How to Fix a Broken Ecosystem

Permaculture instructor Andrew Millison explains the process for repairing a degraded ecosystem. We begin with the metrics for assessing ecosystem health, and then go over the steps to triggering biological activity and ecological succession.
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[@ConstantGardener-q9q]

This is exactly what I’m working on. For two winters I’ve buried old wood, left the leaves, planted native shrubs and perennials, created pollinator climates etc. This year there are mountains of mushrooms blooming in the soil. So excited

[@Paraclef]

Liber means bark, so liberty was always related to the trees; the roots. Migrants agenda is a satanist aganda

[@franciscolomeli8931]

Oooooooo that sounds cool

[@LateNightSummerRain]

Mushroom means you're going in the right path

[@2A_supporter]

You should document it all on here

[@ConstantGardener-q9q]

@@2A_supporter hmmm. That's a thought. Thanks for the encouragement

[@Picci25021973]

Your lessons should be broadcasted on TV worldwide. They are not only interesting and self explaining, they are also beautiful to see. You're definitely an artist.

[@amillison]

Thank you so much for the kind feedback!

[@lauralee6628]

delusion nonsense if you want to restore degraded arid land = get up to speed with allan savory + first understand the role of grazing animals

[@jameshynes-petty6573]

@@amillison this was a great video but I think you need to make the distinction between PNW forests and east side pine. Granted east side pine, a are I am now a forester, has diversity it is nowhere near as complex as you are describing. Love the video as alway! Honored to be a previous student.

[@biosndlogos1357]

Yes it should be broadcasted 💐

[@asbjrnhansen8477]

@@amillison or alan saverys way seemlike less work more natural

[@Gnarmarmilla]

Thank you very much, sir. I am very grateful for this free teaching on KZbin. I am also very grateful for your earnest love of nature and the apparent efforts you are making to protect and restore it. Sir, save the pride and lying of our politicians, I do not see any issue that is so important to the human race right now as this. I live in southern Illinois and I have wept thinking about how we used to have 13 million acres of forest in the 1800’s and now we have about 4. This is heartbreaking and I see that Oregon is suffering the same way. I was just looking at Google maps and the baron scars on the landscape from clear cutting in Oregon are very alarming. So this lesson is all the more important for all people to understand. I hope and pray that all people will listen to people like you because you are being righteous and wise and we will all be blessed if we listen. Peace to you, sir.

[@amillison]

Thank you so much for your kind words and generosity! It means so much to be able to do what I am passionate about on an increasingly large scale. Your support is deeply appreciated and I hope you are doing well :-)

[@lemongauche]

Thank you for caring for southern Illinois. When I was young, I visited the Shawnee Forest and I was amazed by the miles of green forest, rich soil, windswept rock, wild creatures and clean water compared to where I had come from. Please continue to cherish the beautiful place where you live.

[@electedsphinx4086]

This is what I’ve been studying for the last year, along with no-till principles and food forests, I’m saving up to buy 50 acre of land here in the peach state to build a food forest surrounded by a huge Forrest. I will build a cabin in the middle and live off the land as a part of the ecosystem. I will also be laid to rest on the land to truely be a part of the ecosystem

[@electedsphinx4086]

@A R I plan to buy some land with some creeks or a part of a river running through it for serve for irrigation purposes, I plan to build a pond that is fed by a creek or river in the wet season to retain water in the dry season

[@martywanlass4774]

Last year there was a video here that showed how a family restored their land, and when the father died, he was buried in a willow casket, which would eventually become nutrients for the land.

[@alexcota9811]

I have been collecting as many native seeds in my pockets as possible and just need some rain to start stabilizing soil and spreading seeds and mulch. There's nothing I love more than being in my local environment where it is rich and diverse, and nothing more heartbreaking than seeing it grazed to dust and sprayed and paved, but luckily seeds are still plentiful in certain areas and each one has infinite potential over generations to regenerate the old reality of this land 💚

[@apteryx7080]

why plant natives when you could plant food trees ? just curious. there are food shortages on the way after all. If I can't eat it, or feed it to my chickens, or attract polinators to the garden i don't grow it.

[@alexcota9811]

@@apteryx7080 because I am already living in an area where highly preferred acorn species are in abundance and most of the native plants here live under the oaks, so I have much more space where native grasses, flowers, shrubs and vines can grow, some of them already being edible for myself, others being important food and resources for animals other than myself. Their seeds are more abundant and their success in this difficult climate is more likely, and their improvement of the soil is guaranteed. I have never seen a healthy old orchard in this area, I think non native plants are less likely to survive and yield without my constant help and protection from animals. I will be sowing tree seeds and grafting into any suitable rootstocks that present themselves but for the most part, I would rather invite as much wildlife, micro and macro, as I can, and rehabilitate the soil and the water table (for the seasonal creek I like at the top of. The natives are the ones who know what to do here, their the ones the land misses, they're the ones I think are pretty, and they bring animals for me and my dog to eat.

