A note too - even when water is not a limiting resource, all of these strategies are key because they slow water down and prevent it from becoming the destructive source that it is. Thus, swales and check dams are valuable to both wet and dry environments!
I agree. A well built water system has an outlet that moves any extra water off property, meaning that, if you designed it well, too much water should never be a problem. Too little water can be a problem almost anywhere, so my theory is that you should always assume drought conditions and go from there
Not exactly, You would be shocked how many people think swales are just part of good regenerative land management, only to absolutely brutally waterlog their property and remove all its productivity. For many wet environments swales are not the answer. Keyline cuts, SALT systems, or very specifically placed ponds are going to be far more effective at increasing water infiltration without waterlogging entire properties
If the swales are cut on a sharper gradient would that mitigate your concern (in a high rainfall area)? In medium rainfall areas I believe keyline cuts are the best option. I have springs on my place some of which have ponds sunk in them. Unfortunately this hasn’t mitigated water logging. I need to drain the ponds with monk pipes running into long runs of underground poly pipe, and or install swales to take the water to the gullies. My annual rainfall is around 800mm. The spring water is additional but mostly dries out during drought. Wet seven years out of ten years, thereabouts.
@@Dd214medaddy @mattoe8621 If waterlogging is a problem, install monk pipes in the swales and make sure you've got plenty of thirsty trees on them. Trees are water moderators. Also increasing soil organic matter and fixing calcium deficiency in the soil are good things to do regardless, and can help with water logging. The most important thing to understand, though is that water is always a resource. If you have enough, you can make chinampa - style systems, using standing or flowing water to build fertility and irrigate crops, growing fish, ducks and rice as a byproduct.
Good build. The one thing I would recommend is to borrow heavily from the European tradition of hedgerows to help along to the tops of the swales. Everyone talks about planting trees, and that's good, but hedgerows take things to the next level. A bit more work, but also a greater variety of plants that create habitat for the smaller creatures that then eat the "pests" we don't want on our crops. Plus, they provide a quick windbreak while the larger trees are still growing. In the UK, for example, the 'law' states that you can tell how old a hedgerow is by the number of species found in it - generally one species per century. They have hedgerows with more than a dozen species in them! Another upside is that maintaining the hedgerows provides enough wood to heat the home all winter long.
In the winter while the swales are dry, and you are feeding livestock, I would feed them in the swales to add nutrients to the water infusion from the swale during water collection period. This will encourage the growth of grasses on the exposed subsoil exposed forming the swale berm.
I’d also consider pebbles and stones in the beds of the Swales and spills to further decrease erosions and water evaporation in drier seasons. It also helps encourage life in the area with small shelter for insects with and without water
Loose mulch might be a more cost effective way to do all that you mentioned, plus give food for fungus that will aid in water infiltration and soil health
Thank you for posting. I am electronic engineer. My dad is an architect and didn't see blueprints of landscaping in his office. And i find this video very interesting and inspiring. I bought a small 3 acre multi slope land in Southern California. I tried to get rid of rain and snow water eroding my land. Now i will treasure it to plant trees, create shade, fresh air and fertile soil for vegetation. Thanks again.
Thank you so much for *teaching*! I watch a lot of videos in which people talk about what they did, but without details, as if they assume the audience already understands it. You are not condescending, but you structure information into a lesson in a really helpful way! Thank you!
Having watched many of the videos on swales, one rock dams and the benefits of harvesting water, your explanation of how to build these structures and how they work, ranks right up there at the top in understanding for myself. Thank you for the excellent way you described things in this video.
we had the swales going across the slope overflowing into the creek at the check dams. They would gradually fill up and the creek would gradually increase its run as they overflowed. They held a LOT of water and we rarely filled up an old irrigation pond once we had the whole system in place, and it was a 1 acre, 6 foot deep on average, pond.
One of the neatest ways I've seen tree plantings is there are multiple varieties you can use branch shoots and just plug them down into the soil like a stake. If you've got a property that has erosion issues and you're wanting a lot of trees along the edges of water troughs, swales, ditches, creeks...look it up. Dirt cheap planting.
Historically, your area would have been covered with ground squirrel holes, which would have captured the water from snow melt, etc... most people see ground squirrels as a nuisance, but they are the second most important animal to north American wildlife because they raise the water table causing larger riparian areas. Riparian areas are the most productive for wildlife. They are second only to the beaver in their importance to wildlife. Ground squirrels colonies should be saved and treasured wherever possible. If you tried to have swales in my area, you would scrape off the valuable topsoil and be left with swales that would be infertile. This would lead to noxious weed invasion. Thanks for your video.
I've used swales in my backyard but I didn't know the name for them. This has inspired me to make a few changes in the layout to hopefully improve things
This was an incredible explanation... just so in depth and well spoken. Thanks for sharing, enjoyed this a lot. I have my property in the Dominican Republic and am going to put in my swales later this year.
