Reviving Paradise in the Mediterranean - aiding nature's resurgence with Water Cycle Restoration

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Learn how an ancient, degraded Mediterranean landscape can be regenerated with water retention earthworks. We were asked to bring back water to a dry, degraded patch of land in Greece, so we set to the challenge of building structures that would help capture every drop of rainfall, so we could start rehydrating this ancient landscape.
We spent a month on a Greek island reshaping the land to positively influence water flow and function in a Mediterranean landscape. Greece, like many other Mediterranean countries, is experiencing rapid desertification. Fire, flood, and drought are becoming commonplace. Elder locals recall summer rains from their childhood that would cool their crop fields; but these rains stopped 40 years ago and now the rivers and land are suffering.
The Island has been experiencing unusual climate extremes, much longer periods of drought with shorter more intense rains when they do arrive. This work helps to balance out those seasonal extremes, providing water to the landscape throughout the year. As a result there is additional growth, and cooling, making a more balanced and productive microclimate.
In this video, we walk you through our solution- rehydrating the landscape with earthworks. From the construction of hundreds of meters of terraces and a small earthen-dam pond, to discussing the history of this particular landscape, we show you a path towards recreating a resilient and abundant environment. Through hard work and modern machinery, we show you how to create an incredibly positive impact on our water, land, and lives.
When humans work with water and nature we are capable of some truly incredible feats; rejuvenating landscapes, reviving springs, rivers, and even whole regions, turning desert into paradise, and even stabilizing the local climate.
Water Stories is a community committed to water cycle restoration with films, videos, articles, webinars, live events, and a whole training program for those ready to become practitioners.
www.waterstories.com/core-course
www.waterstories.com/community

[@hstwodrainage.1410]

Farmer in Africa told me, and he was a good farmer, "Goats Create Deserts"

[@justinskeans3342]

Living brush hogs, they eat everything.

[@John-hu9bo]

They don't, it has been always bad management of those animals

[@John-hu9bo]

They don't, it has been always bad management of those animals

[@franklucas6414]

I believe what the farmer said! Here in Europe a lot of farmers told me that goat are able to destroy almost every plant because of a typ of enzymes they got in their saliva.

[@hstwodrainage.1410]

It is their ability to graze everything down to the soil, climb trees and eat all the leaves. If you take most of the leaves off a tree less falls on the ground as fertiliser. Grazing everything to the soil leaves no grownd cover and lets the wind and rain erode the soil. @@franklucas6414

[@Maritafeb15]

Great project. Looking forward to more videos showing landscape recovery

[@vivalaleta]

Shocking to see how much topsoil is gone. Thank you for addressing this issue.

[@cleonawallace376]

This was really inspiring! I am the custodian of 9 acres of land in Umbria, Italy, where we also suffer from summer heat and poor water retention. Seeing this makes me glad that our out of control species are the wild boars, who although they are a nightmare and dig everything up, don't graze the land down to the bare earth like goats. I have a PDC and social permaculture cert, but designing the water is the thing I have most difficulty with. I am looking up your course right now! THanks

[@LotusDreaming]

Mark Shepards water book is also very good, and the grey water oasis guy from Arizona!

[@johnhenderson6352]

I hope u politicians are watching, ❤ from Pottsville, Australia 😊

[@brianbarnicle8052]

What a great project in a magical location. Dream job.

[@sarantissporidis391]

We have a saying here in Greece, when we want to underrate a person or a subject : "this is thin letters". Unfortunately for the vast majority of the Greek people, water or forest management and ecology in general is exactly that, thin letters. And the funny thing is that this mindset applies mostly to the inhabitants of the rural areas, the ones who actually live in nature, than to city people. Like you said, our country is sick and suffering, and the people are the disease. Thank you for this video.

[@gryspnikngrysp2821]

it's certainly not the people...people exist all over the planet and not all planet is eroded and dying. It's a specific kind of civilisation with specific goals and structures. Zack explains very well what the problem is with goats in the EU

[@sarantissporidis391]

@@gryspnikngrysp2821 I am working at the Cleaning Department of a large Municipality of Greece. Believe me, l know hell of a lot better about the people of my country and their habbits.

[@zaxarispetixos8728]

Almost everyone who is left on thoose rural poor places are the ones that can't afford to leave so their education level is very low usually. My mother comes from a place like this and they left in the 70s.

[@gryspnikngrysp2821]

@@zaxarispetixos8728 it has nothing to do with this...educated and specialist people are advancing and promoting this way of land management. The EU is promoting this land management. They are just disconnected

[@zaxarispetixos8728]

@@gryspnikngrysp2821 The EU is giving money to people to invest it in their buisness buy equipment etc and make more money, some people that are not educated use that money to live or buy a new mercedes and neglect their animals, let them roam around and eat everything.

