The other day I happened to be flying over the desert between Phoenix
and LA, scanning the landscape miles below me to see what tales it
would tell... and remembering the segment in The Global Gardener
video where Mollison visits roadside swales built in the Arizona
desert more than 50 years ago..they were lush and green and full of
life...I wanted to see them too.
Though my eyes followed hundreds of miles of roads...nothing. And
then, abandoning the roads and scanning the great plateaus and eroded
hillsides, I saw something.
Five giant bands of green crossing a mighty hill. Two-thirds of the
way up they began, each contour line must have been over a mile long,
each band must have been 50 feet wide, and the distance between the
bands, over 300 feet. An awesome piece of work, and no sign of its
maker. No buildings or structures or roads were visible anywhere
around the massive earthworks...Just these green bands of life
crossing the stark desert landscape, high up a hill.
There are many hills in that desert...
Kathryn
Santoyo
[permaculture] Green in the desert,
L.SantoyoDesigns, 04/23/2004