[Scpg] A Quiet Push to Grow Crops Under Cover of Trees NY times Nov 21/Forest Garden

Wed Nov 23 07:02:30 PST 2011

A Quiet Push to Grow Crops Under Cover of Trees
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/22/science/quiet-push-for-agroforestry-in-us.html?_r=2
Anne Sherwood for The New York Times
PIONEERS Gloria Flora's forest garden includes berries and medicinal plants.
By JIM ROBBINS
Published: November 21, 2011

PIONEERS Gloria Flora's forest garden includes berries and medicinal plants.
By JIM ROBBINS
Published: November 21, 2011

HELENA, Mont. --- On a forested hill in the mountains north of Montana's 
capital, beneath a canopy of pine and spruce, Marc and Gloria Flora have 
planted more than 300 smaller trees, from apple and pear to black walnut 
and chestnut.
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Beneath the trees are layers of crops: shrubs like buffalo berries and 
raspberries, edible flowers like day lilies, vines like grapes and hops, 
and medicinal plants, including yarrow and arnica.

Turkeys and chickens wander the two-acre plot, gobbling hackberries and 
bird cherries that have fallen from trees planted in their pen, and 
leaving manure to nourish the plants.

For the Floras, the garden is more than a source of food for personal 
use and sale. Ms. Flora, an environmental consultant and former 
supervisor for the United States Forest Service, is hoping it serves as 
a demonstration project to spur the growth of agroforestry --- the 
science of incorporating trees into traditional agriculture.

The extensive tree canopy and the use of native plants, she says, make 
the garden more resilient in the face of a changing climate, needing 
less water, no chemical fertilizers and few, if any, pesticides. "It's 
far more sustainable" than conventional agriculture, she said.

The idea is to harness the ecological services that trees provide. 
"Agroforestry is not converting farms to forest," said Andy Mason, 
director of the Forest Service's National Agroforestry Center. "It's the 
right tree in the right place for the right reason."

The Department of Agriculture, the Forest Service's parent agency, began 
an initiative this year to encourage agroforestry.

Depending on the species, trees make all sorts of contributions to 
agriculture, experts say. Trees in a shelter belt reduce wind and water 
erosion. Some trees serve as fertilizers --- they take in nitrogen from 
the atmosphere, or pump it from deep underground and, when they drop 
their leaves, make it available upon decomposition.

Trees planted along streams can take up and scrub out polluted farm 
runoff. They increase species diversity by providing habitat, and some 
of those species are friendly to farmers --- bees and butterflies that 
help pollinate crops, for example. (One study showed that 66 species of 
birds benefit from windbreaks on farms.) Trees can keep a field cooler 
and more moist.

Some research also shows that cattle farmers can improve their income by 
introducing trees, both by selling timber and by cooling cows in the shade.

And trees in general help the environment by absorbing greenhouse gases 
and by cleaning up polluted water --- countering some of the effects of 
large-scale agriculture.

"The biggest problem with food production is environmental degradation," 
said Gene Garrett, an emeritus professor of forestry and former director 
of the Center for Agroforestry at the University of Missouri.

Properly placed belts of trees and other vegetation along streams can 
filter out 95 percent of the soil sediment that washes off farm fields, 
studies show, and up to 80 percent of phosphate and nitrogen that runs off.

While the idea of farming with trees is being reborn in the United 
States, it is not new. It got its start here in the Dust Bowl era, when 
trees were planted in shelter belts to stop severe wind erosion, Mr. 
Mason said. And around the world, agroforestry goes back centuries. 
"Many generations have been on the land," said Jill M. Belsky, a 
professor of rural and environmental sociology at the University of 
Montana who has studied forest farms. "They have deep ecological 
knowledge and many cycles of these seasons.

"For example, they taste the soil and say, 'We need a few more chickens 
in here' " for fertilizer.

Elsewhere, "working" trees are being used to replenish eroded or desert 
landscapes. A program in Niger has greened millions of acres in the last 
20 years.

There are several approaches to agroforestry. Grazing livestock under a 
canopy of trees is called silvo-pasture, for instance. In alley 
cropping, an ancient technique that is becoming more common in the 
United States, rows of commercially valuable hardwood trees like oak are 
alternated with rows of corn, wheat or grasses for biofuel.

Agroforestry operations are also helping raise specialty crops. Nicola 
MacPherson raises timber in the Ozarks, and grows shiitake and oyster 
mushrooms on the waste branches; she is also establishing a truffle 
orchard. Then there are forest gardens like the one the Floras are creating.

Agroforestry is not just as simple as sticking trees in the ground --- 
it can be a sophisticated form of management. "The key to a lot of 
systems is how they manage shade and light," Dr. Belsky said. In one 
common system --- teak trees over vegetable crops --- as the over-story 
closes, limiting light, "the types of crops below change."

Here in Montana, the Floras say they hope that their garden will evolve 
as conditions change. The climate of the northern Rockies, though, is a 
world away from tropical forest farms, and the Floras are pioneers.

They have had their share of learning experiences. Bees left their hives 
and never came back; the Floras had to pollinate their fruit trees by 
hand, with paintbrushes. One October, trees were killed by a snowstorm 
and bitter cold. And there are rodents.

"Gophers do a lot of damage," Ms. Flora said. "They eat tree roots, 
carrots and potatoes." Her Yorkshire terrier, Rocky, has been the best 
remedy so far.

The soil is nutrient-poor, but a forest garden turns marginal soil into 
much more fertile ground. As the needles and leaves fall and animal 
waste collects, nutrients increase over time.

One major hurdle to widespread adoption of agroforestry, though, might 
be conventional thinking about trees.

"Families spent generations removing trees to practice agriculture, and 
we're up against that," said Dr. Garrett, the emeritus professor here. 
"We have to stress that if you don't put them in the way, you can use 
working trees to benefit agriculture."

ADDED LINKS thanks John Valenzuela
Nice article to see in the national media. It includes some great 
agroforestry links:

National Agroforestry Center: http://www.unl.edu/nac/

USDA Alternative Farming Systems Information Center, Alternative Crops 
and Plants, Agroforestry page:
http://afsic.nal.usda.gov/nal_display/index.php?info_center=2&tax_level=2&tax_subject=298&topic_id=1428 
<http://afsic.nal.usda.gov/nal_display/index.php?info_center=2&tax_level=2&tax_subject=298&topic_id=1428>

One link is not well labeled:
While the idea of farming with trees is being reborn in the United 
States, it is not new <http://www.agroforestry.net/>.
-this links to the great website (with a Pacific Island emphasis) at: 
http://www.agroforestry.net/

USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service Agroforestry page:
http://www.nrcs.usda.gov/wps/portal/nrcs/main/national/landuse/forestry

My favorite quote from the article is:
/And around the world, agroforestry goes back centuries. "Many 
generations have been on the land," said Jill M. Belsky, a professor of 
rural and environmental sociology at the University of Montana who has 
studied forest farms. "They have deep ecological knowledge and many 
cycles of these seasons. // "For example, they taste the soil and say, 
'We need a few more chickens in here' " for fertilizer. /

John Valenzuela, Chairperson
Golden Gate Chapter, California Rare Fruit Growers
http://www.crfg.org/
http://www.crfg.org/chapters/golden_gate/index.htm

Cornucopia Kitchen Gardens and Food Forests
John Valenzuela Permaculture Services
Horticulturist, Consultant, Educator
California, Hawai'i  phone: (415) 246-8834
e-mail: johnvalenzuela at hotmail.com
http://cornucopiafoodforest.wordpress.com 
<http://http://cornucopiafoodforest.wordpress.com>

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