[@alexcota9811]

@@apteryx7080 the way I'm doing this is basically trying to create rich meadowy woods surrounding and entwining with my food production terraces, which catch acorns and hold buried mushroom logs and annual crops which i will help to naturalize if possible for the species. For the next ten years I plan to work on that while I wait for trees to grow and start taking up more canopy space and producing. The only problem is that there is so much wildlife here, and fruit isn't guaranteed, nuts may beore reliable but I already have a forest of low acid acorns. Having dense covering of natives will provide habitat and mulch and positive atmosphere that is worth more than anything to me. Hopefully I can plant enough fruit all around the hill that critters leave some for me.

[@apteryx7080]

@@alexcota9811 Thank you for your replies. That totally makes sense, and what a wonderful effort. It sounds as rhough you have put a lot of thought and research into what you're doing. Kudos to you and I wish you every success ! I'm in Australia, so a rotally different environment to you obviously. My comment comes in part from the fact that people here are obsessed with growing natives, but our natives are mostly prone to catching fire ! That's because they evolved over many thousands of years with indigenous people burning them. However, indigenous folk burned with precision, and their fire regimes had very specific goals, and had the effect of maintaining habitats for all wildlife. Most people think the Australian continent was always a "wide brown land, a land of sweeping plains and flooding rains" (paraphrased from a famous poem by Dorathea Mackellar) but that simply is not the case. We didn't have enormous bushfires here until after European settlement, and the reason for that is that when stock were introduced, fences were erected, and indigenous people were no longer allowed to burn the country as per their custom for THOUSANDS of years That caused changes in landuse very quickly. Land that is not burnt grows into forest at an alarming rate , and where we had formerly a patchwork of forests, very quickly we had thousands of acres of unbroken, mostly eucalyptus forest. The first enormous fires on record therefore were in the 1800's, and evidence for large fires is not found before that time. The situation today, after many years of Greenie activism is that we have huge fires that do lots of damage, in part because a lot of people have built homes "in the bush".. In the state of Victoria, it was illegal to take a fallen log out of rhe bush for something like ten years, due to the labour govt of the rime. What we had therefore at the time of the last catastrophic fire season (2019, you may have seen it on the news) was the biggest fuel load (basically dead trees, grass etc) the country had had in 100 000 years ! Of course the fires were blamed on...you guessed it.... . Climate Change ! One way to change things here is to grow more non natives, but that won't fly due to the Greenie activism. In some parts of the country smart farmers are growing more non natives, and i recall seeing one such farmer who was growing oaks, he said they made perfect sense as they are not prone to fire and provide food. We have too many biologists and not enough botanists holding sway in Greenie quarters who have never bothered to educate themselves as I have done, they want to protect all the native wildlife without any meaningful understanding of how this country came to be the way it is. Hence we have tree planting programmes all over, where local councils supply natives, and little to no thought being given to the nightmare scenario this kind of forest will create going forward. It's well past time to start growing more fire resistant species here, but alas, people have this misguided idea that we need to reforest every corner of the country with natives, where it was never a contiguous forest to begin with ! Honestly, it does my head in. 😟. Expect to see more news of great fires in Australia in another 10 years or so, maybe less. Farmer's in many places are restricted in regards to what vegetation rhey are allowed to remove, and yet we have advertisements from groups lole the WWF , gaslighting peoole with statements about how many thousands of trees are torn down every day in this country. That's because thousands of eucalyptus tree saplings appear every year, and if not removed they grow into forest, which will burn eventually, and in the meantime in many cases eradicating much of the grazing lands for animals. Most of this country is better suited to animal agriculture than it is cropping. Cropping destroys eco system's, animal agriculture can exist in harmony with native wildlife, and as a birdwatcher I can attest to this. There is far less diversity of species in the areaa where crops are grown vs cattle properties.

[@alexcota9811]

@@apteryx7080 it's a similar situation in California where I live. Remnants and echoes are what's left but it's enough to regrow from.

[@ellaruth9]

This is such a complicated, complicated process. I'm super impressed with how Andrew has explained this so simply, calmly, and with words EVERYONE can understand. I try to communicate this to people sometimes but I get all jumbled and convoluted. It's a very difficult thing to break this down in the way he has. HUGE gratitude for this video, I'm going to share it with everyone I know because they certainly are tired of hearing me trying to explain it to them in ways that don't connect nearly this well :) THANK YOU ... Also, the art is masterful

[@amillison]

I so appreciate the kind feedback! Thank you for tuning in and spreading the message. Take care and have a beautiful day :-)

[@imurpapa8120]

if you cant teach something that means you dont understand it

[@jvictorgmontes]

Dronecoria, in Spain, is just following Fukuoka's steps using drones in degraded land here in the south of Europe, where desertification is a major threat. Thank you so much for your labor and ideas which are highly inspiring and, to me, life changing

[@jmilr]

"Aw yeah, this gon' be good" - Me, every time Millison cracks out the magic whiteboard

[@johndliu2284]

Thanks for the kind reference. I love this short video. I'm sure it will help many to see the simple logic in infinitely complex evolutionary succession. Congratulations Andrew!

