Rewild, Regenerate, or Reforest? A Call to Action.
A gringa goes to the jungle
Five years ago, I was a clueless recently expatriated gringa taking my first good look at a muddy pasture that was once a rainforest thinking, What on earth are we going to do here… Now that my partner Juan and I are actively managing a thriving new food forest on this formerly degraded land, I am glad to have the good fortune to share why we chose to regenerate our land and how you can do it too.
Perhaps you have some land and you want to manage it in a way that's good for you and good for the earth. Maybe you even have your garden planted and you're wondering, What can I do with the rest of it? Here I'll discuss three options, how to determine what is most appropriate for your land, and how to do it.
Be realistic
The first option is simply to let the land be. Relinquish control. Rewild it. What a lovely concept, humans stepping out of the way for nature's innate wisdom to unfold. Perhaps you might need to build some fences to keep farm animals out of the area you've set aside, but intervention is minimal. It's the cheapest and least problematic way to manage land and allows wildlife to thrive where it lives best, away from people.
But. Before you have visions of a spontaneous Eden in the back 40, make sure your land is a good candidate for rewilding. Are there trees and shrubs on the land or nearby? A mix of undergrowth? Plenty of birds and small mammals to help distribute seed? Bees, bats and other pollinators? Great. Wild away. But if you are missing any or all of these crucial factors your land may be degraded enough to need help.
Many ecosystems have been so badly damaged by human avarice and ignorance they have reached a point of no return. Generous and thoughtful human intervention can (and should) set the regeneration process in motion.
A living example
Where I now live in Ecuador, there's a lot of grassy pasture. It's green and pretty to look at at, but there's nothing natural about it. This was a dense cloud forest, replete with jaguars and monkeys, not cows. Logging companies cut down huge swaths of forest, then sell off the denuded land as "dairy pasture." Once stripped of all of its trees, it is very difficult to regenerate the land back to food forest — or grow anything useful, as we found out the hard way.
Without a protective canopy of branches above and network of roots below, heavy rains hit the delicate soil like a blitzkrieg, making a muddy slurry and leaching out nutrients. Fertility is quickly lost. The sheer gravitational force of raindrops hitting the ground without any interception from tree boughs above compacts the remaining subsoil into a concrete-like clay that bakes and cracks in the sun. Even if seeds from trees find their way to this ground by wind or bird, the sprout withers and quickly dies, unable to take root in the damaged surface.
Barren compacted soils make it easy to sell chemical fertilizers to the big plantations of banana, cacao, and palm. They are completely dependent on inputs to pump out the crops. People who can't afford chemical-intensive farming sow grass for pasture, cloned engineered seed designed to spread and prevent any "competing" vegetation from getting a foothold.
I still vividly recall a day from about four years ago, literally clawing my way through an acres wide ocean of chest-high grass forming a mat so thick over the soil nothing else could grow. This, I thought to myself, is truly a green desert.
The logging and agro-industrial barons aren't just cutting down trees, they are committing outright ecocide in the rainforests of Columbia, Perú, and Brazil. In India, Borneo, Malaysia, and Australia. In nearly every country in Africa that is not yet a desert. Pastures and monocultures spread like a green plague, eradicating old growth forest, the animal species that live there, and the wisdom channeled through generations, a treasure trove of plant lore lost forever.
Our land back in 2016. A scrubby paddock of grass.
The good news
Even in a severely degraded ecosystem where humans have done damage they can also jumpstart the recovery.
On the former green desert my partner Juan and I are actively regenerating, over two thousand trees and plants of a hundred plus species now thrive, providing food for us, fodder for our horses, habitat for increasingly abundant wildlife, foliage for beauty and shade, leaf fall to build soil, and interweaving roots to prevent erosion. Orange and turquoise lizards flash through the undergrowth. Hummingbirds nest in the lower branches of small fruit trees while hawks and eagles perch in the tall palms. There is a whole new sense of balance: predator to prey, insect to microbe, fungi to bacteria.
Our regenerated land isn't merely a bunch of trees; it's a developing ecosystem that will continue to improve with maturity every day. The change is evident and after so much hard work, very heartening.
If those aren't enough reasons to regenerate, here's the biggest "why" of all: Trees, diverse plantings, and soil rich with organic matter are the most effective terrestrial carbon sink on the planet. Conserving forests and regenerating stripped land are our best chances for mitigating climate change, period.
Today — a shaded cool green oasis.
