Agroforestry and New SWAAN Partnership - Steven Price USU Extension Assistant Professor of Agriculture, Natural Resources, and 4-H (Carbon County) 1

as defined by Association for Temperate Agroforestry, Agroforestry and New are “…windbreaks, alley cropping, silvopasture, riparian buffers and forest farming.”1. Silvopasture refers to the SWAAN Partnership practice of grazing livestock in pasturelands that are also managed for economically significant trees. Forest Steven Price USU Extension farming refers to the management and production of Assistant Professor of Agriculture, crops, such as mushrooms, medicinal plants, edible plants, or specialty “non-timber” products, in the protective Natural Resources, and 4-H (Carbon understory of a managed or natural forest. This goes County) beyond simply collecting natural products and the trees are often intentionally managed for production as well. Related management systems, such as community food 07/07/2020 forests and permaculture, are often included under the umbrella term of agroforestry. The benefits of agroforestry integration include increased on-farm biodiversity and enterprise diversification; increased ecosystem services; greater synergistic advantages for production; soil, water, and land resource conservation; natural disaster resiliency; increased carbon sequestration; and local foodscape development and enhancement.

USDA’s National Agroforestry Center2 aims to accelerate the application of agroforestry through a national 3 Permaculture network of partners. The USDA estimated in 2012 that demonstration site at New Mexico State University agroforestry was practiced on less than 1 percent of the Agriculture Science Center suitable land in the United States, but also recognized a great potential for expansion. To get a better handle Broadly defined, agroforestry is the intentional mixing on agroforestry application/adoption, the USDA included of trees and shrubs into crop and animal production the first agroforestry practice question in its Census of systems to benefit our economy, our environment, Agriculture in 2012. In the southwestern U.S., unique and our society. Agroforestry has been practiced by barriers to adoption exist with water availability being many people and cultures world-wide for perhaps a particularly difficult limiting factor in Utah, as well thousands of years. Subsistence agriculture systems, as Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico. Recognizing particularly prevalent in the tropics, often include woody the need for regionally focused partnerships and perennials that are needed to shade livestock and education to overcome these barriers, the Southwest provide firewood in combination with plants for food, Agroforestry Action Network (SWAAN) was formed in fiber, or medicine. Some of these areas continue to 2018. This collaborative effort has brought together be converted to large-scale monoculture production producers, agencies, tribes, and other stakeholders to (e.g., palm oil plantations) where true agroforestry “share information and facilitate connections among practices are being lost. Agroforestry principles and potential collaborators and partners.” This is meant to practices can be applied in both tropical and temperate “generate ideas for research and other agroforestry- regions. Agroforestry offers solutions to environmental related initiatives” and “increase adoption of agroforestry issues (soil erosion, water pollution) associated with in the Southwest U.S. by agricultural producers, forest productivity intensification, borrowing from both ancient landowners, and communities.”4. indigenous practices and modern technologies. Some would argue that innovation in agroforestry practices SWAAN’s 2020 annual in-person conference was have somewhat lagged post Green Revolution in many scheduled to take place in March in Tucson, Arizona, but temperate areas, but interest has noticeably increased canceled before the event took place due to COVID-19. the past few decades. Many agriculturalists and resource SWAAN’s executive committee is currently considering managers may have unknowingly integrated at least options for future in-person and virtual conferences. On some small aspects of agroforestry into their routines. July 14, 2020 (9 a.m. to 10 a.m., MST), SWAAN and the In North America, the five basic categories of practices, Arizona Community Tree Council will cohost a webinar, “How to choose, plant, care for and harvest edible trees Agroforestry and New SWAAN Partnership - Steven Price USU Extension Assistant Professor of Agriculture, Natural Resources, and 4-H (Carbon County) 2 in the Southwest”. There is no cost but registration is needed (www.aztrees.org/event-3895330). Additionally, SWAAN is collecting information for active food forest or permaculture demonstration sites or private projects as part of a survey for Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, and Arizona. If you have information to be included in this survey, contact SWANN via Steven Price (UT representative: [email protected]) or Andy Mason (secretary: [email protected]). 1. Association of Temperate Agroforestry. (n.d.) What is Agroforestry. https://www.aftaweb.org/about/what-is- agroforestry.html 2. USDA National Agroforestry Center (n.d.) https:// www.fs.usda.gov/nac/ 3. Agroforestry: USDA Reports to America, Fiscal Years 2011-2012 – Comprehensive Version. 4. Southwest Agroforestry Action Network (n.d.) About SWAAN. https://swaan-site.org/about-1