[@Suresh8848m]

John, Great to see you chipping in here with your comments. I have watched a couple of your videos about ecological restoration from China to Africa. Your recent webinar with Dr. Elaine Ingham (Soil food web school) was equally inspirational. We need more people like You, Elaine, and Andrew. Please keep going. We will follow in your footsteps.

[@Lauradicus]

It makes me crazy watching almost every neighbor arrest their property at the baby grass stage, mowing and removing the clippings from their property, spreading chemicals to reduce weeds and having to apply chemical fertilizers because the soil isn’t healthy anymore… all directly upstream from Puget Sound, which is stressed to the max. We still have grass but don’t mow until June and then only once until November. (Very small dog needs somewhere to go!) as the lawn shrinks I’ve put in trees, shrubs, vines, annual and perennial food crops, herbs and flowers that support insect and avian life. Can’t dig ponds because of underground utilities but have created berms using dirt from mole hills. None of the biomass has been removed from the property in 4 years, until 2 years ago I managed 5 compost piles on average. With the advent of perennials I’m moving more toward chop and drop. I leave the aphids on my “crops”, the birds eat them. I don’t cover the buckets of rainwater, the hover flies eat the mosquitoes. I leave the roof rats alone, they eat the slugs. Now the owls visit on a regular basis to keep the roof rat population under control. The blackberries and dock and other perennial weeds are kept at a manageable level by the deer… and they leave my garden alone. Up in the woods I leave the trees that don’t make it standing. The woodpeckers take care of those, turning them into wood chips that absorb water, reduce erosion on our very steep hillside and fertilize the forest with their droppings. Now the fungi are blooming almost year round. Bees, hummingbirds and small birds and mammals do so much work in the garden. I let them. Mother Nature knows what she is doing. I let her. And more of the neighbors like what they are seeing and am joining me.

[@idataminansari5813]

Lovely. This is really helpful 😊

[@1865Highst]

I love this model. People often get annoyed by a pioneer species (like mosquitos) and don’t realize that if they just wait their natural predators will find them.

[@Lori.ReturnToFreedom]

Looove this. Thank you for sharing.

[@FridoGrahnify]

That's amazing. Thank you for a beautiful insight! Got me all warm and happy reading this

[@KarateGucci]

Wow

[@1Lightdancer]

I love this series - and reminding us of Masanoba Fukuoka's work! He visited Breitenbush in the 80s and gave the community tips on gardens in the Mountains.... I love his suggestion to set the militaries around the world to new tasks reducing pollution and moving towards harmony - the army to work on the land, the navy on cleaning the rivers, lakes and oceans, the air force the atmosphere, and the marines 'the dirtiest tasks'

[@martywanlass4774]

Perhaps the militia groups in this country could turn their energies to improving the land, turn in their assault weapons for plowshares, and shovels and seeds.

[@TheGeorgiaSlim]

Down here in the Southeast, a lot of times all you need is to return fire to the landscape and native ecologies spring right back, because a majority of our ecologies here are fire adapted or even fire dependent. It'd be nice to see more discussion about closed canopies, sunlight, and how shade can actually REDUCE biodiversity in many ecosystems, especially in the Southeast and Great Plains regions (which is about half of the North American continent)

[@solarpunkpresents]

It's the same in the Canadian Rockies / northwestern boreal forest. Sadly, decades of fire suppression and banning indigenous cultural burnings have taken their toll ... but there are folks working to restore fire to the landscape in a good and healthy way so that in future we won't suffer from out-of-control blazes like we've been seeing lately. Or, that's the hope anyway!

[@dukereg]

It can be very rewarding to watch this process at work in your own garden, and it takes relatively little work. I moved into a suburban block with mostly dead, sun-baked clay dirt, overgrown invasive bushy trees and some lawns struggling to live in bad soil despite constant attention. Rows of ornamental shrubs from the last people to care for the place had gradually died off, one-by-one as the miniature desert grew. I pruned back the trouble trees, covered all bare soil with plants and/or mulch, left the desirable "weeds" alone and eradicated or controlled the troublesome species, put in some strategic edging+micro-swales to slow water, did some composting, and introduced low-effort food and ornamental plants on a "look after yourself or become necromass" basis. Now I grow kilos of food every year for very little work, there are worms and fungus everywhere, the stupid lawn we're required to keep has healthier grass plants than ever due to healthier soil underneath, and some desirable garden plants are even voluntarily moving themselves into the garden beds. 😄

[@SuerteDelMolinoFarm]

We have a fixed goal to be natural. We have to be loose in how we get there. At the LooseNatural project in Huelva, Andalusia we do exactly that.

