking the patterns and relationships found in nature and applying them in many aspects of creating our realities. We are not 100% self-sufficient but we certainly left behind our city rat lifestyle. From our well, our water is pumped with solar energy. We produce solar electric power and feed it back to the grid. Our water is heated by the solar system. We even manage to have a few seasonal crops. But most of all, we have created an arboretum.

Applying permaculture principles really works. Our home is constructed from brick, rock, and non-toxic finishes. We also opted for long-lasting, nearly maintenance-free building materials such as cement, steel, and aluminium. Building a homestead from scratch according to the principles of eco sensibilities was, and continues to be a challenging but rewarding adventure. It requires learning many skills, uncompromised commitment, and deep respect for nature’s rules.

Every day, the results surprise us with awe and never-ending, often taxing lessons. This lifestyle requires to be able to get up and keep going even when everything and all around are advising to quit. We now know that the health of the soil is essential to our own health, and the health of plants and animals. We also now deeply respect all who grow food and understand the “language” of their land and the animals they keep. The paradigm shift in understanding the interconnectedness of all living things and building our own resilience is the most welcomed side effect from following the path we chose 15 years ago.

About

20 years ago we liquidated our life in the States. The American dream was literally killing me. It was the last call to rewind, regroup, rebuild and restore. We opted for the Sierra Madre high desert where we fell in love with a neglected 3 hectares on a hill near a small dwelling. Brick by brick, shovel by shovel, step by step, we keep creating our reality. The surprises constantly leave us breathless from both the awe and endless challenges. We keep learning a lifestyle that is drastically different from the inherited familiarity of large cities. Here are snapshots from our life from where we keep finding more and more meaning without a deliberate pursuit for it.

***