Your videos are my mental health answer to what’s going on in the world. Every time I get stressed, I come watch a video and remember how much healing is actually happening in places we might not necessarily ever hear about. Thank you so much for the work you do!
@@amillison ЗДРАВСТВУЙТЕ!!!🤝🤝🤝 Это ПРЕКРАСНО!!!! Правильные слова были сказаны в конце: "Надо просто начать работать"!!!! И нужно просто начать с малого!!!!! Я живу в многоквартирном доме и у нас возле дома есть палисадники. На них долгое время парковали машины и в земле ничего не росло. И вот 13 лет назад я начал заниматься этими палисадниками. Теперь ьам растёт множество разлчных цветущих кустарников - чайные розы, жасмин, сирень, гортензии, гибискусы, спирея.... За счёт создания небольших компостных ям я за два года сделал почву плодородной! В почве появилось огромное количество червей!!! Почва стала рыхлой, плодородной и в ней растёт любое посаженное растение. Один палисадник я выделил под выращивание саженцев молодых деревьев, которые я каждый год высвживаю на зелёных зонах и в парках. Каждый год я высаживаю десятки саженцев ореха, дуба, липы. А последние 4 года я занимаю выращиванием и акклиматизацией съедобного каштана. И хоть это не свойственная нашему региону культура, у меня уже есть несуолько саженцев, которые не смотря ни на что выжиьи и акклиматизировались. А на двух уже в этом году выросли маленьки каштанчики, которые я тоже посадил и надеюсь что на следующий год они прорастут и это уже будет ПЕРВОЕ ПОКОЛЕНИЕ не просто рождённых в нашем регионе каштанов, но и уже выросших и ставших молодыми саженцами, полностью акклиматизироваными. Которые не будут болеть, которые будут привычными к почве, и климату нашего региона!!!! И теперь, если Бог даст, я буду каждый год увеличивать количество этих саженцев и буду их высаживать везде и дарить своим хорошим знакомым людям!!!! Для меня это проект на годы вперёд!!!
That’s exactly how I feel when watching Andrew’s videos. That feeling turns into true inner peace when you take these permaculture lessons and apply them to your world around you!
Yup, he's the pioneer of the modern age ecological restoration. He really captured the true scale of what's possible with his record of the Lis Plateau. It opened my eyes on how the rich could change the world, but just doesn't.
It was one of the most inspiring videos i’ve seen and it legitimately helped me feel hopeful about the future of the world. I hope he keeps doing things like this, specially around the mediterranean and the red sea
This video really touched me. I am spanish and my family works in agriculture, in a region quite similar to this one here, called Ciudad Real in Castilla la Mancha. Here, as in most of Spain, monocultures are almost the only way of crop and they are rapidly drying and desertifying the soil and the region. In fact, one of Castilla la Mancha most famous natural parks, Las Tablas de Daimiel (a wetland) is near its death due to poor water management and ilegal wells. Seeing this video of people doing things right in my own country really felt good and gave me hope that one day this will be a common practice. I just hope this happens on time.
