Heal the Planet with PONDS
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- Опубліковано 29 вер 2024
- Permaculture instructor Andrew Millison visits beaver dams talks about how beavers are the worlds greatest ecosystem engineers. He journeys to different permaculture sites in Oregon to see how these sites are actually mimicking the hydrologic and ecosystem effects of the beavers, as well as shows never-before-seen footage from large scale water harvesting projects in Rajasthan, India, and breaks down some simple take-away points for how we can design our landscapes to function for humans and the ecology. We can step into our role as a beneficial keystone species and heal the planet with ponds!
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Rajasthan drone footage from Ashok Meena
Second Cameraman:
Stories of Regeneration
Beaver interview camera:
Saskia Madlener
Digital Animation from Ben Missimer:
www.pearlriver...
Watershed Map of North America:
Robert Szucs / Grasshopper Geography:
www.grasshoppe...
Andrew Millison’s links:
www.andrewmill...
permaculturede...
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I discovered natural springs on my property in 2017 that had been piped off the property in the 1970's so the previous owner could keep horses. I opened up the water and turned it into a series of 9 ponds 6 waterfalls, 8 dams, over 100 feet of slow moving creeks. Non of this is lined. The changes in my property and the biodiversity has been mind-blowing.
Outstanding! Outside of waterfalls how did you add oxygen to the ponds? Do you have fish in your ponds and if you do did you add the fish? What type of fish? Did you add the water or allow rainfall to do so. Why do people use lining and why you choose not to? How did you keep the water in the ponds without the water seeping out from below?
@@shadeedmuhammad8107 I just got this. These are fantastic questions. I will answer them all in another comment, for now I just want you to know I have read your questions and appreciate your response.
@@shadeedmuhammad8107 Same, I'm really interested in the answers. I'm just commenting so I'll be notified when you reply :)
Same here. Would love to explore this on my farm.
@@shanshui.garden9012 i am also following for the answer
In the UK we are reinstating old farm ponds. Done properly, seeds buried for decades are regenerating the original water plants and restoring habitats within a few years. We are also reintroducing beavers with great success.
Love it... Be the Beaver... I remember talking to a super excited OSU grad student in the early '80s who had just spent the summer studying riparian zones and reporting radical improvements (instantly) when beaver like treatments were done to streams even using just a few logs, planks or railroad ties to make water steps to raise the water levels of the typical thin streams cut four feet down by erosion (accelerated by cattle damage). These little six foot wide water steps brought the water up to within four inches of the flood plain level. Instantly, the farmers entire meadow was green across its entirety without setting or moving a bit of irrigation pipe. What the farmer had initially agreed to with skepticism and reluctance became a point of celebration and new thinking was birthed that fencing the banks from the animals and shifting their water source to cattle troughs was NO PROBLEM AT ALL! Be the beaver... slow it down & let it spread. Love it Dr. Millison
I am convinced we need waterfowl, beavers and a full scale symbiotic team of animal and plants to terraform our environment to our own benefit as well as theirs.
I think you are right. The more I learn about 'keystone species' the more I think what we need to do is reintroduce all these animals back into their natural habitat and just let them do their thing. They will heal the damaged environment by themselves. Humans should focus on managing the process like benevolent gardeners by finding ways to balance the needs of the natural ecosystem with the needs of humans. Humans also need to focus on doing what we can to keep non-native invasive species in check.
It's now or never .. would you happen to live in California... just asking because we need to speak up now ...✌️
Here in the mountains of Virginia (east coast of the US), the beavers are coming back wonderfully. There's actually a ton of rewilding quietly occurring here (the successful reintroduction of elk, the population boom of bears and other predators, and tremendous reforestation). Our waterways are getting cleaner as a result.
We haven't yet attracted a beaver to our own small homestead, so we've had to manually maintain check dams and percolation pits, but we keep hoping one will move in. They're breeding so successfully in the area that pest control companies are having to trap them in the urban regions. Unfortunately, they're not legally allowed to relocate the captured beavers to those of us who want them; the law still labels beavers as a nuisance species. Still, with their population growing annually, I think it's only a matter of time before they move up our little creek.
Maybe one day, all of America's ecosystems will be able to regenerate like this.
