Harvesting +30,000 gallons of roof runoff in tree basins for FREE
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- Опубликовано: 2 авг 2023
- See how we harvest over 30,000 gallons (114,000 liters) of roof runoff in tree basins to passively shade and cool the building from which we harvest the water.
This system was created in 1996 by two people in two hours, only using hand shovels. We did the work in the rain, because that is the funnest time and you get instant feedback from the water flow. No materials were purchased, imported, or exported-we just used what was freely available on site.
Every year we maintain the system by building up the berms, digging the basins deeper (to get the dirt for the berms), or filling in any blow outs in the berm. We do this during or just after a rain when its nice and cool and the soil is soft and workable.
We did the work in the public right-of-way between the auto parts store/warehouse and the street, after getting permission from the auto parts store management to plant the rain and trees.
Our Neighborhood Foresters volunteers maintain the trees (prune them as necessary to maintain pedestrian access of public footpath, and keep the street clear).
Note that we could have also planted multi-use native understory plants at the same time we planted the trees. That is what we now do in all new installations.
Video filmed in July 2023 in Tucson, Arizona, USA.
Trees were planted as part of our neighborhood's first annual rain & native food forest planting in 1996.
See link below for info on the 28th annual planting.
dunbarspringneighborhoodfores...
Get more info on how to do this and harvest many other free, on-site waters at:
www.harvestingrainwater.com/
where you can buy the new full-color editions of Brad's award-winning books, "Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands and Beyond" at deep discount direct from Brad at:
www.harvestingrainwater.com/s...
For more videos that expand on this one subscribe to this channel at:
ruclips.net/user/HarvestingR...
For more on such neighborhood efforts see
dunbarspringneighborhoodfores...
For self-guided tours (virtual or in-person) of other Tucson water-harvesting sites see
www.harvestingrainwater.com/t...
For a video on some of our street runoff harvesting see
• Stormwater-harvesting ...
#rainwater
#waterharvesting
#permaculture
#rainwaterharvesting
#neighborhoodforestry
#greeninfrastructure
#floodcontrol
#climateresilience
#urbanforestry
#tucson
#greeninfrastructure 
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Well, I am an import from Quebec who inherited a bare bone dry property in Tucson. Moved in in January, planted desert trees and bushes with gullies. I dug three basins, still a lot of work to do with the gutters and figuring out where to direct all the water coming on my property from the alley. I love creating my own little desert oasis. Got one of your book and watched all your videos. Today I purchased a bunch of native plants for the basins and bushes for the creatures. I am in my 60s doing it pretty much all by myself. I guess it’s my passion. Thank you for helping us figuring things out.
Awesome that you learn and immediately take personal action! We need a world filled with the likes of you! I hope you live another 40 plus years and that you stay active in your benefiting the planet.
@@christophernixon5295 Thank you 💧
It’s amazing how fast you can see results. I’ve put a gutter to divert the roof rainwater to the garden and the plants almost immediately responded, they grew like never before, now I’m implementing this in a public park and it seems to be working , let’s see what happens after the rainy season ends
Every day, I appreciate your work more. My dream is to have a consultation with you out here in Apache County. Blessings
These passive harvesting systems seem to require little attention once they are dialed in. Trying to get my local chapter of CNPS gardening club to begin with water catchment design first before figuring out what plants go where. We don't get the monsoons here in So. Cal like AZ does but most garden tours the first thing I notice is how the rain gutters are diverted straight towards the street gutter and away from the property(all 11" that we receive a year): what a waste. What a textbook designed rain water harvesting system.
Brad is THE MAN!!!!!! Big time legend! If you haven't read his books, you are missing out. His illustrations in them are top notch.
So great to see you Brad and see the beautiful trees that have grown to such size! I first came across your work years ago when Kirsten Dirksen visited you at your home. Ever since then, I've used your videos to motivate people and teach them about rainwater harvesting. Thank you for all you do and all the information you help share!
I just received two of your books in the mail. I'm so grateful for the work you've compiled and share
Wow... the fact I haven't been aware of the reprocussions of this method you've taught till now is just incredible. I can not believe actually well I can believe but the fact that cities and modern infrastructure is designed so lazily and done so idk.. cheaply. And you go in and create a living environment. Well a thriving ecosystem in the rain done with shovels and the thought that something might actually work if you give it a little thought and gain inspiration from it wow. You can and the rain can 🤗 collectively save this world and it's hunger and water needs if people would pay attention. Blessings upon you for helping the rain go where it is intended to go brother!..