Know the land and the ecosystem
Not all regeneration is necessarily reforestation. Several years ago, just before I left the U.S. for Ecuador, I made a two-week road trip out to the American prairies and badlands: Montana, Wyoming, and the Dakotas. Mesmerized by the waves of wind sweeping across the grasslands, I was surprised to learn that a few meters of natural prairie contain not just a single type of grass, but a diverse mixture over a rich topsoil several inches thick. I also saw mega farms of soybeans and corn growing in dusty, chemical-laced soil, intrinsically vulnerable to fire or flood. To try and plant a forest in this landscape would likely be in vain error, but an abundant mixture of grasses, grains, and groundcover would succeed.
Remember, any diverse multi-layered combination of plants that functions as a system is regeneration. Know the eco-history of your land before intervening.
Forest is the mature result of many ecosystems, and forests are at the most risk of destruction. If indeed your land is a good candidate for reforestation, here are some hard-won tips to get you started on the right foot.
First, research. Find out what your land was like fifty or a hundred years ago. Talk to locals. Learn about the trees that live long and prosper in your climate. Native trees are wonderful, but you don't have to be a purist. We've planted both native and a variety of species from around the equator. Diversity is key to resilience. Biospheres are shifting as climate change escalates. Dry areas are getting drier, wet areas wetter, and the whole planet hotter. Choose plants that have the best chance of withstanding likely changes.
Start with pioneers!
This is one of the most overlooked but absolutely crucial steps in planning and planting a successful reforestation system. One of the biggest and most costly mistakes food forest newbies make is planting what they like to eat or what they want to sell without taking the quality of the ecosystem into consideration. Most of our beloved cultivars like apples, pears, and peaches (in temperate zones) or avocado, mango, and coconut (in tropical zones) need well-draining soil rich in organic matter to thrive. Planted in less than optimal conditions, they will struggle, suffer, and often fall prey to insects or wood rot. And believe me, if you are working with land that has been in any way degraded by deforestation, long term herbicide use, or tillage — your conditions are less than optimal. You need to start with pioneers.
What’s a pioneer? you ask. Well, as its name implies, a pioneer species is a hardy rugged character that doesn’t wither at adverse conditions. When it comes to plants, pioneers are usually fast growing both above and below ground. They can outpace the competition to reach toward sunlight and help to shade out grass and bindweed. Their roots are usually either deep taproots like pokeweed or a rapidly spreading mat like bamboo; both are good for opening and aerating tight soil. They provide homes for needed wildlife like lizards, birds, and predatory insects that will keep pesky nibblers in check. They don’t mind if the soil is a little too wet or too dry and can get by with less nutrients. Go pioneers!
In nature, tough weedy plants are usually the first ones to colonize new areas (like those bare patches of soil in your garden, ahem). But when we design a food forest, we can select from among cultivated plants for their pioneer characteristics. For example, while regenerating our deforested land in sub-tropical Ecuador, we started with large blocks of bananas and cassava (yuca/manioc). Bananas grow very quickly, reaching maturity in about a year. Their big leaves weaken and shade out the invasive pasture grass. Chopped and dropped onto the soil, the foliage also makes excellent biomass or food for the soil biome. Meanwhile, the enormous tubers of the cassava plant plumb the depths of even the tightest soils, opening up passages for beneficial insect life, bacteria, fungi, and of course, water.
No matter where you are in the world, there are pioneer plants suitable for your climate and location. Finding out what they are and using them is absolutely key to avoiding disaster and creating a healthy system.
Keep it manageable
Whether you have an acre or 500, regenerate what you can. Our land isn’t huge, but it lies midway between two reserves making it a critical resting point for migrating insects and birds. Every reforested acre counts. Don’t think you have to do it all in one shot. It’s easy to get overwhelmed and it's hard work. Cultivate smaller chunks of land, expanding your forest outward from a center. Plant fast growing trees and pioneer species first. As they begin to create shade, habitat, and biomass, the work gets easier and more visibly rewarding.
Learn from others with experience
After the first year of trying to get our food forest started without much success, Juan and I were weary and discouraged. The tight compacted soil made a mud mire in the rainy season and a dust bowl during the dry months. The saplings we had planted were suffering from wilt, rot, and insect attacks. It was a trying time for the plants, and us.
I began looking around for permaculture or agroforestry projects in our area. I was lucky to find Reserva Mashpi-Shungo, started ten years ago by two people very much like us who had successfully transformed a grass-dominated pasture into a lush cacao agroforestry system. We quickly became friends with Alejandro and Agustina after our first tour of their incredible farm-to-bar plantation and artisanal chocolate workshop.
