Rehydration Revolution

The EPA has identified farming as one of the most important sources of water quality degradation. Vast areas cleared of natural vegetation reduce essential watershed functions as well as produce large amounts of green house gas.

Agriculture accounts for roughly 10% of greenhouse gas emissions including carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change says that many of the ways to mitigate green house gas emissions are likely to lead to broader environmental benefits such as improved water quality, reduced soil erosion, improved soil quality, and greater biodiversity.

A Rodale Institute Study says that soils are the largest terrestrial sinks for carbon on the planet, and how soil and crops are managed play a big role in determining their capacity for carbon sequestration.

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  Photo © Jan Mangan, Bioneers

  "Water is the foundational element of life, it has to be the foundation for design. Living rivers need livers. We have to put the livers and kidneys back into the watershed and disconnect the drainage of your development from directly discharging from the parking lot into the river. We have to put some biology, some soil food web, some carbon some life, some fungus and bacteria in between. The bacteria and the fungus get Pavlov’s dog salivation syndrome when they see that hydrocarbon floating from the oil that dripped out of your pan. They are going to snip that hydrogen carbon bond and turn that into food and fuel and carbon and humus if you put some life in the system.” ~ Brock Dolman, Occidental Arts and Ecology Center’s master Permaculturalist and land management expert

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  Photo © Jan Mangan, Bioneers

  “We use a different kind of patterning on the landscape called Keyline, developed by PA Yeoman. In the Keyline system the patterning is not on contour, so that when water falls on the landscape it does not naturally go to the valley as it does in the natural contoured landscape. By using this patterning with the Keyline plow and in some cases mounded rows of trees that push the water toward the ridge, which can cause standing water on the ridge, the water still makes its way back to the gully, and it still makes it way to the streams and rivers, but it does so in the right way, through the ground. As you build carbon in the soil the water goes through a carbon filter so the water that comes out of this system is a heck of lot cleaner that when it goes along the surface carrying all the muck with it.
  “When we increase the amount of carbon in soil, we increase the amount of water in soil. A one percent increase in carbon at a 1ft depth increases the water holding capacity of the soil by 150 thousand liters for every 2 acres.” ~ Darren Doherty, a world-renowned Australian Permaculture designer and teacher, has developed 1100 projects on 4 continents from VietNam to Marin County. Darren is currently working with The Marin Carbon Project.