[@vivalaleta]

Regenerative agriculture is nothing but win. Cover always on the ground, mob grazing, a broad variety of (preferably) indigenous species, etc.

[@georgeschannel6168]

Very nice video! Superbly informative. Please keep creating similar content so these good landscape management practices can spread. Well done!!

[@terryjones8588]

That sediment trap is a great idea. I haven't seen anyone else doing it.

[@gryspnikngrysp2821]

We're all doing it...There is no actual pond that is fed by a waterway without a sediment trap.

[@Fallacia_Konstantinos]

Samothrace (the island of the project) has the worst goat population problem, reached to a level that the locals are searching ways for extracting a lot of goats out of the island to stabilize the population. Astypalea island in the Southern Aegean, which is smaller than Samothrace, has almost 16.000 goats. So i can guess the goat population in Samothrace is much more worse. On the section of water, you were very lucky, because Samothrace is of the most rare small sized greek islands that has a lot of water springs, so that's making your project process more easy!!!

[@gryspnikngrysp2821]

Go and see Tinos. It's a destroyed island. The situation is simple. Ikaria people have found it. If a goat is found few l free roaming, anyone had the right to slaughter it and bring it to the big summer panygiri

[@tonylove6199]

..YOU REALLY ARE A LIFE SAVER 🙏❤🙏..WELL DONE YOU AND YOUR TEAM..MAGNIFICENT WORK...SUCH GREAT KNOWLEDGE YOU HAVE ON SUCH A VERY IMPORTANT SUBJECT..KUDOS TO YOU ALL..🙏❤🙏..JUST SUBSCRIBED..✌

[@eraupilot89]

I love seeing videos like this where real change is happening. Great job, keep up the great work and keep the videos coming. So excited to see how this land improves. The stark difference between this and the neighboring property is quite a visual representation of the delta in land management.

[@inspirednamehere6166]

Beautiful! hopefully the success and beauty of the land will inspire others to do the same nearby!

[@m-laure4804]

One of the many devastating EU descisions! Luckily this project might bring the necessary solutions for most mditerranean coastlines 🎉!

[@nisdasuk3945]

I planting the trees because Fuguoka too.

[@Justom001]

To the point video, new examples, not the same projects as always. Very articulate and you explained it all clearly. Great job Zack. I’m sure it will bring good results!

[@homeothesis]

Beautifully shot and explained. Very inspiring, guys!

[@barristophilliesiii5863]

Nice video. Very similar pitch to Andrew Millison at the end ;)

[@franklucas6414]

Amazing channel and to see what is possible! It encourages me a lot to learn this type of knowledge. Thank you so much

[@SuerteDelMolinoFarm]

Beautiful. Thank you for sharing.

[@willm5814]

I’ve obessed on videos like this over the past 5 years- I’m surprised you didn’t use the approach of swales/contoured trenches, like Geoff Lawton and Andrew Millison do - were you aware of their work but chose the terrace approach because it made more sense in this situation?

[@danielhu2698]

Thanks for the video, very cool. Would you consider planting canopy trees around the reservoir, and introducing water plants to provide shade in order to minimize evaporation, and of course improve the aesthetics?

[@acquisitium]

great video!

[@jameswestgate416]

Great video. Small point to make. I think your commentary and imagery stands on its own and doesn’t need the dramatic music during dialog to camera which makes things harder to hear and follow.

[@reginafefifofina]

2:01 if you’re not a vegetarian goat meat is nice! Or you can rent the flock to clear brush

[@konstantinosnitis3653]

Whow !!! Is that baba's land? I wouldnt recognize it if it wasnt for the yurt the tipee and the rice plots. Great job. All the best.

[@benjaminklenner4310]

Looks great! Can you give more information about the specific site? The aerial views show lots of cool features and projects on the property. Is there any other videos of this land? Great work. Keep it up!

[@gryspnikngrysp2821]

Very nice video but I'm surprised that you left planting for so much later after the earthworks.

[@anastasiastamos9954]

Love this. Is it possible to visit the site?

[@Aeyekay0]

Awesome project, keep up the good work. Was shocked by the amount of soil lost due to erosion; great to see permaculture projects happening all over the world

[@christiaanb9061]

Wow love this! What is the hay you laid on the land is there any reason for it?

[@celsopdacunha000]

The Scapegoats.

[@Matty002]

so they basically did the cobra effect but for goats

[@BarryMambo]

Great story of a huge success! I wonder how many cubic meters big is this pond and how many thousand dollars it needs to do something like this. And how many of these ponds would a small farm need to have enough water for men, animals, trees and vegetable? Is there an adress and website of this greek project?

