permaculture

[John Schinnerer <johns@eco-living.net>]

Aloha,

I'm starting to get a sketch of the history of this land...please fill in
the gaps and/or correct me as you are able.  So far what I hear is:

1)  the land was originally savanna of some sort, "native" for some
previous time. 

2)  it was then railroad land grant land (what did they do to it besides
put the tracks through, if anything?)

3)  then it was parceled out to settlers who would agree to try and grow
stuff on it (other than what was already growing there...).  My assumption
is that at this point, if not before, it was all tilled and planted in
mono-crops, destroying the previous savanna (or whatever was left of it
after the railroad...), probably losing lots of topsoil, etc..

4)  ...so presumably after the settlers "failed," the pinion and juniper
moved in...??...and that's part of what you're contending with now.

Other questions for contributors to this thread:

If P/J is a natural succession phase for this area/climate after major
disruption (such as tilling that wiped out the previous savanna), what
comes next, how long does it take by itself (in years, or decades if
appropriate), and what sort of interventions might accelerate it?


Where are existing working examples of some of these hypothetically
popular permaculture farming systems that produce multiple commercially
viable outputs in a totally PC, PC manner?

John Schinnerer
-------------------------------
Human Habitat Design
Cultural & Ecological Designing
johns@eco-living.net
http://eco-living.net