[@waynetyson3822]

I had a bag lunch with the late Bill Mollison many decades ago. Andrew, you're a worthy successor. You do understand basic ecosystems quite well, and I especially like the brevity of your presentation. I'll throw my two sense in for what it might be worth. I see ecosystems, not as a succession to a "climax," but as an energy cycle in a continuous state of flux. We are but observers. As Frank Egler put it, "Nature is not more complex than we think; it's more complex than we CAN think!" I've tried the Fukuoka (shotgun?) method, and it "works," but not well enough. Too many seeds (too MUCH success) can "swamp" the site, by faster-growing species dominating and suppressing the rest of the components. The clay-ball method was tried in the 1940's and pretty much abandoned. Not that it wouldn't work under the right conditions, but because it was far from a single silver bullet. I'm not a big fan of terracing either; I prefer rough surfaces, letting non-progressive and early-progressive erosion rills form (additionally rough surface runoff drainage, protecting the intervening spaces and providing heterogeneous surfaces for safe-seed sites and eventual deeper soil development), and stuffing them (longitudinally, not transversely) with small branches of indigenous species to modify runoff velocity and capture debris and sediment. When transverse swales load up with water, overtop, and cause even more erosion. But you've made a great contribution to the "field." I endured failure after failure for fifteen years before meeting Ewel's criteria (before I knew of Ewel), so no one should fear failure. It's the BEST teacher!

[@jayojoe]

Why i DO KNOW that we live in a completely fucked up and poisoned World? This Channel is not up to or over 500 Million Subscribers! In the Time like this we need People like Andrew Millison and much much more People who support and supply them! Anybody who is sure to love Nature, like subscribe and share share share!

[@capelandpermaculture5808]

Another fantastic video Andrew. I'm in the process of doing exactly this in a badly degraded 16 hectare piece of land in the Western Cape, South Africa. Most of the swales are in and several hundred trees have been planted. Slowly, slowly mulch is starting to appear. The terraces are finally becoming filled with plants, many of them edible, all of them welcome. Thank you for making this great little video to explain the concepts.

[@guntervanderwalt7649]

Oh wow kudos! My wife and I lived in the Northern Cape (She's a Namaqualand native). I love seeing other fellow South Africans with a similar mission and the drive to put their hands to it!!

[@Jaylea1010]

This was the video I was waiting for! How to fix bare land. I'm so excited to begin this process.

[@megmcgowan9063]

Dear Andrew, I have been watching your videos for some time now and just wanted to extend my sincere and heart-felt thanks for all that you do. I'm a permaculture designer and trainer (aka Permacoach) living in Australia. When people ask me if I'm going to offer an online training course I tell them it would be redundant, because you have already put together the best possible online PDC I've ever seen, and it's free! What a gift to the world. I know we are on other sides of the planet, but if you ever happen to be in Australia, please look me up and come visit. Best wishes, Meg.

[@megmcgowan9063]

PS: I think we need to redefine necromass. This material is not "dead" as we all know. I think we also need to find language to talk about nature that doesn't "other" nature. Perhaps we should consult with Indigenous people about better language. We are nature working.

[@amillison]

Thanks Meg, and I appreciate the good feedback. I think that necromass in this context actually puts a positive spin on the role of dead material in the landscape, as a vital part of a healthy ecosystem. But I'm certainly open to other better phrasing of course.

[@megmcgowan9063]

@@amillison I've been exploring Indigenous ways of knowing recently and highly recommend Tyson Yunkaporta's "Sand Talk; How indigenous thinking can save the world" if you haven't already read it. I've been on a bit of a journey that started with Dark Emu, followed by The Memory Code, followed by Songlines and then Sandtalk. I'm currently enjoying Braiding Sweetgrass which is closer to your part of the world, but so similar in it's approach that it could have been written here. Deeply humbling and inspiring.

[@philmichel3]

I found Braiding Sweetgrass to be really influential on me. Great book

[@carloskoppen]

@@amillison ​ @megmcgowan9063 perhaps "descendent" material, vs biomass' ascendant? Or, in market terms, "resource supply" vs biomass' resource demand.

[@FatherFish]

Absolutely magnificent. We are teaching these principles as they apply to aquariums. What a wonderful presentation. Thank you!

[@amillison]

Awesome! You're very welcome, glad you enjoyed it! :)

[@arisamblues]

Andrew thank you so much, you give me hope with this video

[@huttonsvalleypermaculture]

Thanks Andrew. Geoff Lawton has a great example of this at the Greening The Desert project. He used prickly pioneers initially then dug pits in which he put all the biomass from these trees. It acted as a moisture sink and composted down to provide fertility. The site has really improved over time. He has great videos on this. Fantastic video - thank you!!

[@brunetyannick1174]

Yup, and lord knows the site conditions are downright awful. Can't really get much worse than that ^^. Still he manages to pull it off with basic technology and limited intrants but deep understanding of ecology, species and succession.

[@gabrielvdenton]

Thanks Andrew! You have inspired me ❤ This and local food production is what I would like to study and work on in the Gulf coast plain.

[@ionluciantoma]

Ecological Succession is the most empowering concept to understand, it almost points clearly to what our role on this planet is: kickstart, restart, speed up the healing and growth of any ecosystem. So very beautiful. I love the idea of novel ecosystems including the porential for "positive" and desited "weather patern and even climatic changes" - imagine not looking at the Sonoran Desert (as Andrew mentions here) as a Climax Ecosystem, but just a stage. So much more understanding of what is possible to explore.