Utterly amazing information. I am 1/100th of a step there. The cost of machine works for larger earthworks is prohibitive, but invaluable. Thank you for this video. Learnt a lot... going to be hard to fall asleep.
Excellent video. I already watched a lot of material regarding swales and permaculture but this is a real joy to watch. Well spoken, relaxed and in-depth explanatory, really motivating. Now I want to build swales but these would be completely useless as I live in the mudflats of the Netherlands 😂
what a great presentation, thank you! I wish you all the best and lots of rain. My company is preparing to do the same in Zambia. It is exciting to see so so many sites all over the globe being developed the right way!
You are a teacher. Packaging and package size is very important. Your flow builds logically and each of your conceptual packages are well sized and complete. This way they can be stored for good recall. Is this your profession or are you just a good communicator who ranches?
I would like to see what you are talking about regarding a snow fence. Also, consider alders instead of cottonwoods, if they are native to your area. They also grow very fast and are nitrogen fixing. Their leaf litter is all i use for my no-dig gardens. I incorporate them into all my restoration planting in the Pacific Northwest. They are under-utilized. I also would recommend shrubs like thimbleberry, salmonberry, and elderberry for soil building and habitat/food for wildlife. Maybe for your area, serviceberry and choke cherry would be more apt. Monocultures of cottonwood don't seem as beneficial and the leaves are not as nutrient rich.
On the regenerative agriculture podcast I heard that every 1% of organic material in the top 12 inches of soil of an acre can hold up to 20,000 gallons of water. So, if you have somewhere like 13-20%organics you’re doing great if you have the nutrients too.
your video confirms my idea that my desert city's xeric push has actually prevented rain from falling; most times clouds develop around the city but dry up as they aproach the city. Grass is killed off to put down rocks. This causes temps to increase (so we need more air conditioning) which in turn kills the beautiful trees. (Could be offset and trees SAVED if WATER was given). In addition the normal respiration of the soil is strangled by the rocks & plastic. And it looks gross. Nothing says ahhh like grass! Thanks for this explanation; gonna try it for my garden!
Try adding zai holes also. Or pairing zai holes with demilunes. They're doing that in East and West Africa right now, and it's working to improve soil conditions enough that what little they were growing has increased by 500% to 2000% in certain situations. Zai holes come in two types. One is the simpler newspaper zai hole, which is a hole about 12" deep lined with about 20 sheets of newspaper. It holds water for longer, increasing soil moisture, but not so long that roots get waterlogged and start to rot. The second version of the zai hole is the de lux zai hole, which has a plastic covering as well as the lined bottom. That one's concept is basically to protect the plants from the UV and harsh climate / wind while also retaining moisture (and even heat, if in a cooler environment). The plastic covering is mostly transparent, giving the plants the light they need but keeping them from being burnt / damaged (they receive sun damage same as us). A zai hole inside of a demi lune is extra awesome for water retention, because you already have the semicircular cut into the ground holding water, but then the zai hole inside is deeper and so holds even more water for longer. Great for trees & deeper-rooted plants. Stacked rocks are best for blocking wind erosion and water erosion, and for controlling water flow. Some types of plants don't like tree mulch because the tannins released will stunt their growth. Other plants love it. So that's another thing to consider. Next trick is half-buried terracotta plants with lids and with tiny holes in the bottom will allow for slow watering. The pot should be buried near the plants it will water. Their roots will wrap around it, which is good. Another trick is the "three sisters" planting method, to triple what plants are beneficial to each other and the soil. And the final trick is coppicing. This means you don't cut down trees. Instead, you score them so they sprout young stems, and the main truck is then cut off and possibly scorched to prevent pests. The young stems grow to a certain height as you continue to score elsewhere periodically to get new sprouts--always removing unwanted sprouts that would not grow well with the others. As a certain set get old enough within 2 to 10 years, you chop those down while the other sprouts continue to grow, etc. Repeating that on the same mother tree means you keep the same, ever-growing root system that already has the established ground biome with all the healthy bacteria in the ground that are already aerating and converting nitrogen in the soil, AND the mother roots aren't having to hold up / provide for a giant, massive tree. So instead, the nutrients and water from the ground continually go to the smaller shoots and trunks for millennia. There is a tree in Italy that is 4,000 years old that has been maintained by one family. Burnt and cut over and over and very healthy even today. And Japan does this technique to keep from deforesting their limited amount of land. The trees get 50 feet tall or taller when they're ready to be harvested from the mother system, while younger shoots continue to grow until they're ready. And the ones selected to be allowed to grow are usually extremely straight, which are really, really good for building material. So.......sustainable wood farming. No devastation to the land. Hope these ideas are helpful.
