Climate Resilient For the Mountains & Piedmont Zev Friedman, Living Systems Design and WNC Mutual Aid Initiative Contact: www.livingsystemsdesign.net, [email protected], 828-279-2870 November 10, 2018

A. Some core themes and organizing principles for climate resilient agro-forestry

1) Bio-cultural adaptation- “cultural keystone species” 2) Design at watershed scale for flexibility and responsiveness rather than top-down mega-schemes 3) Maximum diversity [at all levels/scales]= resilience 4) Soil creation and stabilization- carbon in soil both mitigates climate change and creates resilience to effects of climate change 5) Working with ecological succession- mosaic ecologies are most diverse, productive and flexible 6) Make good use of existing quantitative data on and productive potential of systems 7) Choose regionally tailored systems and species, and also test outliers for future use

B. Specific considerations for the mountains and piedmont of NC

1) Much agro-forestry research has been done in tropical/sub-tropical regions, where carbon cycling and climate change dynamics are fundamentally different than here. So make sure to seek out appropriate information. 2) Some close analogues to this region in terms of climate and therefore analogous traditional agroforestry systems are: southern U.K., northern Italy, northern France, northern Japan, parts of Romania, southeastern China. But not all of these share soil types with our region. So when looking at species comparisons, make sure to take into account soil types. 3) Try planting agricultural zones 5-7b in the mountains, zones 6-9 in the piedmont 4) Starting state soil fertility and available mineral content is often a major limiting factor, so use nurse strategies and other pioneer successional approaches which mine minerals from subsoil and bedrock and create organic matter before expecting to have immediate food yields

C. Important agro-forestry techniques for our region 1) Intensive coppice and pollard production 2) Silvopasture with subsoiling for establishment and intensive rotational 3) Successional mosaic farming with n-fixing overstory 4) Living fences and living trellises 5) Biochar at mid-scale 6) Veld guilds/hedgerows with layered production guilding 7) Steep slope nut tree reforestation with nurse 8) Riparian cropping guilds 9) Myco-forestry with

D. Some key species and management styles

1) White, red and black mulberry- coppiced, pollarded for staple food production, living fence posts, silvopasture, production 2) Black locust- grown as n-fixing pollard for living fence posts, fodder and nectar production, or grown as standard or high pollard for silvopasture, or for nurse tree then coppiced to release understory nut trees 3) Honey locust- standard or high pollard in silvopasture 4) Alder spp.- grown as n-fixing pollarded living fence post, as standard or coppice in silvopasture, as tight rotation coppice in successional mosaic farming 5) Fodder willow- coppiced in veld guilds for fodder production, basketry, medicine, live stakes, biochar 6) Populus spp.- coppiced in veld guilds for fodder production; coppiced on moderately steep slopes for fodder production; grown as pollard in silvopastures 7) Selected genetics for steep slope reforestation and staple food production 8) Selected swarm bred chestnut genetics for steep slope reforestation and staple food production 9) Elderberry for riparian cropping guilds 10) Stropharia, oyster, reishi mushrooms for rapid soil creation from woody debris

E. Experimental/emerging/contraversial species

1) Prickly pear cactus species as living fences and major food source 2) Mesquite species as living fence posts, successional mosaic farming 3) Osage orange as living fence 4) Hardy agave species as living fences and erosion retention 5) Myco-forestry with native mycorhizal inoculants on woody trees 6) Cinnamon vine 7) Mimosa- grown as n-fixing tight rotation coppice in successional mosaic farming; standard in silvopasture

F. Economic and collaborative strategies

1) Agro-forestry co-ops 2) Savings pools 3) Watershed scale planning and crop exchange 4) Regenerative regional carbon credit trading systems 5) Mutual Aid Networks

G. A Few Resources

1) Ithaka Institute, Switzerland: “55 Uses For Biochar” 2) Laura Lengnick Resilient : Cultivating Food Systems For A Changing Climate 3) Eric Toensmier: The Carbon Farming Solution 4) Steve Gabriel Silvopasture: A Guide to Managing Grazing Animals, Forage Crops, and Trees in a Temperate Farm Ecosystem 5) Patrick McMillan’s research and work at the Clemson University Botanical Garden with climate resilient perennial crops 6) Article on impressive agro-forestry carbon trading program by Ithaka Institute: “Forest Gardens for Closing the Global Carbon Cycle” by Hans-Peter Schmidt, Bishnu H. Pandit, Claudia Kammann & Paul Taylor 7) Phil Dahl-Bredine et al Milpa! From Seed to Salsa: Ancient Ingredients For A Sustainable Future 8) Organization: Via Campesina 9) Climate change induced transformations of agricultural systems: insights from a global model. Leclere D, Havlik P, Fuss S, Schmid E, Mosnier A, Walsh B, Valin H, Herrero M, Khabarov N, and Obersteiner M. 2014. Environmental Research Letters. doi:10.1088/1748-9326/9/12/124018