[@alenahawke475]

Awesome video. Very educational and easy to understand. Thank you. I hope this video is seen by millions. Peace and love from the Olympic Peninsula in Washington State.❤

[@amillison]

Thank you so much for the kind words! :)

[@jardinetdemi]

I love this! I must point out, the very last sentence is the hardest part : setting our minds to it. And you are doing a great job helping others do it !

[@amillison]

I should have said "setting our hearts, heads, and hands to it"

[@catherinehenry6762]

So very true! For me, it happened during the lockdowns. I was bored out of my mind with nowhere to go. Plus it irked me to have a section of my land that I could not even enter on the count of the blackberries.

[@giuntini.alexis]

Incredible ! Could you make a 101 series about what we could do as individuals to, slowly generate a healthier symbiosis between humans and ecosystems ? Thank you

[@tinykali9523]

Always beautiful information that you share with everyone ! Thank you for helping everyone understand how to repair the earth. If even a fraction of the people who watch this happen to start a small project, it will continue rejuvenating the world one plot at a time

[@lauralee6628]

delusion nonsense if you want to restore degraded arid land = get up to speed with allan savory + first understand the role of grazing animals

[@rainforest_eye]

Everyone needs to watch this video 💯✨

[@KelvinKim-desu]

The seed-balling approach is working really well in Kenya. We do it here by plane and by hand using sling shots and other broadcasting methods. Its now a habit for people doing hiking, road trips and picnics to carry seed-balls and throw them wherever they go.

[@betespatiotemporelle]

Far younger and trendier than the country I come from. France is an old fashioned country : the people are cold and silent, they are all alone, they don't speak foreign languages, they don't make sport, it's always bureaucracy and normalism, "Don't do this.", "Don't do that.", you have NO chance to succeed if you are different, it's just mediocrity attracting mediocrity. From my experience : French are all the same. They will ALWAYS stab you in the back and abandon you like a shit.

[@mlindsay527]

Awesome.

[@rajeevkumre7469]

I wish my school teachers were like you..... The way explained is really good, passion and knowledge can be seen lead to wisdom... Thank you very much... Keep up the good work . 🙏

[@suneetsalvi1200]

You are fantastic Mr. Millison. The Universe is blessing you. Love from India. ❤️

[@Sebastian-But-Not-That-One]

Never a let down when Andrew's teaching!❤️

[@eliee1]

Great stuff as usual, here in SWFL I’m on my second year of building a tropics oasis filled with fruit, veggies, and natives. Always appreciate your insight as I learn and grow.

[@qaswedfr1234]

excellent films great for school etc etc and general eco info. congrats

[@amillison]

Thanks so much!

[@azander1958]

Finally a video that actually explain this in straight up point with good narration and digital representation Very huge thanks man

[@amillison]

You're welcome Azander! Thanks for watching, and I'm glad you enjoyed it!

[@willzill538]

"With just a nudge in the right direction" perfectly illustrates the real problem.

[@Coga_official]

Your doing gods work mate and I thank you. You consistently provide me with inspiration and ideas that are pure gold

[@OldManDave1960]

"You are". Not "your".

[@thirdrockjul2224]

You’re a natural teacher. ❤️

[@andrewmartin4593]

Your a subject matter expert. Great drawings.. what you are talking about should be taught to everyone. Thank you.

[@Persplained]

The amount of very important knowledge you're putting out into the world is incredible. Truly incredible. Thank you.

[@ChristaFree]

At the Savoy institute in South Africa Alan used sheep dung to revitalize hundreds of thousands of hectares declared irredeemable by the government. He packed them in tight at night until the ground was covered with slick muck, then moved them over and repeated. The dung retains moisture and makes fertile soil. He said don't return to that ground until the the grasses that grow on the dung have gone to seed. Decades of sustained results. Neighboring land is still desolate and his has permanent water and stays green now. It used to be seasonal. Muck is required to build soil.

[@davidweston8032]

Great information. I love how you added the concept of ‘novel ecosystems’ and Fukuoka in the same video. Genius.

[@AussieAquatic]

Such a well-constructed lesson in repairing degraded landscapes :)

[@SK-zi3sr]

One of the few people describing the system properly

[@iSugarHeart]

I came across permaculture ideas on the internet was not taught this in school :/ i found this topic fascinating but if i were to type in ecosystems id find nothing on the subject xDDD so i will stick to permaculture because i keep finding these fascinating documentaries like about a guy who bought a forest ! 30minutes gave me so much information and joy. Thank you for your informative video , keep making more !!!!

[@TheWeedyGarden]

Your videos are brilliant and informative. Thankyou 🙏🏻🎥👍

[@amillison]

That means a lot coming from you, Weedy :-)

[@OutlawMaxV]

Beautiful presentation, this is the type of education that should by applied in schools.

[@karld1791]

I made seed balls for my backyard once. They worked ok, the seeds in one ball all sprouted together and only one or two would grow and shade out the others.

[@eretzahava222]

Fukuoka would sya..Nature made it`s own Natural selection of the best plants to grow

[@theselfreflectiveuniverse]

Gorgeous video! Thank you so much Andrew. I just love how you make them with the glass and colored drawings. So well done! And such awesome worthy content for the effort.