Oh, yeah. Not sure if anyone in your area is even slightly willing to take on this idea, but there's a dude nicknamed "the moleman" who was from Italy who during the Great Depression had bought land to grow an orchard....but the entire area was barely 2 to 3" of usable soil, under which there was up to 6 feet of solid rock (I forgot what type, but it's exremely hard rock). He dug down below the rock and found that when he created a hole above the tunnel, the trees he planted down there would grow straight up, no extra low branches, until the tree branched out at about ground level above. Which meant the trees were protected from the harsh desert-like environment's heat and wind while also being much easier to pick oranges from. Not sure anyone wants to go that far, but.....those trees were incredibly healthy and didn't need as much water. The temps were much more stable and cooler for them. That moleman's orchard dream came true because of what he did. He kept digging, building, etc, until he had all the dirt he needed (plus an underground home that resembled parts of Italy and Greece and didn't really look like an underground home because of the amount of courtyards and sun-lit areas he'd dug out to allow the sun and air to go through the area.) He helped his community during the Great Depression with the food he grew and sold, and even by given jobs to others who needed it, having them help him with the project. He had plans for turning it into a resort but passed away from pneumonia before he could realize that. His brother took over, and they're still working on it. It's incredible. The whole place was temperature stable. Cooler than the rest of the town because of how it was built.
There’s an area near me called Swalecliffe.. the cliffe part is self-explanatory, but this video has just explained the rest. It’s a lowland marsh.. full of water management.. and hundreds of Swales..
You are a teaching machine Rob! I can’t wait to get back to working on my water management! I am working on a micro demonstration site on 3 acres! I agree that this can be done at any scale and it seems all the attention is directed at back yards and large scale farming. My 3 acre homestead is a largely overlooked demographic.
Thanks, David! Have you checked out Verge Permaculture? We just merged with them and they're all about sharing permaculture education and have some great courses right now.
We use what we call Contours, so the soil taken from the Swales is used to build a wall, it can be 3 feet high. Their primary use is to stop erosion by holding back water, which then can be filtered towards a dam or lake.
I want to be this guy :) I usually skim long videos but I watched all of this one. I didn't realize how much I love sculpting the earth to better serve my needs. I just came inside after working on part of my much, much smaller scale water management system and this video popped up :) I also want to use this guy's tools instead of my eyeballs.
Beautifully described and created for water management.! As described in "The Challenge of Landscape" and 'Water for Every Farm' both by P. A. Yeomans published about the 1950's?
This Water Mgmt Ecology is so important ( since water is so important to everyone and the environment ). I wonder if in Las Vegas where the rain in the surrounding mountains empty into LV Valley can employ these swales and check dams ? Right now it's all desert brush. We don't get a lot of rain but it would be a good test to try this out.
7:20 Yes, swales alone are deficient because they don't deliver water below the frost line. Which is why the bottom of a swale should have a narrow linear dry well filled with rocks. Occasional rock-filled holes work, too. You're breeding mosquitoes, oversaturating surface soil, and, as you note, getting inferior infiltration. Good work, but you should add some dry well capacity to your swales. Thumbs up
These are common here in SE Nebraska's farming (row crop) region. Very little flat ground exists and these swales (as you call them) and do, yes, hold additional water but their primary purpose is to prevent erosion. You'd be surprised at how rapidly worked ground will cut ravines after a moderate rain. Ravines easily break equipment that cost $200K+.
Outstanding video, thanks so much for sharing you knowledge and experience. Anyone who dreams of owning a larger parcel of land, even just a few acres, would benefit from this by understanding water management needs to be first and last in all land planning.
My father grew up on a wheat & sheep farm in West Australia. Much of it was very lose sandy soil. From my grandfather he learned how to improve poor soil. When my father purchased his own properties over a number of decades he chose properties with mostly sandy soil. Then set about improving them and introducing legumes of differing types so they held & released nutrients and water. In an area of 300mm // 12" average rainfall this took about 10 years using a 1 in 3 crop-pasture rotation. Contour banks were put across any slope that had some clay in it to hold water. This was in the early 1960's. Most people laughed at him for buying sandy properties. However by my late teens people with clay land were surprised at how much grain we were taking off. Yet my Dad always preffered working the mobs of sheep as he understood how the animals & pasture were actually the foundation for the crop. Now most cropping in the area is constant every year, using fertilisers and weedacides. Very few people run any stock.
I don’t know your timeline for the snow fences but I’m very interested to hear about if they increase your run off collection significantly. So far you’re the only person I’ve seen mention including them in your plan, but most people doing this seem to be collecting rainfall rather than snowmelt.
The transpiration water cycle is taught in grade school but apparently not in colleges. Do the riparian trees like cottonwoods and willows provide more water into the atmosphere which produces more rain and snow? With the added water into the atmosphere does this produce fog and dew during the Summer? Does the added water into the atmosphere cool down the valleys? Do cottonwoods and willows absorb water in the Spring when water is plentiful and release the water back into the ground in the Fall when water is not plentiful?
Hey ❤ Fellow BC! I’m in the Robison Valley. I will most definitely be following along and supporting a local UA-cam channel. Best of luck with everything you are doing! Thanks for sharing online. We have major water issues here too. Might need a dealer on my moms property I think.
