Creating Biodiversity

On Reddit, FlimFlamandFlamJam asks, "Let's say I bought 1,000 acres of monocropped farm land. What would be the best way to go about converting it back into land with a lot of biodiversity? And let's say it's just me and I don't have a team helping me."

My answer:

First question, is the land flat or hilly?

Second question, you say it's just you. Does that mean just your muscle power, you and any animals you can control, or you and some big machinery you can rent?

Because if it is just your own muscle power, I find 1/4 acre plenty to keep up with unless it was my full-time job, I couldn't even imagine 1000 acres. That said, and if your land is flat, the main thing you can do to increase biodiversity is just start introducing plants that you think will be useful. You can use mixes from places like Ernst Seeds if you want.

If the terrain is hilly, you can start in on a better option for increasing biodiversity: creating ponds. This is best done with the keyline system in any case, but if its just your own muscle power, this is critical.

With heavy machinery, you can go a little crazier, even on flat land. You still really need to pay attention to the contours, but you do have the opportunity to reshape them. In fact, the best thing you can do to increase the biodiversity of flat land is to change it into hilly land by creating hugelkulture beds. You can do this by hand, but on the scale of 1000 acres, it would take several person-lifetimes.
And when you make water features, swimming ponds where you can dive in from the shore are not exactly the best for biodiversity. You want to really emphasize the water's edge and make it as big as possible if you want to encourage biodiversity.

If you have animals, you have the opportunity to do more than just your muscles, but not as drastic as large machines. One thing you can do is look at abandoned areas nearby and see what takes over, and then figure out what will graze on that. That will help keep things in balance without requiring your constant attention. (But don't just graze willy-nilly, or they just might avoid the thing that tends to take over.)

Finding Your Way

Tiny Yellow Teardrop has a good article on why you shouldn't rely exclusively on your GPS.  She recommends instead to use:

1. Google Maps and Google Earth
2. Paper Maps
3. Ask the locals

Those are all fine ideas.  Another service to use is MapQuest. They generally give you a choice of routes (frequently they are: quickest, shortest, or simplest). And if you aren't satisfied with any of those, you can generally pick a point in the middle of the route and move it over and MapQuest will snap to an alternate route. And once you have settled on a route, you can print out directions, including both route map and optional turn-by-turn maps, or you can send yourself a text.

But you know what I really like to do when I am traveling a route to a destination that I frequent (and I'm not in any hurry)? Turn my GPS off and deliberately make a wrong turn and then see if I can find my way back to my route, without making a U turn. (If at some point I decide I'm truly lost, I turn my GPS back on.) I see a lot of interesting things that way.

Nature Art for Kids

HomesteadLady has an interesting article on making Botanical Prints with kids.  It looks fairly simple, requiring only heavy artist paper, a mallet, parchment paper, and of course colorful plant material.

Farming the Forest

"Forest gardening" and "food forests" have been popular concepts in permaculture for a long time.  They are getting to be more mainstream now - Cornell has an online introduction to forest farming.  This looks like an interesting series of videos to watch.

DIY Instant Oatmeal

Root Simple has a recipe for making your own instant oatmeal.  The key is precooking it in a dry oven -- I'll bet this is an excellent application for a solar oven; with all dry ingredients, you don't need to worry so much about undercooking.  I especially look forward to experimenting with different flavors and especially natural sugar substitutes like stevia.

I in TEAM

Spread Shirt

When You Can't Afford A Berkey....

Water is a basic need, and dirty water kills lots of people every year. Luckily there are lots of ways to make water drinkable.  No-Tech Magazine has a good review of OHorizon's open-source biosand filter plans.  It is a relatively permanent solution, with a concrete case, yet only costs a few dollars each to make in quantity, as the form is made of wood.  If you want the plans directly, go to OHorizons and fill out their form.