P.s. I was at your ted talk in Tucson I believe when you spoke at the event with the guy who talked about vr and the dog lady etc etc. Was a very good day as a young and inspired learner. I have come full circle so to speak in respects and am happy to learn more!
Thank you Brad!
Oh also. Love from AZ I live more northern! 🫶🏼
we need to do this everywhere
It starts with "we, the people". I do it here in South Carolina where I have no real need to collect rain. In my context it helps control the flow of water, mitigating issues with erosion and flooding.
Gracias por tus contribución a nuestros ambientes desérticos
Un gran saludo Brad
This might sound a little lame but I watched the home tour video you did several years ago simply for the honesty, passion, energized wonderment & practical knowledge ....watched it a few times because you bring power, humor & grace to this work. Like a prescription to allay some of the grief of the world . Thank you. Even in the northeast I've found many applications whether it's too much or too little.(✷‿✷)
I watch that video when I need a pick-me-up.
@@crunchworks22 it's a great video (✷‿✷)
Not lame, beautifully spoken. I watch these videos too when I'm feeling low on energy and inspiration. The enthusiasm is contagious!
@@rainbowconnected quietly & always looking for marvellous bits and pieces of the world, cobbling them together into what feels like a workable scaffold to keep courage up. I think Mr Lancaster is one of the unassuming marvels. We're lucky, eh (ʘᴗʘ✿).
Thank you.
sirs. i got your books years ago either for christmas and or birthday and found them most interesting. i live in a small apartment and can only dream. keep doing the wonderful work u r doing to heal the environment and regenerating the desert where u live .
Yesterday, we planted 90,000 gallons on our little 6 acre farm!
I enjoy every video you put out. Thank you for what you are doing, it is sorely needed.
Nice! I'm always entertained when seeing your new videos showing how to do rainwater harvesting. It seems it should be common sense for desert dwellers, yet the folks up here in Idaho only care about lush green lawns. We only get about 11 inches of rain as well. I do plan to switch to a sheet metal roof so we can collect all of the rain in our near future. I am looking forward to the third book, whenever it is ready.
You can collect rain from shingle roofs too, but divert it to biomass and biodiversity plants rather than food crops. Just out of safety. If you eat store bought conventional ag food, anything homegrown even with shingles is probably better anyway...
@@TheEmbrioI tried this, and found that the plants hated the water collected and stored off the shingles. They have tar and bitumen and I think a little bit of those things comes down the gutter and into the tank. It may depend a little on the specific shingles you have and the age and condition of your roof…
So impressive Mr Lancaster! You do amazing and life giving work. Thank you.
That 37°F/20°C difference in temperature is impressive. It shows that there are alternative ways to cool buildings, instead of the cost and energy wasteful air conditioners which actually heat up the outside air even more. One thing I don't get, is why the street is as wide as a highway. Why do you need a six lane street, when a 2 lane + 1 parking "lane" would suffice? Or does it double as a take off and landing strip?
These streets in this historic neighborhood were put in before there were cars. Maybe they wanted enough room for a horse and buggy to be able to turn around? Regardless of the reason, we actively work to reduce the street width with water-harvesting traffic calming strategies.
@@HarvestingRainwater I dived a bit into it. If the street width is different, the biggest could be a main road or a cattle drive. Equal width might point to accommodation of "parked" horses and wagons, and indeed space to turn them. Or the width was needed and organically evolved when a track repeatedly became too muddy or loose to follow, and the next cart moved a bit to the side on more solid ground.
I like the "roundabout" and parking spot water catchments. Seeing a stream go in a full one, and no stream out, is mesmerizing.
Another excellent video of hope being demonstrated!
I so appreciate your work! Thank you!
Here in South Carolina, we get plenty of annual rainfall, but there can be long dry spells between the rains. These techniques are great for making things more reliable and predictable, as well as for controlling run-off that can be quite problematic! I really appreciate the focus on using native plants, too. We complain about the environment, but don't realize that we're destroying the environment by introducing all these non-native plants into the local ecosystem. Most insects are specialists, not generalists, and fragmenting the ecosystem with a slew of plants that they can't use means we're literally undercutting the entire food web. No insects means no songbirds because the songbirds need insects as the protein source for chicks in the nest.
So far, I've been able to get a good handle on how the water flows in my land, redirecting it and collecting it as needed. I build "beaver dam analogs" in some places and berms in others, all depending on what I have on hand, and it's absolutely wonderful to see it working with the very next rainfall!