You mentioned you plan to grow trees which is so great! I wonder why you haven't planted the pioneer trees at the time the swales were constructed, that's usually how it's done. But otherwise very impressive work!
What a great sustainable system of water management. But would it be useful in desert biomes that can briefly get enormous rains, but which are sandwiched between many months of desiccating heat? I'm thinking of the American Southwest, Greece and Spain, Western Australia, North Africa and the Levant.
Stop the water from running away to the sea. Keep it in the area where it fell from the sky, and make it part of the water table. They are developing this knowledge and simple technology to manage ground water in India, where it only monsoon rains about 3 months out of 12.
OstenSibly. Probably not the right word to use anyway as it's kind of equivalent to "apparently". Great video though, very interesting. Definitely a channel to keep an eye on.
You mentioned seeing it from satellites, does that include keeping track of it via Landsat with the Enhanced Vegetation Index and similar spectral data? Don't actually know how much it costs to order new scans but it might be worth doing. I know I've seen guys doing spectral analysis of land with drones too which works well for properties this size.
Google earth imagery can provide a light spectrum that can be analyzed in ArcPro's imaga analysis which will give similar information. 3-D ortho imagery from drones will also give you similar data but at 1 cm accuracy from 400 ft.
You should talk about how these techniques affect the surrounding area.. like does it take water away from surrounding land? Will this accelerate desertification of the areas around your property?
No, this technique actually reverses desertification. Harvesting and slowing the water allows for groundwater recharge to the area surrounding it and the aquifer below it.
in our country saudi arabia we like to put stones lines elevated by 40 cm perpindicular to water flow and decrease flow of sediment in multiple area this method is very ancient may be 4000 yr ago u have to try it
What's absolutely insane is that there are mini-hydro power solutions that only need a very tiny input and very little vertical change to function fully so this is more than enough to power this persons home fully off grid so long as he used a dam to help control the water released and make sure that there was always flow going into the generator. Pair it with solar and a small battery system and you could very easily have a robust and redundant power system off grid. there are a lot of other useful waste products such as heat that with more engineering could also be harnessed to further increase the efficiency of the home, but it hasn't been done yet so it would take a lot of R@D.
I'll give you another idea, get a driller or hammer and long bit of metal (or big long screwdriver) ...... Inside the steep dams, hammer holes in the direction you want it to flow and seep .... For example you could hammer holes into those dams out towards the side and. Pointing back from the dam wall, this will give you quicker results and even better if you drill or hammer holes all over your land.....
With regards to your 1% increase in carbon causing 168000 liter water retention: what is a reasonable expectation for percent carbon storage increase? I know this depends on soil and land usage in the first place but how is it calculated?
A note too - even when water is not a limiting resource, all of these strategies are key because they slow water down and prevent it from becoming the destructive source that it is. Thus, swales and check dams are valuable to both wet and dry environments!
I agree. A well built water system has an outlet that moves any extra water off property, meaning that, if you designed it well, too much water should never be a problem. Too little water can be a problem almost anywhere, so my theory is that you should always assume drought conditions and go from there
"OSTENTIBLY" 😆
Not exactly, You would be shocked how many people think swales are just part of good regenerative land management, only to absolutely brutally waterlog their property and remove all its productivity. For many wet environments swales are not the answer. Keyline cuts, SALT systems, or very specifically placed ponds are going to be far more effective at increasing water infiltration without waterlogging entire properties
If the swales are cut on a sharper gradient would that mitigate your concern (in a high rainfall area)?
In medium rainfall areas I believe keyline cuts are the best option.
I have springs on my place some of which have ponds sunk in them. Unfortunately this hasn’t mitigated water logging. I need to drain the ponds with monk pipes running into long runs of underground poly pipe, and or install swales to take the water to the gullies.
My annual rainfall is around 800mm. The spring water is additional but mostly dries out during drought. Wet seven years out of ten years, thereabouts.
@@Dd214medaddy @mattoe8621 If waterlogging is a problem, install monk pipes in the swales and make sure you've got plenty of thirsty trees on them. Trees are water moderators. Also increasing soil organic matter and fixing calcium deficiency in the soil are good things to do regardless, and can help with water logging. The most important thing to understand, though is that water is always a resource. If you have enough, you can make chinampa - style systems, using standing or flowing water to build fertility and irrigate crops, growing fish, ducks and rice as a byproduct.
Good build. The one thing I would recommend is to borrow heavily from the European tradition of hedgerows to help along to the tops of the swales. Everyone talks about planting trees, and that's good, but hedgerows take things to the next level. A bit more work, but also a greater variety of plants that create habitat for the smaller creatures that then eat the "pests" we don't want on our crops. Plus, they provide a quick windbreak while the larger trees are still growing. In the UK, for example, the 'law' states that you can tell how old a hedgerow is by the number of species found in it - generally one species per century. They have hedgerows with more than a dozen species in them!
Another upside is that maintaining the hedgerows provides enough wood to heat the home all winter long.
That's a great idea to add the hedgerows next to the swales. We have some on the property already but have lots still to do.