[@OldManDave1960]

I learned more in this one 10 minute video than I’ve learned in many other, far longer ones. Clear, concise, well presented. Informative without being shrill and preachy. Well done! You got another subscriber.

[@Treegrower]

Your illustrations are so awesome. I never knew about swales or ecological succession before watching this! Really interesting stuff.

[@GFYYT11111]

Inspirational 💚🌍 storing water is everything Permaculture Design Course will increase your confidence. Food Forests are less labour intensive. Soil to be priced higher than gold in coming years.

[@danielrus7117]

Fantastic information! More people should know this! Thank you for creating and sharing!!!

[@ValeeRocco1]

I want to study sustainability and environmental sciences because I want to help better the world and peoples understanding of what you teach. Thank you for making such amazing content🙏🏻you just inspire me to keep that path going

[@betespatiotemporelle]

I suggest you read Darwin's Origin of species. It's a little old-fashioned because it focuses on competition instead of cooperation, but far less than other books ;-) .

[@Noflo22]

Thank you! What you teach is so important!

[@tjheato914]

This actually brought me to tears! I'm all in. How can I help? I'm still on tour as a musician for 8 more months, doing an online PDC now and then I'm back home in PDX full time with no real idea of how to get started besides experimenting on our 1/5 acre. I want to participate in Earth healing for a living and still clueless as to how, but I'm very much looking forward to watching the path unfold and hoping to live to see the day that it rains seeds.

[@amillison]

Just start out your back door and expand from there :-)

[@luchoportuano2829]

I'm so glad this channel is growing so fast. 😍🥰

[@debbiehenri345]

Starting from bare, sloping, wind-battered bedrock is a really difficult and time consuming process - especially if you don't have money to buy in whatever plants, seeds, soil and machinery for making whatever swales you require on sloping ground. However, after 20 years of taking cuttings, collecting my own seeds, making some bags of compost out of collected leaves - it's starting to take shape. The most important feature I discovered was to make a hedgerow to protect the land from harsh winds 'first.' Protecting that hedgerow from animal predation is equally important! But now that all the gaps in the hedgerow have finally been filled, I'm now creating a 2nd hedgerow running parallel to 'imitate' a bridleway (which won't be used by horses at all, but will attract a specific group of creatures and flowers). Over the years, I've planted numerous tree seedlings and bushes grown from cuttings over the rest of the land. It still looks mostly like a plain field, but it's slowly getting there, small branches poking up through the long, unmown grasses and wild flowers. Last year was the first time I saw a noticeable amount of fallen leaves in Autumn, and this year was the first time I acquired a good amount of pruning material to add to that essential 'necromass.' Over time, I have given greatest importance to increasing diversity in fungi species. I truly believe that as well as certain species of fungi beneficial for certain trees, but certain species of fungi benefit each other and, in turn, do more to benefit the local ecosystem (for instance, on my rambles through woodlands, you almost never see Fly Agarics without Boletes very close by. So I sought to do the same). With an increasing mycelial network, a wide variety of plants, this little bit of land will continue to make greater strides towards recovery - and it didn't cost a fortune to do it.

[@bigwooly8014]

Get in touch with the utility companies in your area. I got about 1.5 miles (1.5 miles of a 100ft easement) of mulch from the powerline contractors putting in a new high voltage line for free. They were paying the dump to get rid of it and were happy as can be to have a close free place to drop it. Only way I would ever be able to afford that much mulch. It's big chunky and not "garden centerpiece" mulch. But that's perfect for covering bare, rocky, sloping ground I've got.

[@SimpleEarthSelfReliance]

I'm blown away by your commitment and hope that I can do the same. You're part of building the world!

[@douwebeerda]

Great video. Let's share it broadly and get this ecosystem repair going. I love the idea of permaculture and food forests where you guide the stages of ecosystem evolution and get to a relative complex ecosystem filled with nuts, fruits and other plants with useful functions for humans. Seems like a great way to create stable and complex ecosystems where humans can thrive in harmony with nature.

[@RevelationswithRabbi]

yet another fabulously-well-explained video

[@apteryx7080]

We've transformed our grass lawn into an abundant organic garden in the last ten months. We still have some grass, I need that for the chickens, they love it. I collect the mowed grass left when the local council mow certain areas.. areas I am pretty sure don't get sprayed. I collect wood mulch for free from the local tip. I also collect lots of leaf mould from the nearby forests, and any bit of seaweed that washed up on the beach. I make fertilizer out of fish and crab waste, garden weeds, grass and even box jellyfish (deadly buggars). The wood chip covered with grass produces an incredible array of fungi, and after a few months I have lost count of all the different kinds I've noticed popping up. The chickens eat quite a few of them. Our soil is sandy (we can see the beach from our place) and I'm amazed how well things are growing. Truly amazed ! The other thing that has amazed me is the diversity of birds that frequent our garden. It's increased significantly, and mostly insect eating birds. They perch on the garden stakes and trellises and swoop on insects. Watched a pair of White-bellied cuckoo-shrikes fighting over a fat caterpillar yesterday. I'm a birdwatcher, so this is a great source of joy ! Our pioneer pigeon peas have been a great help. I planted them first, in an area that was in-fill of rock and road base. I found a bird nest there a couple days ago. Now we have papaya trees coming up through the pigeon pea, they have helped convert the sandy soil and rock into soil that can grow other things. I chop and drop pigeon pea branches on the ground beneath them. I never remove the weeds, I harvest them to feed the chickens. The weed's roots do a great job of bringing nutrients up from the subsoil to the surface, and are great to "chop and drop" so I don't want to remove them. If I need some space to plant something we want to eat, I only remove the weeds in that area. I hate to leave any bare soil, so everything gets covered with grass mulch. Any weeds the chickens don't eat, I chop off and drop them right where they're growing, so that their nutrients go back into the soil. People walking and driving by are starting to take notice, and I've had lots of encouragement and questions.