That is true ‘regeneration’ 😍
That's so sad that they won't relocate them....what a waste!
A gal friend of my from Colorado went to West Virginia to visit family....she told me it was INCREDIBLY beautiful and the people were so hospitable......I'm glad to hear of your efforts, may the Lord bless richly!
Oh by the way, what's a perculation pit??
@@davidschmidt270 Thanks, it is really beautiful here. A percolation pit (it goes by lots of names, and I recommend Andrew's videos on the water revolution in India) is an unlined pond or horseshoe-shaped depression dug into a slope to catch water. You can combine it with keyline trenches (swales but with an incline to move water to the pit) to harvest more water. The goals are to slow down water moving horizontally across the ground (or stop it completely) and to get that water to seep down into the aquifer instead of running off and causing erosion. It's a way to recharge the local micro-aquifer and provide ground moisture for particular plants or garden beds, or it's a way to stabilize hillsides and minimize surface erosion.
In our microclimate, we get between 50" to 70" of rainfall most years, pretty evenly spaced throughout the seasons. Our terrain is steep and the driveway would wash out constantly, with the ditches turning into canyons, if we didn't divert the runoff into a bunch of percolation pits spaced alongside the driveway. The pastures are significantly greener directly downslope of each percolation pit, too.
This mimics the natural terrain feature of the Appalachian old growth forests, called "pit and mound" terrain. Old forest giants fall periodically and their root systems rip out of the ground, leaving a deep hole with a berm where the roots decompose. Digging a percolation pit is our way of recreating that natural defense against erosion, since we don't have old growth forests anymore.
Here’s to hoping they can make their way down to Georgia again, I’ve only seen two or three on the Chatahoochee my whole life
@@one_field thank you onefield !
The Story-Telling, the editing and the amount of useful information in this video are just a great combination. Thanks Andrew
the sound track was a mis-step , though . common error among rookies having the background noise drown out the narration . that'
s how we learn
Good to see, not least because one of my several greats uncles was the chief factor at Fort Vancouver, running a network of 33 forts busily destroying the beavers from San Francisco to Alaska and across to the Rockies. Glad they are fixing what he did.
Beavers were obliterated in North America due to fashion. I bet your great uncle was getting a pretty penny hunting down beavers. Throughout the 19th century, there was an unquenchable demand for beaver pelts to make fancy top hats for men. Of course, as the population of men exploded throughout North America, the demand for beaver pelts zoomed upwards. That's how 400 million beavers were driven down to 500,000 in about 100 years. The only thing that saved the beaver from complete extinction was the 1920s, when fashion changed suddenly and demand among men for top hats collapsed almost completely. Otherwise, it would've been bleak. Now that 500,000 population of beavers has slowly climbed up to 9 million today.
Me too :)
Very excited to start planning our first pond project on our 5 acre permaculture farm! It’s in a deep holler where beaver used to sink the water into the forest before they were nearly wiped out.
Looking forward to having some delicious fish protein, abundant irrigation, a watering hole for wildlife, and recharging the springs downstream!
Fantastic video. I've recently started chewing the bottoms of trees in my area to simulate the beaver. I've seen little affect so far. I'll keep you updated.
OMG that was funny!!! Sure, keep us updated!
The efficient use of water will be key in our overheated world, this is a very important issue that we all need to know and try to improve🙏
Yum.... nutrition
I would imagine these projects also reduce destructive flooding during heavy rains, as the ponds and surrounding meadows allow for storage and slow release of the extra water.
The increased organic content of the soil throughout the watershed also increases soil porosity, helping absorb rainfall before it can runoff and accumulate into floods
Very inspirational. I can now boldly proclaim that I love beavers more than I used to and I really love beaver.
Ima change the world man and you’re a key factor in it. People dismiss me whenever I talk about healing the earth with science and natural order but then I hit them with your channel and shit their hat and doubt down
I love beavers ❤️❤️❤️ They are so much more important than we know. Without beavers the landscape becomes barren and watersheds dry up.
Love every video of yours.
Always clear and informative, and never asking for anything in return, other than to use these principles you preach in good will. Cheers Andy
For years, I have been preaching the gospel of ponds and lakes. California needs to wake up and take Andrew's advice.