Thank you very interesting stuff
The Swale is unessesery and is a waste. its beter to lern Key Line acording P. A Yeoman and manage water from that. and also biuld soil on that
@@mrThoreKarlsson huh
TY. I guess I didn't know what a hedgerow was. I assumed it was just some plants in a row. @@threeriversforge1997
In the winter while the swales are dry, and you are feeding livestock, I would feed them in the swales to add nutrients to the water infusion from the swale during water collection period. This will encourage the growth of grasses on the exposed subsoil exposed forming the swale berm.
Though wouldn’t the livestock’s entry and exit from rh swales erode the finely honed level edges of the swale/spill?
Yeah, you want water infiltration, not compaction
I’d also consider pebbles and stones in the beds of the Swales and spills to further decrease erosions and water evaporation in drier seasons. It also helps encourage life in the area with small shelter for insects with and without water
Loose mulch might be a more cost effective way to do all that you mentioned, plus give food for fungus that will aid in water infiltration and soil health
Please show us what happens when snow melts, when water is filling up the ditches, etc. Thanks.
Thank you for posting. I am electronic engineer. My dad is an architect and didn't see blueprints of landscaping in his office. And i find this video very interesting and inspiring. I bought a small 3 acre multi slope land in Southern California. I tried to get rid of rain and snow water eroding my land. Now i will treasure it to plant trees, create shade, fresh air and fertile soil for vegetation. Thanks again.
Thank you so much for *teaching*! I watch a lot of videos in which people talk about what they did, but without details, as if they assume the audience already understands it. You are not condescending, but you structure information into a lesson in a really helpful way! Thank you!
We really appreciate that. Thank you.
Having watched many of the videos on swales, one rock dams and the benefits of harvesting water, your explanation of how to build these structures and how they work, ranks right up there at the top in understanding for myself. Thank you for the excellent way you described things in this video.
we had the swales going across the slope overflowing into the creek at the check dams. They would gradually fill up and the creek would gradually increase its run as they overflowed. They held a LOT of water and we rarely filled up an old irrigation pond once we had the whole system in place, and it was a 1 acre, 6 foot deep on average, pond.
One of the neatest ways I've seen tree plantings is there are multiple varieties you can use branch shoots and just plug them down into the soil like a stake. If you've got a property that has erosion issues and you're wanting a lot of trees along the edges of water troughs, swales, ditches, creeks...look it up. Dirt cheap planting.
Historically, your area would have been covered with ground squirrel holes, which would have captured the water from snow melt, etc... most people see ground squirrels as a nuisance, but they are the second most important animal to north American wildlife because they raise the water table causing larger riparian areas. Riparian areas are the most productive for wildlife. They are second only to the beaver in their importance to wildlife. Ground squirrels colonies should be saved and treasured wherever possible. If you tried to have swales in my area, you would scrape off the valuable topsoil and be left with swales that would be infertile. This would lead to noxious weed invasion. Thanks for your video.
I've used swales in my backyard but I didn't know the name for them. This has inspired me to make a few changes in the layout to hopefully improve things
Thanks for the shout-out Rob!
So smart ! The ancient people knew how to control water, but you are teaching us again! 😊
I think this is the coolest thing I’ve ever seen!
This was an incredible explanation... just so in depth and well spoken.
Thanks for sharing, enjoyed this a lot.
I have my property in the Dominican Republic and am going to put in my swales later this year.
Excellent explanation of check dams and swales. Thanks for this video and explaining how they can benefit those of us in cold climates. 👍
It will be great to see these Swales in snow melt conditions
Utterly amazing information. I am 1/100th of a step there. The cost of machine works for larger earthworks is prohibitive, but invaluable.
Thank you for this video. Learnt a lot... going to be hard to fall asleep.
Excellent video. I already watched a lot of material regarding swales and permaculture but this is a real joy to watch. Well spoken, relaxed and in-depth explanatory, really motivating. Now I want to build swales but these would be completely useless as I live in the mudflats of the Netherlands 😂
PLEASE post more updates about this property and all of its projects!!! ❤
what a great presentation, thank you! I wish you all the best and lots of rain. My company is preparing to do the same in Zambia. It is exciting to see so so many sites all over the globe being developed the right way!
Very good explanation. Job well done!
Great video. As a British Columbian, this seems like a great strategy to help mitigate forest fires. Hope you are also exploring that avenue!
You are a teacher. Packaging and package size is very important. Your flow builds logically and each of your conceptual packages are well sized and complete. This way they can be stored for good recall. Is this your profession or are you just a good communicator who ranches?
This should be taught in primary schools
Absolutely!
Institutional schools should be abolished :) :) :)
Homestead home school
I would like to see what you are talking about regarding a snow fence. Also, consider alders instead of cottonwoods, if they are native to your area. They also grow very fast and are nitrogen fixing. Their leaf litter is all i use for my no-dig gardens. I incorporate them into all my restoration planting in the Pacific Northwest. They are under-utilized. I also would recommend shrubs like thimbleberry, salmonberry, and elderberry for soil building and habitat/food for wildlife. Maybe for your area, serviceberry and choke cherry would be more apt. Monocultures of cottonwood don't seem as beneficial and the leaves are not as nutrient rich.