[@Manaviecreations]

Thanks!

[@amillison]

I so appreciate the support! Cheers and hope you're well!

[@RizeTB1]

🤯your delivery is so good. It hits like a ton of seeds every time I watch your videos.

[@sindad4281]

Absolutely insightful and practically a guide for those who know nothing, learning so much from you and your content

[@davidmccaman6397]

Just brilliant!! I feel like I just attended nature 101 - first day of class. Thanks teach!!! Now on to labs ...

[@lawnetus]

Thanks

[@amillison]

You're so welcome! Thanks for the support!

[@hhwippedcream]

Thank you for sharing. We love playing with disturbances of different scales and magnitudes. Each permutation of the succession stage offers different assemblages of resources, microclimates, and other benefits that can complement the growth of out-of- Zone perennials and annual vegetables. This works great for us! We love our Valley Oak saplings, coast live oak saplings, prunus pit volunteers, and English walnut volunteers. The greatest joy in gardening is seeing these processes and the surprises they provide.

[@harshtruth632]

The information is interesting for my garden, but it’s the drawing the pulls me in. And u make it look so simple.

[@icoachmyself9980]

Danke!

[@amillison]

Thanks for your support 🙏🙏🙏

[@CMXIIX]

That was a great presentation my friend! The deeper understanding of the interconnectedness of life just shows we still have a lot to learn in the modern world. But the questions people are asking and finding answers for is changing the way we see reality as a species and a collective of thoughts and shared knowledge. Knowledge itself creates some weird metaphorical eco systems.

[@moustafabrahimi2765]

Thanks for this clear and simple explanation I wonder what should I apreciate more,the revolutionary Idea that you spread or your lovely way to present it .

[@amillison]

So kind of you to say! Hope you're doing well :-)

[@moustafabrahimi2765]

@@amillison Am fine thanks 😊

[@noahrafter-lanigan2409]

I live in Red Deer Alberta in Canada and a huge portion of our forests and fields are novel ecosystems. Manitoba Maple is an almost universal understory tree, sometimes forming dense thickets along with introduced decorative shrubs and crabapple trees. In some plades, there is aspen stands with lots of siberian caragana, beautiful old paper birch, and decades old lilac bushes that seeded naturally. Where decorative berries grow, the saskatoon does well because the abundance of berries produced by the other plants attracts more birds to the area. In some of the Manitoba Maple groves near lindsay thurber high school, a really interesting novel ecosystem is present. While the forest floor is relatively barren, the treetops are alive with wild hops and Virginia Creeper vines tangling through the canopy. Because manitoba maple branches have a tendency to snap and bend down to the ground in storms, cavities are created in the spaces between the branch and the trunk. The hops(and to a lesser extent the Virginia creeper) germinate in the cavities and grow right out of the tree! The vines have also germinated in small cracks between the bark on larger maples, exhibiting almost epiphitic behaviour. I should mention that most of the maple's trunks in the forest were covered in lichens typically associated with other plants and some that I have only ever seen on rocks. The boxelder bugs from the trees feed a lot of birds and other small animals. I saw a northern flying squirrel nesting in a big maple trunk. It was majestic as it glided trough the tangle of vines and branches. One more important tidbit: the dense canopy of the maple-hop-creeper novel ecosystem I mentioned provides a perfect cover for native species like balsam poplar and white spruce to grow slowly in the shade until they eventually pierce the dense cover of limbs and leaves to shade out and slowly kill off the less adapted maples with the acidic soil created by the decomposing needles and wood. Nature finds a balance when given the chance to rebuild itself. I love your channell, Andrew. You do a good thing for the world. Keep it up!

[@jaredheal7645]

Pretty clear toroidal nature 👌 love the illustrations. And the use of thirds and harmonics in nature.

[@amillison]

Thank you! Cheers!

[@LaurelCanyonMojo]

Getting these demos to forestry departments would go a long way. Fires in the west are beginning a terrible avalanche of topsoil.. I live in Oregon too.

[@arcadiapermaculture974]

There's a company called "Seed the North" operating in northern British Columbia that's working on something like the seed ball project. Definitely worth checking out.