I am going to try and do this on my farm in senegal. The land is very poor. Its been depleted and the water just runs off...we are going to try and change that❤thanks
1. Build water capture structures like swales, zai pits etc 2. Mulch heavily to protect soil, water and plants 3. Make videos on RUclips, people will help you with advice and more! 4. Adopt Stoic philosophy: - one step at a time - focus on the present, what can you do now - when something goes wrong, think about what can you learn from it and how it can help you to grow and develop - be kind to people and animals
I'm always delighted when you share videos-they’re so inspiring and make me want to take action myself. I live in a small village, not a desert or a severely degraded ecosystem, but there’s been growing concern about groundwater issues and summer droughts here. Beavers recently settled in the area and began building dams, and after just two years, the transformation of the ecosystem is remarkable. The forest, which once seemed stagnant and lifeless, now feels rejuvenated. The increased moisture in the soil is noticeable-the trees are greener, and the entire landscape is more vibrant. Inspired by the beavers’ work, I’ve started building my own dams in places they don’t venture. Last year, I was working with a simple stream where the water barely reached above my ankles. Now, in some spots, it rises as high as my chest. The change is astounding, and seeing the land come alive again fills me with hope and motivation to do even more. Thank you for sharing these ideas of true care for the planet with us-real ecology, not the propaganda of the elites about carbon footprints and other so-called "eco-friendly" ideas that often feel more like a facade. Your approach emphasizes genuine, hands-on efforts that make a real difference, and it’s inspiring to see people like you actively working towards a healthier, more sustainable world. It’s a refreshing reminder that real change starts with the small, tangible actions we take in our local environments. Love from Poland. ♥♥♥
Andrew, you give me hope in humanity when you show me these awesome people and when you help explain how we can save ruined lands. I am so thankful to see what you are doing. Please accept this small token of appreciation. I wonder if there is any talk about using herd animals to restore the soil here. They would have to be shepherded and not left to their own devices, I’ve seen a fellow on TED explaining that using herd animals correctly to restore ecosystems can help fight climate change.
Thanks so much for your support :-) There is sheep herding in the area, but Camp Altiplano is not at the scale to rotate ruminants. Rotating chickens is more their scale to not degrade the fragile soils
I don’t how you do it. You make the most inspiring videos on land regeneration. This week was my first week being a full time student again since dropping out during COVID to study plant biology (a major I chose so I could do work like this). It was very hard. I was sick, I felt like I was already falling behind, and I wasn’t sure if I could keep up with the course load. I had a few days this week wear it felt like I won’t be able to do this. It was kinda heart breaking to be struggling so much the first week of school. But after watching this, I feel can do this. That I WANT to do this. That this is what the earth wants me to do. Thank you for these videos. A reminder that tasks may seem too big or too complicated to complete CAN be done. It may take a lot of energy but I feel my passion and love for this subject willing to fuel my efforts. I’ve never been disappointed by single one of your videos
Andrew!! You and Geoff Lawton were the two people who exposed me to permaculture 6 years ago and sparked a lifetime of interest and passion. I'm just finishing Geoff's PDC and looking to buy a property this year hopefully. Excited to get started. Thank you!
Amazing, I was just driving this afternoon through JAEN in southern Spain which looks just like this area also. And I was speaking with my wife about all the things you talk about here. So nice to see such success! ❤
I understand almond production in particular is very water intensive. What an amazing project. And I love your channel. If I wasn’t so preoccupied with just trying to survive financially I would give my time to a project like this. Thanks!
@@nunyabiznes33no, almonds are drought-resistant trees compared to other fruit trees, but in such a degraded environment it is normal that they also struggle
Not really... They grow without irrigation, but the amount of crop is much lower. Without irrigation and with 450mm rain/year (which is consider semiarid in a zone 10 Mediterranean region) you would get around 400kg/hectare. With irrigation that simulates an equivalent rain of 1200mm/year, which is pretty wet, you get 2000kg/hectare, 5 times more almonds. But most subtropical to Mediterranean trees require that much water, if not more, to be economically viable (or productive).
It's hard when we have to put most of our resources towards just surviving. I hope you get to a place where you are thriving. Until then, you might be able to find ways to make a small difference right where you are by composting kitchen scraps, growing a few fresh herbs or greens on a stoop or in a window, mulching, or removing invasive plants (on public lands or where permitted), or just giving an encouraging word to folks around you contributing in their ways. We can all do something. 😊
Wow to meet john d liu -he did this stuff long before it was popular and I did not know that he is in spain now but his dokumentations on the loess plateau and other projects were impressive. Thanks for documenting this amazing project for us ☺️🙂
What an interesting video! Thanks for creating this! I applaud the efforts of the new village to learn, experiment and share. I appreciate that they are looking for middle-ground so that industrial farming might find a way to migrate/evolve. I also appreciate learning these tid-bits as I evolve the small bit of land that I have in a high desert.