Old technology but good management of the land. Excellent!
11:00 You should add an island to it so you can have trees there to shade it an reduce evaporation.
On the regenerative agriculture podcast I heard that every 1% of organic material in the top 12 inches of soil of an acre can hold up to 20,000 gallons of water. So, if you have somewhere like 13-20%organics you’re doing great if you have the nutrients too.
What an exciting project, you must be filled with hope and wonder!
your video confirms my idea that my desert city's xeric push has actually prevented rain from falling; most times clouds develop around the city but dry up as they aproach the city. Grass is killed off to put down rocks. This causes temps to increase (so we need more air conditioning) which in turn kills the beautiful trees. (Could be offset and trees SAVED if WATER was given). In addition the normal respiration of the soil is strangled by the rocks & plastic. And it looks gross. Nothing says ahhh like grass! Thanks for this explanation; gonna try it for my garden!
Try adding zai holes also. Or pairing zai holes with demilunes. They're doing that in East and West Africa right now, and it's working to improve soil conditions enough that what little they were growing has increased by 500% to 2000% in certain situations. Zai holes come in two types. One is the simpler newspaper zai hole, which is a hole about 12" deep lined with about 20 sheets of newspaper. It holds water for longer, increasing soil moisture, but not so long that roots get waterlogged and start to rot. The second version of the zai hole is the de lux zai hole, which has a plastic covering as well as the lined bottom. That one's concept is basically to protect the plants from the UV and harsh climate / wind while also retaining moisture (and even heat, if in a cooler environment). The plastic covering is mostly transparent, giving the plants the light they need but keeping them from being burnt / damaged (they receive sun damage same as us).
A zai hole inside of a demi lune is extra awesome for water retention, because you already have the semicircular cut into the ground holding water, but then the zai hole inside is deeper and so holds even more water for longer. Great for trees & deeper-rooted plants.
Stacked rocks are best for blocking wind erosion and water erosion, and for controlling water flow.
Some types of plants don't like tree mulch because the tannins released will stunt their growth. Other plants love it. So that's another thing to consider.
Next trick is half-buried terracotta plants with lids and with tiny holes in the bottom will allow for slow watering. The pot should be buried near the plants it will water. Their roots will wrap around it, which is good.
Another trick is the "three sisters" planting method, to triple what plants are beneficial to each other and the soil.
And the final trick is coppicing. This means you don't cut down trees. Instead, you score them so they sprout young stems, and the main truck is then cut off and possibly scorched to prevent pests. The young stems grow to a certain height as you continue to score elsewhere periodically to get new sprouts--always removing unwanted sprouts that would not grow well with the others. As a certain set get old enough within 2 to 10 years, you chop those down while the other sprouts continue to grow, etc. Repeating that on the same mother tree means you keep the same, ever-growing root system that already has the established ground biome with all the healthy bacteria in the ground that are already aerating and converting nitrogen in the soil, AND the mother roots aren't having to hold up / provide for a giant, massive tree. So instead, the nutrients and water from the ground continually go to the smaller shoots and trunks for millennia. There is a tree in Italy that is 4,000 years old that has been maintained by one family. Burnt and cut over and over and very healthy even today. And Japan does this technique to keep from deforesting their limited amount of land. The trees get 50 feet tall or taller when they're ready to be harvested from the mother system, while younger shoots continue to grow until they're ready. And the ones selected to be allowed to grow are usually extremely straight, which are really, really good for building material.
So.......sustainable wood farming. No devastation to the land.
Hope these ideas are helpful.
Oh, yeah. Not sure if anyone in your area is even slightly willing to take on this idea, but there's a dude nicknamed "the moleman" who was from Italy who during the Great Depression had bought land to grow an orchard....but the entire area was barely 2 to 3" of usable soil, under which there was up to 6 feet of solid rock (I forgot what type, but it's exremely hard rock). He dug down below the rock and found that when he created a hole above the tunnel, the trees he planted down there would grow straight up, no extra low branches, until the tree branched out at about ground level above. Which meant the trees were protected from the harsh desert-like environment's heat and wind while also being much easier to pick oranges from.
Not sure anyone wants to go that far, but.....those trees were incredibly healthy and didn't need as much water. The temps were much more stable and cooler for them.
That moleman's orchard dream came true because of what he did. He kept digging, building, etc, until he had all the dirt he needed (plus an underground home that resembled parts of Italy and Greece and didn't really look like an underground home because of the amount of courtyards and sun-lit areas he'd dug out to allow the sun and air to go through the area.) He helped his community during the Great Depression with the food he grew and sold, and even by given jobs to others who needed it, having them help him with the project. He had plans for turning it into a resort but passed away from pneumonia before he could realize that. His brother took over, and they're still working on it.