Walking through their mixed plantation of cacao and hundreds of other plant species, I could sense something different through the soles of my feet. On the land Juan and I were trying to reforest, the ground was clay hardpan in the dry season, and a boggy mudslide in the wet. By comparison, in this edible forest the ground felt yielding and absorbent. It's like a sponge, I realized, the soil is holding the water like a sponge. The plants can sip from it as needed, root to leaf. As if to confirm, a banana leaf unfurled above me, showering me in fine spray of water. The soil needs time, it said to me. Be patient and keep going.
Start a nursery
Buying trees can get really expensive. Save and germinate the seeds from local fruit. If you have trees on your land, collect seed pods when they fall. Cuttings are also a good way to propagate. You don't have to spend money on seed starting kits and sterile soil and all that — it’s just more stuff. Large plastic bottles cut in half make handy planters. One part compost mixed with three parts soil from your land will go much further and the seedlings will be more adaptive once planted out. We’ve planted hundreds of fruit, nut, medicinal, and valuable hardwood trees from saved seed and have hundreds more getting ready for field. All for free.
Pro tip on a sustainable nursery: Make sure you have a do-able way to water your seedlings! Hundreds, or even dozens of seedlings need a surprising amount of water. They also need partial shade from strong sun, so a wise choice is to make a permeable “roof” for your seedlings with a double layer of mosquito netting. The netting simultaneously shades the delicate little plants and allows enough rain to pass through to water without drowning them.
Alternately, if you are in an area with really heavy rainfall like me, you can make a roof of translucent tarp pitched at an angle to shed water into a tank or barrel. Then your water source is close enough to your seedlings to facilitate watering them. Trust me, land regeneration is hard work and all the little systems you can use to increase efficiency of movement and resources will pay off (and help you stay sane).
Be pragmatic
It's wonderful to open your mind to different kinds of “productivity.” ALL trees are useful and productive of the 5 F’s: food, fodder, fuel, fertilizer, and fiber. Even if you never use your forest for anything, it’s still producing a sanctuary for wildlife, preventing erosion, building topsoil, and sequestering carbon.
But money doesn't grow on trees, and sooner or later you are going to need some. The wonderfully hopeful thing about agroforestry systems is that they can provide for people and wildlife alike. Take inspiration from the intriguing history of Amazonia where new research is rapidly dismantling the myth of a pristine wilderness and reconstructing a picture of a vast food forest producing enough food to sustain large vigorous societies. Research and incorporate into your design a variety of crops you can eat, build with, feed animals, trade, process, or sell. and how they could
Also, when it comes to capital, look for help, financial and physical. It’s out there. We're a tiny two-person operation and we recently received a grant of 2000 trees from a local reforesting foundation. Find seed exchanges where you live. If there isn't one yet, start it. Get volunteers to help you plant; fine skills aren’t necessary.
Act now
If you're reading this in your apartment thinking, as I once was, someday...You can do something now. Donate to a foundation or private reserve. In my personal experience, smaller projects have very low overhead and high commitment to making a difference. Your $5 or $20 or $100 would assuredly be allocated to the critical task at hand.
You can only post so many horrific articles about razed forests and melting ice caps without getting abysmally depressed. Got climate crisis anxiety? Plant a forest, or help make it possible. Lead by example and others will follow.
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At Sueño de Vida we work in a meaningful way to heal land ravaged by deforestation. How meaningful? According to a recent UN Foresight Brief on climate change,
--It is of the utmost importance to stop deforestation and to increase reforestation efforts around the world. Agricultural practices should focus on soil building, year-round soil cover with plants and the use of agroforestry methods.
That is exactly what we do here at SdV. You can help by helping us do what we do every day: plant forests that nurture soil, people, and community.
Click HERE to donate directly to our reforestation fund OR make a monthly pledge on our Patreon.
Thank you.
Kristen Krash is the director and co-founder of Sueño de Vida, a regenerative agroforestry farm, education center, nature reserve in Ecuador’s Chocó Andino Cloudforest. Prior to moving, Kristen was known for her guerrilla gardens — productive green spaces she created in any available space. Now an urban transplant in the South American rain forest, she has adapted her urban gardening and sustainability skills to large-scale reforestation of degraded land. She takes a practical and accessible approach to helping others achieve more balance and self-sufficiency in their lives.
Kristen’s articles and interviews have been featured on popular sustainability platforms like Abundant Edge and The Mud Home, and in the Rainforest Regeneration Curriculum at the Ecological Restoration Camps.