I am so glad that they are improving an area in Spain. I've seen so much about how everything in Spain is so dry and degraded, I'm glad there a bright spots there.
While that's true for a good part of the country (mostly sourthern territory), and we specially have a problem with agricultural water abuse, the north is very green (and rainy) We have a pretty diverse ecosystem considering its size
Spain is one of (if not the) most biodiverse countries in Europe. There are areas that are dry, but that's how they're supposed to be. There's also a lot of oceanic and other wet climates present in the country.
Let them, it’s useless to explain it. The only thing they have to know is that if they buy in Spain, a 100% increase in taxes will be applied to them for not being EU residents.
Spain has the third biggest forest mass in Europe, not precisely a dry and degraded data. Even if you are the kind of person that consider Spain is just the Mediterranean coast, some parts of the Mediterranean coast are not dry and also covered in forest.
This is amazing, educational, and inspiring! These communities in Spain and other parts of the world highlighted on this channel offer so many beautiful and successful real-life examples of harmonious, productive, beneficial and sustainable systems for growing food in a way that benefits people, food security, and wildlife and Nature. We really need ideas and food systems here in California's Central Valley. We grow a lot of food for the US and the world, but it's all corporate Big Ag monoculture that displaced the indigenous Yokuts communities, and is using up the water, sinking the land, polluting the water, air, and soil, and creating human health problems. The dominant narrative and politics pit farmers and food against the environment and human health, but we need to come together and realize that it's all connected and that farmers can grow food in a better, healthier way, and that all of us can. So thank you again for the knowledge, ideas, and inspiring examples of what we can do here and all around the world!
I have no words, I am so impressed, and loving it ! I've been wanting a video in spain for a LONGGG time ! and I am def not disapointed. It gives me hope 💚
Andrew would like to visit our country(Tajikistan)? We can organize a workshop and sponsor your trip. It would be very beneficial for our farmers, locals, government employees etc.
I get a lot of comments when I show anything from him and others that somehow what he does is irrelevant because he's not doing it in Europe. My parents love to repeat "Australian scientists" as a slur. Personally, I've been doing great on a small scale expanding my garden further, but for now they say I've been getting lucky. We'll see how many years in a row it's all luck.
There's a project in southern Spain that uses halophytes, or salt-tolerant crops, to create saltwater marshes. They can be harvested multiple times per year while still acting as wildlife habitat. The only input they need is sea water. Any arid coastal areas in Europe, Arabia, and Africa could be increasing their food production and wildlife habitat with zero fertilizer or freshwater inputs.
You can understand it with Ecosia economics. Ecosia collaborated with Alveal but it was discontinued because the same money had much more effect in African countries both in helping people and increasing the number of trees while in southern Spain trees grow slower and need more spacing so it grows less trees per dollar.
Thank you for all of your efforts and education! I’ve been working with mixed forest clearcuts for 30 yrs here in Nova Scotia Canada. You’ve been a huge inspiration for us!
Thank you again for showing something that not only heals the hurt in my heart for the damage done to this beautiful planet, but is certainly healing the planet one blade of grass at a time 💚💚💚
Madre mía que tontería tenemos. Nadie en este vídeo está salvando nada más que sus propios culos. El hombre habita esas tierras desde tiempos inmemoriales y lleva practicando la agricultura con finura dificil de encontrar y sabiduría de la que estos tipos del vídeo deberían tomar lecciones, en vez de darselas de salvadores de la humanidad o de inventar la pólvora.
Fascinating seeing the ponds because junquera is a reed bed suggesting that despite the "arid" description that would have been a natural water accumulation point before the intervention of industrial farming.
I don't always watch your vids as soon as they get out, but when I watch them, I wonder why I didn't watch it earlier. This always keeps me up, and positive. Thank you.