Thanks Brad!
In case all My Fellow Nor'easters think we don't need this think again. It is great for Flood Control. And Water your gardens and other plants for free. I wish the park Service would Implement this on the western side of the Smokey Mountains it would stop most of the Flooding that happens in Gatlinburg.
Exactly! I'm not wanting for water down here in the Southeast, but it's been a real boon to be able to slow and redirect the runoff. One thing I'm pushing for with the parks and other agencies is the installation of "Beaver Dam Analogs". There's plenty of videos on youtube showing how they work and why they're critical to the ecosystem, but it's still a hard sale b/c it's time and labor. The good news is that we can all pitch in a little bit by putting in BDA's wherever we find a small crease in the land as we're walking around the woods. Like Brad did with his "curb cuts", sometimes it's better to work a little covertly. Those little folds in the ground might be dry right now, but we know they are just gutters for the rain when it next comes. Putting a few sticks and leaves across the path might not seem like much, but every bump in the road slows the water down and gives it time to sink into the ground before it can join the larger channels and become to powerful to stop. I've probably made a hundred super small BDA's over the last few years, always out of the way so folks don't destroy them, and you can absolutely see that it makes a difference b/c the moisture held in the ground uphill of the BDA is always greener and thicker.
Good job. Unfortunately, where I live people can't stand puddles and i don't understand why. We do not live in the middle of desert but still have drought problems.
This system, and many others I cover in my books, will work great for those in your community not liking puddles, because the water-harvesting earthworks are all designed to infiltrate the captured water below the surface as quickly as possible. The water typically infiltrates in less than an hour. In some instances where you have high-clay soils with slow percolation rates, it may take 24 to 48 hours after a big storm to infiltrate all the water. But over time as the vegetation within and beside the earthworks grows, organic matter accumulates, and soil life increases and diversifies, the speed of percolation will keep increasing. This results in less standing water and less puddles.
Unfortunately on a main road this would also be filling the earth with oil and rubber from the road. Filtration systems are still needed
In my neighborhood the curbs are sloped and rainwater slides down the street. Is there any way to harvest this since it's more difficult to just cut a hole? There's also only a small strip of dirt separating the curb from the sidewalk in front of every house.
Chapter 8 of Volume 2, 2nd Edition should answer all your questions along with webpages at www.harvestingrainwater.com/water-harvesting/harvests-of-different-waters/stormwater-street-runoff-harvesting/
Imagine what could be achieved if even 0.1% of the world's population was made up of Brad Lancasters!
That is great. Your city should stick with such instead of unproven theories with no statistics or studies. Tucson is trying to become first 15min city which is a crock since no evidences exist that such would have any effect except on people's freedom. It is all about control not environment. It is all about return to the last time in history that same was done as law. Midevil times surfs were restricted to basically a 15-20min area & were denied travel beyond without permission from their lord on pain of death. All land belonged to the lord so there were no family farms only workers surfs allowed out to those agricultural areas & any who hunted for food in wildlands were considered thieves & outlaws. Elites owned & controlled all then including peoples children & anything they took a fancy to. The surfs trying to grow & raise their own food paid tax with most of their produce dispite not owning property they lived on. That is what 15min cities are all about returning to not environment. After all the regenerative farmers & permaculture prove we can reverse harm done easily. Just like your work in city streets have reversed harm & regreened city blocks & proves it can rebound quickly with right actions having nothing to do with 15min cities.
The same people planning "15 minute cities" want rainwater catchment basins. In areas with a lot of rain, it saves money on flood control and storm sewers. It's just a smart idea. Just because buzzwords like "15 minute cities" are used by the same politicians who lied about a lot of medical things, and want to pay oil companies $500 per ton of CO2 removal when cover crops would cost $50 per ton (in other words, a scam done in the name of a real problem) doesn't mean they're some sort of trap. Have you ever talked to kids who grew up in a subdivision with a 2 mile walk to the nearest store? Where you have to drive everywhere? That's not a good place to live, even if the houses are nice with big yards and nice trees. Normal cities, regular small towns with a regular downtown and apartments above the shops? Houses in walking distance from a little downtown? That's an example of a 15 minute city. A traditional small town. Maybe if we had farmer support instead of crop support, small town America could thrive again.
What happens if you get two inches? A Biblical flood?
I always design in an overflow route, whereby even the overflow is utilized as a resource. This is one of my primary water harvesting principles covered in the full-color editions of my books.