Does California have laws against storing water from a natural stream? The water rights are owned by corporations?
@@ronniemcmaster8657 If it's true that's perverse
My brother has a newfound appreciation for beavers because of this video :)
I like how you showed the one touchdown ever made by the Beavers
Love what you're doing man! The permaculture, the hydrology education, everything. I really loved you're videos on India. It's so inspiring to see a push for a healthier planet on such a large scale. Look forward to seeing what accomplishments they've made since your last videos.
I always feel hopeful for us after watching your posts, thanks.
As a transportation engineer who is trying to slow the cars, I wholly support slowing the water. Its empowering to see how we can change the environment for good when we change our perspective on what development can be.
Brilliant. A voice of hope amid the doomsayers.
To promote seeping into poor drainage soils, could it make sense to auger out some post holes to help water infiltrate deeper? I’ve never seen this done but I think about it often.
& a big thank you for all the permaculture content you’ve shared with us! I plan to build a pond on my dry context property, and will share these videos to help convince my neighbors to do the same!
I've thought of this a lot too. I know that the Greening The Desert project in Jordan had a bunch of 1x2 meter pits they dug and filled with spiky legume tree cuttings, and they were made in part to expedite the permeation of captured rainwater into the site's soil, but i remember the mulch pits purpose being specifically states as intending to create soil microbiology sinks where soil bacteria and fungi could get a jump start and spread to the soil of the rest of the site. So I have no doubt that post holes acting like numerous mini leaky cisterns would work to expedite water penetration, but I also have never seen it done with increased water harvesting and permeation as the primary goal.
Look into groundwater injection wells. They are a bit more industrious and usually fed from rooftop rainwater.
For poor drainage soils it may be better to simply improve the drainage by mixing in other agregates like sand and gravel to the poorly draining clay.
However the #1 inpact on soil seepage will be water pressure so if you want better seepage then make a bigger pond. (More surface area increases the total area leaking into the ground, and more depth means faster seepage into the area covered by the pond) in my area the typical beaver pond is 8ft deep and a couple hundred feet along each axis. (Obviously this is affected by topography and beavers are only really trying to silence the sound of running water and ensure deep enough water to hide from predators in) but to me this is the size a pond should be if the goal is ecological benefits.
... and let the beavers come back. Here in Germany they were allowed to come back in many regions over the past 20 years and people usually love them, or ignore them, but what's still missing is appreciation of how important water infiltration is for the landscape. Meanwhile some regions here get water shortages in summer.
Beautiful video, that is worth watching with a big bag of peanut flips... both the message and the video footage.
Great video. I wish less people viewed beaver as a pest. Do you think we'll see a significant increase in beaver population over the next 100 years?
Hopefully, since beaver hats are no longer in vogue.
This is one of the best channels on UA-cam now. I feel like I should acknowledge Andrew Millison in all my climate fiction writing.
Nature is beautiful and keeps us grounded to mother earth. My 2cents.
Even though I have a master in solar power, I am still fascinated by the miracle of water. You forgot to mention that water electricity is cheap, renewable, clean... even with a water wheel.
Sir you are Awesome. I just love your video. They way you observe and explain the things is just awesome...
I'm so glad you think so, thanks for the comment!
Obrigado, Andre! Voce e importante nessa cadeia e o planeta agradece!😊
Do you have plans for making that 3d box you use with what looks like sand? for modeling? that just feels like a great project for my teens to use for geography projects, and oddly history projects, etc. Seriously love that box! also Love your vids!
Love ponds and small lakes.
what a stunning , guys. The LANDSCAPE is so nice. especially. in the onshoes.
Excellent video presentation with important information, we must be aware and have courage to protect and fight for the resources of our planet, and water is one of them.
let's take care of water with ponds of life.
We have a pond on the property which is surrounded by large trees which prevents the evaporation during summer and deep enough to allow for fish and turtles. I think people can enjoy multiple benefits by such techniques. This time there has been drought in Massachusetts and it seems like we are gonna need to be better prepared for such continuous cycle of droughts even in areas which are known for rainfall in normal times.
