Presented at the Restoring Water Cycles to Reverse Global Warming conference October 16th-18th, 2015 at Tufts University. www.bio4climate.org

1. Farm Scale Permaculture Water Harvesting
Slow it down
Spread it out
Store it
Save it

2. How Much Water On Your Farm?
How Many Inches of Rainfall?

3. How Much Water?
How Many Inches of Rainfall?
How Much Volume?

4. How Much Water?
How Many Inches of Rainfall?
How Much Volume?
To Estimate --
4” = ~100,000 gallons/acre
40” = ~1,000,000 gallons/acre
3 acre ft = ~1,000,000 gal.

5. How Much Water?
How Many Inches of Rainfall?
How Much Volume?
Rain Falls On Farm? Enters From Off Farm?

6. How Much Water?
How Many Inches of Rainfall?
How Much Volume?
On Farm? / From Off Farm? Drainage?
Ponding? Porosity/Infiltration? Runoff?
Flow Rates? Ground Water? Needs?

7. Rock Dams -- Trincheras, and Gabions
Credit: g-a-l.info

8. Circle Ranch -- Chris Gill
Erosion Damage Wide Irrigation Channels
Credit: Chris Gill, circleranchtx.com

9. P A Yeomans

10. Credit: D. Doherty
Broadscale Permaculture

11. Keyline Design
Credit: D. Doherty
Water Flows From Valley To Ridges
Keyline Does The Opposite

12. Keypoints
Credit: D. Doherty
Draw Keyline through Keypoint.
Harvest water Parallel to Keyline.

13. Keyline Design
Credit: D. Doherty
Water Flows From Valley To Ridges
Keyline Does The Opposite

14. Savanna Lamb Ranch
Credit: D. Doherty

15. Credit: D. Doherty

16. Credit: D. Doherty
Filling the Pond that Wouldn't Fill

17. Yeomans Keyline Plow For Pasture
Designed to “till” subsoil with minimal surface disturbance.
Plow rips deep into soil.
Channeling slightly downward causes water flow
from valley to ridges.

18. Plow Pattern
After each grazing pass
or hay cutting
Credit: D. Doherty

19. Circle Ranch -- Chris Gill
Credit: Chris Gill, circleranchtx.com
32,000 Acres, West Texas, 12” Seasonal Rainfall

20. Keyline Agroforestry
Single bottom plow or other equipment can create swales to capture water.
Trees are often planted near swales, which help provide sufficient water.
“Alleys” between rows can be cropped or grazed while trees grow.
Credit: Mark Shepard, New Forest Farm

21. Digging a Swail
The Easy Way
Credit: Mark Shepard, New Forest Farm

22. Credit: Mark Shepard, New Forest Farm
New Forest Farm – Neighboring Runoff
NO runoff from NFF due to
Swails, Berms, and Keyline
Plowing

23. Versaland -- Grant Schultz
145 Acres in NE Iowa --
Government $ for:

Tree Seedlings

Tubes

Pasture/Hay Seed

Equipment

Shelter

24. Tamera

25. Diverse Cover Crops
Diverse, multi-species cover crops allow for massive photosynthesis which
can generate new topsoil. Gabe Brown in N.D.with only 16” rain per year
has developed over five feet of topsoil at 6% organic matter. It infiltrates
water at 8” per hour and does not pond, even with 13” rainfall in a day.
8 weeks with only 0.38” rainfall
Gabe Brown Peter Byck, Soil Carbon Cowboys

26. Holistic Managed Grazing
Pasture is dense perennial cover. Photosynthesis creates sugars which are sent to
roots to feed microbes which help plants to grow and also leave carbon rich humus.
This is much of the basis for topsoil. Planned grazing which avoids overgrazing
and allows for sufficient rest keeps grasses healthy and grows topsoil.
Gabe Brown’s Tall Grass Pasture
Credit: Gabe Brown

27. Africa Center For Holistic Management
Neighboring River Bed Dimbangombe
Credits: ACHM

28. Dimbangombe -- New Pond
Credit: Seth Itzkan

29. Which Tool To Use?

30. Which Tool To Use?

31. Farm Scale Permaculture Water Harvesting
Permaculture Ethics
Care of the Earth
Care of People
Fair Distribution

32. Farm Scale Permaculture Water Harvesting
Slow it down
Spread it out
Store it
Save it

33. Farmscale Permaculture Water Harvesting Resources
P. A. Yeomans, Water for Every Farm
Darren Doherty and Abe Collins, Keyline Design Mark IV
Mark Shepard, Restoration Agriculture
Chris Gill, www.circleranchtx.com
Films: Cows and Keyline
Drought Busting
Sepp Holzer, Desert or Paradise
Peter Byck, Film: Soil Carbon Cowboys
Allan Savory, Holistic Management