It's incredible. The whole place was temperature stable. Cooler than the rest of the town because of how it was built.
There’s an area near me called Swalecliffe.. the cliffe part is self-explanatory, but this video has just explained the rest. It’s a lowland marsh.. full of water management.. and hundreds of Swales..
So cool, huge property, plant trees ASAP don't wait
You are a teaching machine Rob! I can’t wait to get back to working on my water management! I am working on a micro demonstration site on 3 acres! I agree that this can be done at any scale and it seems all the attention is directed at back yards and large scale farming. My 3 acre homestead is a largely overlooked demographic.
Thanks, David! Have you checked out Verge Permaculture? We just merged with them and they're all about sharing permaculture education and have some great courses right now.
Good explanation of how swales work in practice, and this is is a cold climate zone rather than drylands.
We use what we call Contours, so the soil taken from the Swales is used to build a wall, it can be 3 feet high. Their primary use is to stop erosion by holding back water, which then can be filtered towards a dam or lake.
I want to be this guy :)
I usually skim long videos but I watched all of this one. I didn't realize how much I love sculpting the earth to better serve my needs. I just came inside after working on part of my much, much smaller scale water management system and this video popped up :) I also want to use this guy's tools instead of my eyeballs.
Beautifully described and created for water management.! As described in "The Challenge of Landscape" and 'Water for Every Farm' both by P. A. Yeomans published about the 1950's?
I was told that my the land in VA, USA is no good as i has a swale on an area of it. And this makes me feel so much better. I thank you.
Whoever told you that is a silly bum.
Very informative. Best wishes on this project!
I watch videos like this and have hope for the future of the natural world. It'd be great if politicians would open their eyes and do more though.
This Water Mgmt Ecology is so important ( since water is so important to everyone and the environment ). I wonder if in Las Vegas where the rain in the surrounding mountains empty into LV Valley can employ these swales and check dams ? Right now it's all desert brush. We don't get a lot of rain but it would be a good test to try this out.
Swales can also slow evaporation by shielding from some wind.
7:20 Yes, swales alone are deficient because they don't deliver water below the frost line. Which is why the bottom of a swale should have a narrow linear dry well filled with rocks. Occasional rock-filled holes work, too. You're breeding mosquitoes, oversaturating surface soil, and, as you note, getting inferior infiltration.
Good work, but you should add some dry well capacity to your swales.
Thumbs up
Great video on water management, harvesting, check dams, resilient, ecological water systems. Well done
These are common here in SE Nebraska's farming (row crop) region. Very little flat ground exists and these swales (as you call them) and do, yes, hold additional water but their primary purpose is to prevent erosion. You'd be surprised at how rapidly worked ground will cut ravines after a moderate rain. Ravines easily break equipment that cost $200K+.
They're all a part of working with the land instead of trying to fight against it. Nature will be quick to let you know if it worked!
Thanks for teaching me the meaning of “plethora.” It means a lot!
Outstanding video, thanks so much for sharing you knowledge and experience. Anyone who dreams of owning a larger parcel of land, even just a few acres, would benefit from this by understanding water management needs to be first and last in all land planning.
Great video mate. Just put an offer in for 100 acres in Perth, Western Australia and am new to this. Thanks
❤ I pray every and owner in western Canada see this video. Brilliant strategy. Blessings to all your projects..
I really learnt so much, many thanks, great teaching
Yes, many nations are furthering their ancient farming techniques and rejecting the smooth plains tractors need.
My father grew up on a wheat & sheep farm in West Australia. Much of it was very lose sandy soil. From my grandfather he learned how to improve poor soil.
When my father purchased his own properties over a number of decades he chose properties with mostly sandy soil. Then set about improving them and introducing legumes of differing types so they held & released nutrients and water. In an area of 300mm // 12" average rainfall this took about 10 years using a 1 in 3 crop-pasture rotation.
Contour banks were put across any slope that had some clay in it to hold water. This was in the early 1960's.
Most people laughed at him for buying sandy properties. However by my late teens people with clay land were surprised at how much grain we were taking off.
Yet my Dad always preffered working the mobs of sheep as he understood how the animals & pasture were actually the foundation for the crop. Now most cropping in the area is constant every year, using fertilisers and weedacides.
Very few people run any stock.
Great info! I look forward to future updates
I don’t know your timeline for the snow fences but I’m very interested to hear about if they increase your run off collection significantly. So far you’re the only person I’ve seen mention including them in your plan, but most people doing this seem to be collecting rainfall rather than snowmelt.
2:16 Nice soil profile shot :)
What is your average annual rainfall/precipitation?
Very exciting to see the water structures. Thank you for sharing.