In Spain, the people fish water snails and cook them on a plancha as crackers. A pond is also a source of food and a richness for the restaurants.
@@BeteSpatioTemporelle yeah we are planning to put some tilapia next year. Unwanted growth of duck weed on top of our pond is literally calling for it, to clean it up
So much we could have done to save us from the coming droughts that will get far worse and could last decades. But if we hadn’t let greed do us in, we probably could have avoided the worst of the issues we will face in the coming decades.
Absolutely great
More and more we realize that we can improve those designs that are unfriendly to the planet in an ecological way, benefiting not only nature but ourselves.
Andrew you could be permaculture equivalent of Jeff Corwin/Steve Irwin.
😂 " The Permaculture Hunter"
@@amillison "look at the swale, isn't she a beauty!" but seriously you have a gift for making the content easily digestible and fun. Thanks for doing what you do!
@@jakew1362 thanks Jake
Nice video!
Here in Europe, we have a serious drought problem this summer. In my view, we should start building small ponds everywhere in mountaineous regions in Switzerland, Austria, Germany and France: to retain water during periods of precipitation, to replace the function of glaciers, to prevent the run-off of water during heavy rains, etc.
We need thousands of small lakes, each holding several thousands of cubic meters. Together they could provide water during the dry season.
And the extracted clay can make small hills to resist against urbanization. Both ponderization and mountainization.
Drying ponds is the reason why paludism disapeared in Europe so ponds are not the solution. 😅
Wow-that all makes so much sense!! Thanks for such a fun and concise presentation!
Thanks for the refresher on the true keystone species.
The best
Beaver dams are necessary for the forests they occupy. They sustain the ecosystems. And the ponds being built in dry land areas with monsoon seasons, are building groundwater, promoting deep rooted plants and local climate cooling.
Good job man love u from India Punjab Amritsar
I want to tell something here. I am from Bangalore, Karnataka, India. Here from ages we had 300+ lakes and ponds in the city and surroundings, due to the greed of politicians now we can't even find 50lakes/ponds. 😭 The temperature and quality of city has becomes worst over the period of time.
All I tell is build or rejuvenate the lakes and ponds as much as possible please 😭🙏🏽
HOPE! HOPE! HOPE! That is just one thing your videos bring to me.
Amazing, incredible, awesome,
Thank you!
100-400 million vs 9 million beavers is devastating!! I absolutely want to act as a keystone species with my life !!
Efficient water 💦 use will be key 🔑 in our over heated world 🌎, great video!
In NLR Arkansas, we had bever come up into an urban lake that did not need a bever dam. Unfortunately the beaver went around the lake and girdled all the big trees. Not good.
imagine being such a busy engineer that your work inspires and inevitably conflicts with another species
I.e. Humans and Beavers
If you could you ever make a video where you actually walk from pond, where it overflows, through the channel, until next pond.. until next.
Like literally walk us through it. It would allow me to see how such structure actually looks. How it flows and connects to next phase.
I've been following your channel for years now and I've learned a lot. But this is something missing.
I heard a bout it, now I would love to see the details of actual thriving structure.
If u ever make it, thank you in advance.
Yet another magnificent video thanks You!
That speaks about our environment
Ponds, dams, swales in fact any form of water harvesting storage that Regenerates
So exiting Andrew, thanks for your service to humanity. We are about to create more ponds on land here.
What do you think, considering millions of ways how landscape with its animals and plants can be , will there ever be a reason of not building a pond for optimise land?
Or better asking, is it always appropriate and beneficial building a dam/ pond or can anyone especially neighbours argue that is has affects on the land decreasing water?
Greetings in advance,
Liked and subscribed
It's not always beneficial to build a pond. You may be covering over limited growing space on a site, or you may create an excess of groundwater and create a swamp where you don't want one. There are a lot of potential negative consequences downstream. Did you watch my video Permaculture Ponds Why where and How?
Excellent educational video!!
Joel Salatin talks about exactly this! Good stuff
Yea for Beaver power!!
Excellent vid. Thank you.
Really interesting, I just started a Pond in my house to enrich the environment!
