Meet the Midwestern Farmer Restoring the Land by Growing Native Plants

Mark Shepard didn’t got down to be a farmer, not to mention a visionary one. But, three many years after securing his first piece of land, Shepard is among the main voices in non-traditional farming. He’s additionally the founder and operator of New Forest Farm, a perennial agricultural ecosystem, head of Restoration Agriculture Improvement, a land restoration consulting enterprise, and creator of two books. Despite this success, Shepard’s path to farming is something however conventional.

He grew up in north-central Massachusetts, an space Shepard dubs “the commercial wasteland,” the place plastic and manufacturing have been a lifestyle. “The river on the backside of the hill the place we lived ran totally different colours on daily basis, relying on what colour dyes they have been dumping into it,” says Shepard. When the Cuyahoga River in Ohio caught on hearth, the younger Shepard requested his mom why it made the information. “I stated, ‘Ours catches hearth as soon as a month,’ and he or she defined to me rivers weren’t supposed to try this.” 

An environmental consciousness started to stir in Shepard. He bought a level in ecology, after which, in 1989, secured a bit of land in Alaska, 5 miles away from the closest highway and 300 miles away from Anchorage, and found most of his meals was shipped from Seattle. That provide chain didn’t make sense to Shepard. “I used to be surrounded by blueberries and lingonberries and every kind of various meals merchandise that the indigenous cultures ate for time immemorial. So I assumed, why not redesign my ecosystem?” 

Images by way of Mark Shepard.

Shepard is now 35 years into his program, with lots of of properties he’s restored throughout North America, all purchased and paid for, free and clear. He operates his farm in addition to a diversified enterprise based mostly on sensible actual property investments, promoting crops, consulting and promoting giant, whole-sale portions of a handful of native and non-native plant crops, resembling hazelnuts and asparagus. 

Combining ideas from permaculture, agroforestry and ecology, Shepard pioneered what he calls restoration agriculture. This new methodology of farming produces meals in a approach that restores land and ecosystems by establishing pure communities based mostly totally on native, perennial crops which can be excessive in vitamins, carbohydrates, protein and oils. 

Shepard’s deliberately designed Alaskan ecosystem, supplemented with animal proteins, equipped all his meals whereas enhancing, not degrading, the land, and he realized that restoration agriculture, a system based mostly on native, perennial plant crops, might work anyplace. “I bought good at it,” he says, “and took it proper to the corn belt.”

In 1995, Shepard acquired land in Wisconsin that was degraded from years of intensive, industrial agriculture. He put his restoration abilities to the take a look at and reintroduced native meals crops, together with oaks, cherries, hazelnuts, chestnuts, apples, gooseberries and fungi. By restoring the Midwestern plant communities that have been current earlier than industrial farming, Shepard seen elevated soil fertility and a greater look–it additionally saved water extra successfully. 

Cows, hazelnuts, chestnuts, asparagus, grass and alders at New Forest Farm.

His strategies stand in sharp distinction to farming annual crops, which destroys soil and current perennial ecosystems. “You plant seeds that develop for a number of months, and it’s executed,” says Shepard. “You’ve created a desert, and there’s not a wealthy, considerable ecosystem.” 

Shepard’s methodology manages ecological succession to optimize ecosystem well being whereas utilizing far much less labor than conventional farming. “Proper now, my ‘farming’ is that I’m a glorified hunter-gatherer, besides I don’t need to exit searching for issues,” he says. “They’re proper the place I planted them and so they keep inside fences. It’s actually fantastic.” 

As an alternative of shopping for into conventional farming, Shepard carved his personal path in a approach that felt significant. “I needed to assist accomplish huge ecological restoration, at scale, as quick as doable,” he says. His recommendation for farmers who wish to change to a perennial agriculture system is to begin researching perennial crops that might naturally co-exist in a single’s ecosystem. Plant a few of these crops straight away, and extra over time whereas nonetheless counting on annual crops to make ends meet. He acknowledges that it’s tough for small-scale farmers to make a dwelling, however his strategies prioritize restoring ecosystems and utilizing artistic, diversified earnings sources to help the money stream from farming.