Can’t wait to see how this one evolves Rob! 👍🏻
i hope you can create a video showing how it all looks when swales, ponds, culverts are all fillled with water!! thankss
The transpiration water cycle is taught in grade school but apparently not in colleges. Do the riparian trees like cottonwoods and willows provide more water into the atmosphere which produces more rain and snow? With the added water into the atmosphere does this produce fog and dew during the Summer? Does the added water into the atmosphere cool down the valleys? Do cottonwoods and willows absorb water in the Spring when water is plentiful and release the water back into the ground in the Fall when water is not plentiful?
don't forget! tree roots will also increase seepage of water in the soil.
Hey ❤ Fellow BC! I’m in the Robison Valley. I will most definitely be following along and supporting a local UA-cam channel. Best of luck with everything you are doing! Thanks for sharing online. We have major water issues here too. Might need a dealer on my moms property I think.
4:00 good dog!
Very informative and well explained. Thank you!❤
Not sure what trees you have in the area but also look into fruit trees when planting.
Thank you so very much!! This is what I need. This shared knowledge definitely will help me. 🙏🏼🌺🌴🇵🇭
You mentioned you plan to grow trees which is so great! I wonder why you haven't planted the pioneer trees at the time the swales were constructed, that's usually how it's done. But otherwise very impressive work!
Good job .. Goodluck . MMfrom Poland
What a great sustainable system of water management.
But would it be useful in desert biomes that can briefly get enormous rains, but which are sandwiched between many months of desiccating heat? I'm thinking of the American Southwest, Greece and Spain, Western Australia, North Africa and the Levant.
Quite the Project, Rob! Looking forward to seeing how that looks from a satellite view as you mentioned!
muito bom explicacoes amigo,from Brazil
Stop the water from running away to the sea. Keep it in the area where it fell from the sky, and make it part of the water table. They are developing this knowledge and simple technology to manage ground water in India, where it only monsoon rains about 3 months out of 12.
OstenSibly. Probably not the right word to use anyway as it's kind of equivalent to "apparently". Great video though, very interesting. Definitely a channel to keep an eye on.
Thank you.
The mound running next to the swale is called a “berm”.
I would love to see the time laps of spring how wather moves in the sistem
You mentioned seeing it from satellites, does that include keeping track of it via Landsat with the Enhanced Vegetation Index and similar spectral data? Don't actually know how much it costs to order new scans but it might be worth doing. I know I've seen guys doing spectral analysis of land with drones too which works well for properties this size.
Google earth imagery can provide a light spectrum that can be analyzed in ArcPro's imaga analysis which will give similar information. 3-D ortho imagery from drones will also give you similar data but at 1 cm accuracy from 400 ft.
Thank you for that great information.
I lurn a lot from youer beutiful video it is very help full for a lot of peopel around the world these days thanks you my frind god bless you
You should talk about how these techniques affect the surrounding area.. like does it take water away from surrounding land? Will this accelerate desertification of the areas around your property?
No, this technique actually reverses desertification. Harvesting and slowing the water allows for groundwater recharge to the area surrounding it and the aquifer below it.
in our country saudi arabia we like to put stones lines elevated by 40 cm perpindicular to water flow and decrease flow of sediment in multiple area
this method is very ancient may be 4000 yr ago
u have to try it
Skip the Swale and lern Key Line acording P. A Yeoman to manage water in a desert landscape and build soil ontop of it
I made one on the beach.
It was a Beached Swale
🤣 This....was just beautiful. Thank you so much for this random spice of humor! 🤣🤣
All the best of luck, although luck isn’t what is happening but good planning is. Regards
Back the front! Mound on bottom side!
This is so interesting and so clearly presented. Thank you.
Going back to the ancient ways of agriculture.
14:00 Not to mention it would wash away the black soil you want for growing.
Definitly subscribing!
A Red Cedar (non-native) invasive tree will use 20 - 30 gallons per day. How many gallons a day will those trees planted on the terraces use?
I’m about to enter a rental agreement but I look forward to buying acerage soon so that I can get back to soil rehabilitation.
Awesome. Can't wait to hear how it goes.
WOW ;D thank you so much , will share
Hi, how much annual rain do you get?
Any update on the trees?
What's absolutely insane is that there are mini-hydro power solutions that only need a very tiny input and very little vertical change to function fully so this is more than enough to power this persons home fully off grid so long as he used a dam to help control the water released and make sure that there was always flow going into the generator. Pair it with solar and a small battery system and you could very easily have a robust and redundant power system off grid. there are a lot of other useful waste products such as heat that with more engineering could also be harnessed to further increase the efficiency of the home, but it hasn't been done yet so it would take a lot of R@D.
I'll give you another idea, get a driller or hammer and long bit of metal (or big long screwdriver) ...... Inside the steep dams, hammer holes in the direction you want it to flow and seep .... For example you could hammer holes into those dams out towards the side and. Pointing back from the dam wall, this will give you quicker results and even better if you drill or hammer holes all over your land.....
Great video.
I want to know how to do a swell on contour for hay fields.
With regards to your 1% increase in carbon causing 168000 liter water retention: what is a reasonable expectation for percent carbon storage increase? I know this depends on soil and land usage in the first place but how is it calculated?