Just when you were getting to the good stuff, you bailed on us. I’d love a longer conversation on your last comment. To me that’s the real crux of the matter. In the area with the most opportunity for innovation, which means human made, which means the ordinary person could do it. Great video! Not only enjoyed it but got a ton out of it. Now my quest of furtherance continues.
💥 Happy 4th from Vancouver, WA. 💪🏼🙌🏼
Thanks for your awesome work and research on this topic. I hope the idea catches on
Everyone loves beavers.
Funny beaver shot. 2:20
Check out the channel "Bamabass." The guy has created a 5 acre lake over the course of a few short years and the amount of wildlife it has attracted and maintained is incredible.
Great video! Excellent work!
You got my first like probably in last 5 years
This is amazing! Thank you!
i knew this already but very well made video
I love beavers!! 🎉
amazing. thanks for sharing this!
Glad you enjoyed it! :)
Save the beavers 🦫 💙💪🏽‼️
YOU ROCK BUDDY.
Diverting water from creeks and such is illegal here. The government considers all water sources to be theirs.
They have a legal water right to do so in this case. Without a water right, it would be illegal and potentially problematic for downstream users
Here in Florida, we have 4 rain barrels catching water off the roof. That's probably illegal as well where you are. 🤔
exciting idea!!!!
Excellent. Thank you.
Thanks!
I so appreciate your generous contribution!! Thank you very much and I hope you are well :-)
It's cool to see OSU represented. I studied Nuclear engineering there a few years ago.
Totally missed a chance to use that Billy Bob Thornton clip from Bandits "Beavers and Ducks!!!"
Lovely
"We need to act like beavers" ... Did anybody else imagine he was about to bite the tree next to him? 😆
Really beautiful video
Good insight.
Merci 👍👍
People should do this in the desert.
Can I do a small pond in my backyard? I live in the city tough, and in a residential neighborhood just above the center of the city. I have variety of species in my garden for being such a small place, but my biggest concern are the cats and rats. Since there are a quite a lot of small sized birds here, I wonder if they would just become easy meals for the cats and the pond would just increase the number of rats around(since this is an old neighborhood with old houses, there are tons of them). I really don't want to see a ton of dead birds, fat cats and happy rats in my backyard, so I wonder if it's a good idea.
Great vid 🙂
Beavers be like,
"dam!"
Another great video, Andrew! We are working to help local subsistence farmers in Kenya to apply similar principles - though they face conditions similar to those in dry parts of India. Your videos and teachings are an inspiration and a guide! Thank you!
Great video
You should become a teacher and teach preteens and olders teens and adults this subject ❤❤❤
Video took a long time to say very little. Beavers are good and we should mimic them and make more ponds. Didn’t need a 12 minute video - sorry
👍😍
Yeah that's what we want to do with bdas that's a beaver dam analog I see lots of places that could use them
7:25 Keeping domestic ducks in a pond helps to seal the pond and prevent water from seeping.
This because the ducks insulate the pond bed with their poo.
I moved to Oregon over a year ago and was wondering if I would be a 🦫 or a🦆 . After this video definitely a Beaver 🦫
Rajasthan needs depth and structure
Does anyone have any advice about storing water where the ground is decomposed granite? I live in Colorado and we have plenty of rain and snow but the ground can’t hold onto it. It evaporates and runs off causing erosion and the ground drys out in just a day or two.
beaver 🦫 fever 🌞🪴🌱🌲🌳
Farm hand for hire ! Have own tools and little digger. Vancouver Island 🏝️ Canada. P.M for details 🤠
In the US beavers are the KeyStone species for ground water security. Guess what we did with the beavers. 🦫
Time to pay the piper.
Every time I see someone complaining about their wells running dry, I share one of your videos. I wish more people were interested. There are lots of people in rural areas who could use your techniques, start a nice orchard, and safeguard their land in case of wild fires. Firebreaks and swales could work wonders.
Thank you so much for sharing my work! I'm glad to hear you're developing an eye for permaculture solutions and spreading the word :-) Cheers!
Great idea
I'm in Rural Southern California...here looking for sustainable water solutions for 2.5 acres of raw Agricultural zoned land
@@enhancedsimplicity9708 Watch his videos and learn.
I wish people to wake up and heal the planet with ponds!!! I subscribe to your channel Ronnie! Have a great week!