Lessons for the Backyard from Restoring Rainforests
October 6th, 2022
"When Nature is nurtured, Her response is beyond our imaginings." ~ John Button on restoring rainforests in Australia and India
This post is inspired by a talk I heard by John Button who worked on large-scale projects to restore rainforests in Australia and India. Not all deserts were once rainforests, but many deserts today were much greener than they are today. And some iconic deserts today historically were once forests.
Okay, what does 'restoring rainforests' have to do with my backyard? I can think of a few reasons. As the weather becomes more erratic for us locally, many of us have to deal with more heavy rain events or longer drought periods in our own backyards. These wet and dry events can add a lot of stress to plants and trees. Learning how water is captured, managed, and reinvested in climates with weather that is more extreme than our own, can help us lean into simple ideas of what we can do to practice resilience right in our own backyards.
Did you know that there is often a very thin line between a rainforest and a desert? Without trees, vegetation, and water-holding capacity in the soil, a dry season can stretch on longer, be more extreme, and, in some cases, act like a desert. When it does rain, the water runs off the land. With fewer trees, there is also less rain-producing moisture. It becomes a drying cycle. Many of our built environments (yes, I'm calling you out, you massive paved parking lot!) act like this. Rainforest restoration is about restoring healthy water cycling to the landscape.
Managing Water: When it rains, how can you make the most of the water that falls on your landscape? How can you capture and hold as much of that water for as long as possible? Water has the potential to wash away soils or to build them. You have the capacity to shift that dynamic away from degradation with erosion and water/nutrient loss to regeneration with soil building, water capture, and resilience! Here's an example of how to capture water around a young tree or shrub planted on a slope. Every time it rains, the water is able to seep in and be held for longer in the soil, increasing your success.
Working with Slopes: Slopes can cause a lot of erosion, BUT they are also sources of GREAT POTENTIAL. Adding texture to a landscape slows the water down. It can happen on a large scale with trees... or on a micro-scale with wildflowers, shrubs, or crops. The more water is held the higher up in the landscape the more OVERALL water can slowly trickle down and last throughout the season. Upstream is where flood resilience starts. What could your yard do for flood resilience for your neighborhood... who is downstream from you?
This example is with trees, but imagine this on a micro-scale... what if they were shrubs, berry bushes, wildflowers, tomatoes, or even lettuces on a sloped garden surface. When it rains, I sometimes see these micro mounds happen naturally in pine needles or debris, for example, as it washes across a path or harder soil surface.
Practice Deep Watering: Shallow watering encourages shallow roots. When planting a tree, shrub, or tomato, especially in dry climates, dig a hole and fill it with water to let it soak in and fully saturate the soil deep down. Go a step further by setting up a way to water deeply during the season. Add a tube, pipe, olla, or use a water bottle with holes at the base or with the bottom completely cut off. There are too many plastic water bottles in the world, and it's a creative way to put them to good use! Have a lid to prevent them from getting clogged with soil, and use them to water deeply to encourage deep roots.
Mulch: If planting on flat lands, consider a ring of mulch around your planting to capture water. Adding texture to the landscape can prevent "sheet runoff" as soil washes away on flat land during a rainstorm. Even a stone mulch can work well in dry, hot climates by condensing tiny amounts of moisture at night. Every drop of water counts in a desert.
Protecting Young Plantings: A fascinating technique that works for harsh climates with little resources (but is a bit labor intensive!) is to build a stone mound like a "cage" around young plants as they grow to protect them from browsing animals like deer, goats, and other animals that would otherwise dig up or strip young plantings. This is especially true if there is relatively little vegetation in the landscape for animals to eat. Once revegetation of an area is far enough along and there is plenty to eat, you may no longer need this type of protection! Wire cages and bark sleeves are also options! I recently learned about a wire cage you can bury underground to help protect roots from gophers.
Careful not to over-fertilize: With very degraded, compacted, and nutrient-poor soils, adding too much compost or fertilizer into your newly dug hole can compromise the health of the plant. The plant's roots have no reason to reach deep if the majority of the nutrition is in the hole you just dug. Add a handful or two of compost to add biology to the hole you just dug and add any remaining fertility under a layer of mulch at the surface. Let your plants develop deep roots.
Pruning Techniques: Last (but not least!) many desert areas that were once forests have roots of old trees deep underground that act as bushes with many little shoots sprouting from the stump or base that prevent them from regrowing into more robust trees. One strategy for regrowing trees in this situation is to prune back these "shrubs" from many shoots to a few strong "leaders". Finally, after these leaders have developed, prune again until at last, you have only a single leader. This technique is also known as Farmer-Managed Natural Regeneration or FMNR. It can be used in deserts, but can also help to regrow trees (or shrubs) cut down or damaged by pests, pollutants or blights in a neighborhood.
Resources:
Article on Reforestation in India with John Button: https://worldpermacultureassociation.com/reforestation-of-the-sacred-mountain/
Farmer Managed Natural Regeneration (FMNR) "How the Sahara Desert is Turning into a Farmland Oasis" in Niger (8-minute video): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXQrvT23rPw
"Desert or Rainforest" Trailer from Water Stories with Walter Jehne (2 minutes): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mf4jwkhCk_A
** The drawings in this blog are inspired from a talk from John Button on restoring forest land on the sacred mountain of Arunachala in south India.