Congrats Andrew on another wonderful film which gives so much hope to those of us trying to do something - even if it feels small - for habitat and biodiversity. I hope you can compile all your work into a feature film one day. Wonderful to see John Liu still at the vanguard of ecological restoration too.
Awesome positive video. I was on a trip in trip 5 years ago and the land looked so degrade when traveling in between cities, great to see the landscape getting greener
Wow, the local farmer at the end, Miguel Ángel Gómez. Keeps family tradition, adds flowering cover crops to preserve health of his soil, respects the shape of the land. You can tell he actually lives there - you can sit in the shade and listen to the breeze. All he does is drive his tractor a little slower instead of in straight lines.
I remember flying into Madrid and seeing the miles and miles of monoculture olive tree grids below. I was almost on the ground before I recognized them as trees. They looked so unnatural and alien. Shame that we have done that but inspiring that we are seeing a better alternative. Thanks for highlighting it.
Andrew, you and I are pretty close in age .. there is a sort of realization our generation is having at the moment.. we're the ones gradually becoming the next elders, and there are now 2-3 generations behind us. I understand that reflection you had, about kind of wishing this work and these learning experiences were available to us 20+ years ago. Like so many our age, I had to teach myself.. I had no one to guide me except books from people I never met. I hope the younger generations take advantage of the opportunities they have now to connect with people on projects like this and learn firsthand.. they will go so much farther than we could!! There is hope in that!
we need you to help us do this in the U.S. in places like california, nevada, colorado, arizona and cities like los angelas. if we had progress like this maybe there wouldn't be so many devastating fires wrecking havoc. if the people in these regions had a hand in helping and maintaining this progress it would last for generations and help with problems like food security as well.
Please do a video going more into depth on Hawaiian a hua pua and how to create the taro ponds the flow from the mountains to the sea. Please consider doing a video on the irrigation system at Petra and machu pichu
Thank you for your effort to reinvigorate the land. I would so love to contribute but i am 80 and can only observe. You are doing a wonderful job. Something that will make your life worthwhile and encourage others. I so admire your effort. The only thing missing are animals. Best wishes
nice one andrew! that part of spain has wonderful cities but some parts of that countryside around andalucia is just... olives... thousands of kilometres of olives with bare soil. its nice to see a cover crop planted underneath.
My heroes John Liu and Andrew Millison together, great! Thank you so much! Please be aware, that a high level of vital energy in the fields is among the MOST crucial factors. Many desertified and abandoned areas are low - the methods of geomancy can bring this up with relatively litte efforts. The love for the beauty that Andrew expresses and many people feel is rising the vibrations already. Ralf Otterpohl, Rural Development consultant, Geomancy teacher.
Southern Spain looks a lot like California's San Joaquin Valley. Lots of almond, pistachio, and nut trees in Fresno County with citrus in Tulare County and oil in Kern Co.
Central Valley shout out! I just left a comment saying that we can use these ideas and systems from this video and others on this channel here in the valley.
Your videos (and ones like them) are part of what has been giving me hope that humanity isn't going to die out in the next few generations. Before the election, I was hoping to buy land here in the US and do as many permaculture techniques as I could. Now I'm trying to move out before I get put in a camp. But still, even if hope for me personally is low, it's nice to think that humanity will survive.
Land restoration should be the new social cause as the Vietnam war and political issues who brought millions of people together in America and Europe. We can change the world if we stick together and start talking with one voice. It is difficult to ignore millions of voices and we are much more powerful that the folks in the 1960's and 1970's, because the have social media.‼‼‼‼
Perhaps this group needs to try and get the Almond farmers on board and get swales dug on the big farms and plant some citrus , olives or what ever grows there . a few income streams is always good on any farm
This is very interesting on landscape restoration with these innovative techniques. I have just started my channel and I want to focus on agricultural land management. I look forward to learning from your channel and growing together
Spain the best place on the planet.The Spaniards have magic hands . Lots of areas y villages are left abandoned. Great video y how these areas can be regenerated Thanks
Hi Andrew, just wanted to say thanks for what you do. I think I saw you the other day while I was picking up a car for the police and you were riding by on your bike. I was blocking the road and in a hurry, so wasn't quite sure and kept quiet. Been kicking myself since😄 Anyway, thanks again, I really appreciate your work.
