Mark Shepard: Managing Water on Your Farm — the “American Keyline” Method

Permaculture farmer Mark Shepard, author of the book Restoration Agriculture and the subject of a forthcoming documentary, will explain water handling on the farm from contour farming, grassy waterways and USDA terraces to Australian-borne keyline design and Mark's modified American Keyline methods. Learn how to keep the water high on your hills where it can benefit the farm. When Mark began to recast his own farm water management and land work was his first task. He's reaped the benefits for two decades. As gushers erode neighboring properties he holds the precious water high on his hills where it can be put to work to buffer the inevitable dry periods.

Mark Shepard is a permaculture designer, agroforester and ecological farming consultant. He and his family have transformed a typical 140-acre row-crop dairy farm into a permaculture-based perennial-agricultural ecosystem using oak savannah, successional-brushland and Eastern woodlands as the ecological models. In all, they have planted 100,000 trees on this property. The result is one of the first and finest farm-scale models of permaculture in the United States. Their farm features chestnut, hazelnut and fruit trees, a variety of other fruits and vegetables, and chickens, ducks, pigs and other animals. He is vice-president of the Southwest Badger Resource Conservation and Development Council and is the chief cidermaker for the Shepard's Hard Cyder Winery. Upper Midwest organic farmers will recognize him as the banjo player in the band Synister Dane. He is the author of the book Restoration Agriculture.

Recorded Thursday, December 12, 2013