[@syedalishanzaidi1]

This is a beautifully compact summary full of information to help people on their way to help nature. We all need to chip in in our own small ways to create habitats for birds, bees and insects. Starting with our small backyards, we can enlarge our "help nature" work. I am waiting for spring to plant wild flower seeds in my 20'x20' backyard. Swales, ditches, terraces to capture rain water and seed balls of grasses and weeds and wild flowers can be done on a small scale by individuals. Groups can join together to make small communities working on these achievable objectives.

[@brunogiacomini1056]

Great work, teacher 🙏

[@liquidluck711]

Andrew, Big fan for a while now. Thank you for all the hard work you put into these videos. Recently had a bit of an apiphany on how to start any ecosystem from scratch. But alas, I am a water resource engineer and have not gone down a career path which can help ecosystems just yet. If possible, could an email link be shared to bounce some ideas off you and others in the community? Would love to volunteer and start ecosystems from scratch, if only most volunteering didn't require 10 years minimum of "career experience" to "officially" help in some capacity. . . . Meanwhile, rivers and lakes dry up at rates never seen before.......

[@optharun2139]

am actually impressed by how easy it is and no one is even caring about this

[@teejaykaye]

This is a fantastically presented video. It’s hard for me to pay attention to videos these days, but you kept me hooked the whole way through. I’m trying to look into stuff like this for book research, and you’ve got a real knack for educational storytelling.

[@Tonia.lynn2411]

I love it here in central Oregon. I have this book called grow your soil. And absolutely love it. Been growing my soil for a couple years an now ready to move on to the next step of planting for sun mapping.

[@anomalocaris7238]

Anyone going through climate anxiety right now needs to hear stuff like this. Tysm for this channel

[@annelentur]

In Croatia we are among 3 richest country by forest and biodiversity in Eu, and we use drons that carry seeds of local plants (mostry tree)in cellulose capsules with some manure. We spread this seeds in the places were is most needed and around 500 000 capsules per year. We hope to reach in 2026 around 2.milion capsules. Also we do seed around 1 milion trees in conventional way also. We as citizens pay around 5 us dollars per year for that projects.

[@amillison]

Very interesting. I didn't know Croatia was so progressive

[@annelentur]

@@amillison few year's ago we started small but today this is more and more the way we create new trees or other plants. Thak your response. Love your videos

[@isabellloyd8709]

Wow I love all the information I am working on 40 acres of land In Honduras where people grow palm for oil those dry the all the water out . And the natural vegetation is vanish so are butterfly with it . That is why i am making a butterfly garden for them.Is hard to do it on your own. My body is feeling all the work . Hope some generations after me will be able to enjoy my passion for nature. :)

[@dvst_tv]

Love your videos, thank you for making it so easy to understand without compromising on information

[@dragonkiller1519]

I know not where you come from but I truly enjoy that which you have to share. Education like this is more valuable then people realize. Of course this an so many other topics are only a boon to Those who know how to listen. Not for those whose ears and minds are deaf to new ideas

[@moonsharn]

That’s a really good way of explaining succession. Lovely

[@maozedung7270]

Thank You so much Andrew!

[@vphiameradisogaarwa]

Thank you sooooo much for this. You have really lifted my heart today.

[@lukecicero4430]

This is what I think about all day

[@RobbertvanHaaften]

Amazing video! Again :) thank you, your media is very helpful, I'm starting out with growing a food forest on bare rock carst plateau in Slovenia which got burned down this summer. Starting permaculture from rock and ashes.

[@basbekjenl]

Thanks for this, a really useful short explanation that is easy to share and spread this knowledge.

[@francoisroland01]

Hey that’s always clean and neat! Magistral and mastering the subject! Really loved it! It’s inspiring! Thanks 🙏🏾

[@mahlet3570]

Thank you're 💚💛❤️ Glad to know that our current situation is reversible 👍

[@natsellar8982]

Love the video. Masanobu Fukuoka's farm is about 30 minutes drive from my house. I've been meaning to visit it for some years.... I'm sure I'll get there soon. Let's go together... He's an inspirational character! Keep up the good work Andrew. I watch most of your videos. If ever you're in Japan, drop by and visit my no dig, organic garden, some of which your principles have inspired me... Nathaneal.

[@kristinraabe6887]

Thank you! You're an excellent teacher and artist. I've shared this one!🌈❤️🌍✌️

[@andyroubik5760]

Love your video! I just read a book called smoke screen by Chad T Hansen, and a study by Chad and others. Their peer reviewed study found that protected forest burns at a lower intensity than treated forests. They found that any place any sort of logging was done, burned at greater intensity than places where biomass had been removed. So basically our national parks burn at a lower intensity than our national forest because the forest has been logged and Raked. This makes sense when you think about lighting a fire. If there is not enough airflow around your paper and kindling and logs, you will have a hard time getting the fire to go as compared to a fire laid with airflow, or a thined forest. This thinking flies in the face of the information, the US FS tells us when they say we can log our way out of fire danger.

[@thepeopleplaceandnaturepod8344]

Let's all join hands and create a sustainable world for generations to come! 💖

[@joaocarlosferro]

Great video, I am teaching all this to my nature tourists all the time. Cheers!