The water running off of those orchards has got to have an effect on flooding too? A few more areas that actually capture and retain rainwater is better for everyone. Only thing would be how much food they can produce this way, but looks like they're working on that too. Great project and prospects!
You mentioned it once, but I'd be interested in the economics of systems like this. Having 50 people work on a relatively small plot with a bunch of volunteers and students sounds like it wouldn't be viable as a normal farm, considering they have so much more land to support themselves that they don't manage like that. I would like to see things that just work without agritourism or volunteering projects. Farms that have some low maintenance mechanized way of improving all these environmental factors. Something that can really be transformative to conventional agricultural practices. What's something a lot of farms should do? I am very aware of the problem of habitat loss in biodiversity so having lower overall farming areas for increasing food demands seems very important to me without increasing food costs by a lot
Awesome video! In terms of doing it “right” they are certainly doing an amazing job with the litany of tools, support, and education they have. One of the key soil health components I often see overlooked is animal integration, and using the animal as the most accessibly effective tool for regeneration. Grazing management is the simplest, most scalable way to regenerate, and do so profitably. Would love to see support and amplification for all these approaches. Great work
I cant afford those classes from my part of the world, but your videos help me find points on where to start looking for how it can be done, and do up ideas to try in the backyard and combine with my land. I hope to get an orchard done right going there that is in symbiosis with my bees for most of the year. Tough its a bit difficult with the EU subsidiary funds as they generally only support single crop structures. Nor are multi purpose orchards supported.(sorry dont know the terminology) I think the EU with its green movements and subsidiaries has great potential to trully become something special, but it needs to support these permaculture and non mono culture farming options more to become viable for regular people. Hard to grow food the right way if you plant with a subsidiary fund that forces you to do it the wrong way. IF regenerative farming techiques get made subsidiary viable and encouraged like these people are trying to do in the video, even if in limited fashion, then Europe has the economic power to turn into the world's ultimate regenerative food basket and set the example for the rest to follow.
I only came across your videos fairly recently, but since I started watching (and greatly enjoying them!) there have been these terrible wildfires in LA etc. I hear people on news media talking about how trees or vegetation are catching fire, then hot cinders are blowing onto properties and causing them to burn. My heart sinks as it sounds like they are blaming the sparse vegetation for causing the problem. Something has gone horribly wrong with the way land is managed when it's built on. I just wonder if there are any properties in those affected areas that have survived because they are landscaped with permaculture principles. A video investigating this would be very interesting don't you think?
Thank you all for this great work you do on the land in spain and all over the world, if all people would live like that we would not have a climate crisis as we witness in these days, it is so sad to see what we are destroying at all territory with monoculture
Something that has always puzzled me about these large commercial orchards is that by focusing solely on one crop, as a farmer, you really limit the amount of income you can expect to earn from your land. Even if you were to have, say, only two types of fruiting trees, by choosing the right species, you could spread your harvesting season across more of the year, saving on the overdraft fees your bank charges whilst you wait for your crops to come in, thus making your business more profitable. The large gaps between the almond trees puzzles somewhat. It leaves the ground exposed to the sun and the resulting evaporation. Even if one were to only use a non-cropping nitrogen fixing tree in-between each fruiting tree, and one that you could chop and drop in order to provide more organic matter, this would give any orchard a huge boost in terms of productivity over time, and in a water stressed area such as this, save a small fortune on irrigation costs.
Speak is a piece of cake, do you understand the amount of work that needs to be done? And who pays the work? That is why its mainly done by volunteers...