[@Nihlink]

Goats aren’t making it rain less. Anyone who’s lived in the Mediterranean for at least the last 10 years will tell you it rains half as much as it used to basically everywhere. So it used to rain twice a mont and now we are lucky if it rains once. Sometimes we go three months with no rain.

[@TT3TT3]

Fire maybe hard on humans but it's good for the land.

[@johndejong8119]

I was hoping that you would be willing to invite people to become a member of a communitie that surge for barre land

[@filiplazz]

i think the goats are not the "only" cause of the drying landscape... but ok, it's a slip i guess

[@watereverywhere]

Land does not “receive or reject” rain. Precipitation is routed to “recharge or direct runoff”. Land isn’t “hydrated”, people are. You seem to be missing basic hydrology and engineering principles here. What is the annual precipitation depth? How is it seasonally distributed? What is the texture and permeability of the soils/subsoils? What’s the catchment area of the project? Can these terraces and impoundments handle a 50- or 100-year storm (and what are the potential impacts downstream?)

[@dustinabc]

1:40 Notice that at the root of so many environmental problems is government interference. Trying to create some result, but ignoring and/or ignorant about other consequences of their schemes. Subsidies and other gov't incentives and programs inevitably create more damage than it fixes or prevents, because it depends on central planning, which is opposite of nature, and then it is backed up by force. And expecting government to fix the problems it has created is even sillier than thinking it could fix problems that exist naturally. #VOLUNTARYISM

yeah, we are funding our demise, although I don't agree with you - what is funded can be defunded and vice versa. "In August 2023, the IMF issued a global estimate of what it categorizes as “subsidies” for fossil fuels, totalling USD 7 trillion in 2022 (Black et al., 2023). This estimate covered 170 countries and includes what the IMF calls “explicit” and “implicit” subsidies."

[@maryannemckay3606]

@🤯🤯🤯

[@soundslave7504]

i didn't know jack harlow was into environmental conservation

[@dcookie4444]

Wonder when the last predator walked that isle..?

[@martinelongum2439]

Who called you in here , who owns the land ? 😊

[@simonpannett8810]

EU subsidies for Agriculture need a complete makeover based on sustainability then a living income for those that 'work" the land!!

[@andrewharris3900]

The system will always be worked by charlatans. Subsidies need to be abolished.

[@greenfrog8871]

so why aren't the locals doing all this?

[@axelwalter4046]

Great, but why do you say "Ocean" ??? The Aegean is a sea.

[@jonathanravenhilllloyd2070]

I'm for this but you cannot say that the reduced rainfall is 'because of' over grazing. Climate breakdown does play a part . . .

[@joelbernard6347]

Overgrazing reduces local humidity which can lead to reduced rainfall

[@Nphen]

Basic Income could have prevented a human-caused ecological goat disaster. Just give people cash! Our societies twist themselves into pretzels with things like goat, food, and oil subsidies instead of simply trusting average people to mind our own business. Every Basic Income study shows increased work & education, or more time with family. All positive impacts. No negatives. No goats tearing up the landscape so their "owners" (with no stewardship, of course) can make a living.

[@ownpetard8379]

When AI has taken 10 percent of the jobs, people will want a universal basic income (UBI) system. AI will take far more than that.

[@philcoppa]

if the goats have overgrazed, why aren't they removed?

[@maryannemckay3606]

Subsidies ($$$) to the farmers to keep them! ☺️

[@darked89]

Bit strange to hear Mediterranean Sea being called the ocean.

[@avnerdinits9926]

put some aphanius fish to have clean water and increase biodiversity

[@avrahax7714]

Just a reminder ,miditerranean sea isn't an ocean

[@johndejong8119]

That you together with the members bring change in close cooperation with the local people to restore, en become as self efficient as posible en to create an intresting invoirement for young people so that they return to were thy came from instead of fleeing away to modern cities. At the end of your inspirering video you try to sell a educational product. In general that is ecactly the reason why these project don't come to their full potential. It does not come from the right intention. That is sad!!

[@janineogg2231]

People have to make a living! Water stories offer scholarships and opportunities for people who struggle to access their course. If people can't sustain themselves with a livelihood, how are they expected to do the work and support their families? It's unfair to ask them to offer all their years and experience for free, though I suspect they do offer plenty of free advice and support to causes where they can.

[@brunetyannick1174]

Ah EU subsidies. One way to make sure you destroy your ecosystems and efficient practices ! Do X and get Y amount of money out of the sky, YAY !