Maybe they could at least grow cover crops in between the trees to prevent erosion (what would be warm climate equivalent of clover?). Then just replant after trampling then when harvesting the almonds.
@wildalentejo I grew up on a farm. Dad ran his 600-acre farm mainly on his own, with occasional assistance from the family and contractors at haymaking time. I'm fully aware of the level of commitment running a farm entails - it's why my sister & me didn't want to be farmers, much to Dad's disappointment. We worked this out as 5 and 7 year olds respectively. Getting up in the wee hours of the morning during winter in the freezing cold and pissing rain to feed out hay off of the Land Rover before having to then get up for school settled the issue for Skinny and me.
Andrew, huge fan here in your homeland of Oregon; any suggestions on finding a good site for your permaculture design class? I live on only a small residential property I don't own.
@amillison in Salem, Oregon. I don't know anyone directly with a good amount of land that's close by. If you wouldn't mind answering, about how many times do you think you need to access the site? What would an acceptable site look like?
@@amillison thanks, I'll reach out to her! I enrolled in the winter class but cancelled. I'm looking forward to hopefully enrolling in the spring class!
Of course we can restore anything! Even Mars! It's only a matter of will! I moved from the big city to a small village of 10 and it was the best move of my life! Restoring the house, building the soil, off-grid lifestyle, permaculture, contact with nature, better nutrition, better air.... Just make the move!
Fantastic, I´d like to see this in my area of Spain too. What grew there before they farmed almonds? How healthy was the soil then? I ask because in my area, nothing but a bit very thin shrub grew before they planted the oranges, almonds and pomegranetes, so I am not sure that would work as well here. Interestingly, the orange farmers used to plant yellow clover in their fields, but killed it all about 15 years ago.
I love your videos, gives me hope for combatting climate change, especially the way we human beings have degraded our land. I live in Alberta, Canada. Hope to see videos about prairie landscapes.
Your videos are my mental health answer to what’s going on in the world. Every time I get stressed, I come watch a video and remember how much healing is actually happening in places we might not necessarily ever hear about. Thank you so much for the work you do!
That feels really good to hear. I'm glad these stories are lifting you up
Beautifully stated! I agree! Thank you, Andrew!!
@@amillison
ЗДРАВСТВУЙТЕ!!!🤝🤝🤝
Это ПРЕКРАСНО!!!!
Правильные слова были сказаны в конце: "Надо просто начать работать"!!!! И нужно просто начать с малого!!!!!
Я живу в многоквартирном доме и у нас возле дома есть палисадники. На них долгое время парковали машины и в земле ничего не росло. И вот 13 лет назад я начал заниматься этими палисадниками. Теперь ьам растёт множество разлчных цветущих кустарников - чайные розы, жасмин, сирень, гортензии, гибискусы, спирея.... За счёт создания небольших компостных ям я за два года сделал почву плодородной! В почве появилось огромное количество червей!!! Почва стала рыхлой, плодородной и в ней растёт любое посаженное растение. Один палисадник я выделил под выращивание саженцев молодых деревьев, которые я каждый год высвживаю на зелёных зонах и в парках. Каждый год я высаживаю десятки саженцев ореха, дуба, липы. А последние 4 года я занимаю выращиванием и акклиматизацией съедобного каштана. И хоть это не свойственная нашему региону культура, у меня уже есть несуолько саженцев, которые не смотря ни на что выжиьи и акклиматизировались. А на двух уже в этом году выросли маленьки каштанчики, которые я тоже посадил и надеюсь что на следующий год они прорастут и это уже будет ПЕРВОЕ ПОКОЛЕНИЕ не просто рождённых в нашем регионе каштанов, но и уже выросших и ставших молодыми саженцами, полностью акклиматизироваными. Которые не будут болеть, которые будут привычными к почве, и климату нашего региона!!!! И теперь, если Бог даст, я буду каждый год увеличивать количество этих саженцев и буду их высаживать везде и дарить своим хорошим знакомым людям!!!! Для меня это проект на годы вперёд!!!
That’s exactly how I feel when watching Andrew’s videos. That feeling turns into true inner peace when you take these permaculture lessons and apply them to your world around you!
@@amillison Kelly, and others, I agree. Channels like this are a breath of positivity.
John D Liu is a legend. remember watching a documentary about his project years ago, a true genius
Yup, he's the pioneer of the modern age ecological restoration.
He really captured the true scale of what's possible with his record of the Lis Plateau.
It opened my eyes on how the rich could change the world, but just doesn't.
It was one of the most inspiring videos i’ve seen and it legitimately helped me feel hopeful about the future of the world. I hope he keeps doing things like this, specially around the mediterranean and the red sea
He is a legendary MLM Scammer
One piece ahh name
@@teejayman215I saw his documentary on the Loess Plateau too.
This video really touched me. I am spanish and my family works in agriculture, in a region quite similar to this one here, called Ciudad Real in Castilla la Mancha. Here, as in most of Spain, monocultures are almost the only way of crop and they are rapidly drying and desertifying the soil and the region. In fact, one of Castilla la Mancha most famous natural parks, Las Tablas de Daimiel (a wetland) is near its death due to poor water management and ilegal wells. Seeing this video of people doing things right in my own country really felt good and gave me hope that one day this will be a common practice. I just hope this happens on time.
Pass to your friend s to pass the info that way support this
I am going to try and do this on my farm in senegal. The land is very poor. Its been depleted and the water just runs off...we are going to try and change that❤thanks
1. Build water capture structures like swales, zai pits etc
2. Mulch heavily to protect soil, water and plants
3. Make videos on RUclips, people will help you with advice and more!
4. Adopt Stoic philosophy:
- one step at a time
- focus on the present, what can you do now
- when something goes wrong, think about what can you learn from it and how it can help you to grow and develop
- be kind to people and animals
thank you for making green 😊! and good luck
I'm always delighted when you share videos-they’re so inspiring and make me want to take action myself. I live in a small village, not a desert or a severely degraded ecosystem, but there’s been growing concern about groundwater issues and summer droughts here. Beavers recently settled in the area and began building dams, and after just two years, the transformation of the ecosystem is remarkable. The forest, which once seemed stagnant and lifeless, now feels rejuvenated. The increased moisture in the soil is noticeable-the trees are greener, and the entire landscape is more vibrant.
Inspired by the beavers’ work, I’ve started building my own dams in places they don’t venture. Last year, I was working with a simple stream where the water barely reached above my ankles. Now, in some spots, it rises as high as my chest. The change is astounding, and seeing the land come alive again fills me with hope and motivation to do even more.
Thank you for sharing these ideas of true care for the planet with us-real ecology, not the propaganda of the elites about carbon footprints and other so-called "eco-friendly" ideas that often feel more like a facade. Your approach emphasizes genuine, hands-on efforts that make a real difference, and it’s inspiring to see people like you actively working towards a healthier, more sustainable world. It’s a refreshing reminder that real change starts with the small, tangible actions we take in our local environments. Love from Poland. ♥♥♥
Thanks for the kind words and glad you are watching from Poland 😁
Andrew, you give me hope in humanity when you show me these awesome people and when you help explain how we can save ruined lands. I am so thankful to see what you are doing.
Please accept this small token of appreciation.
I wonder if there is any talk about using herd animals to restore the soil here. They would have to be shepherded and not left to their own devices, I’ve seen a fellow on TED explaining that using herd animals correctly to restore ecosystems can help fight climate change.
Thanks so much for your support :-) There is sheep herding in the area, but Camp Altiplano is not at the scale to rotate ruminants. Rotating chickens is more their scale to not degrade the fragile soils
I get so excited when Andrew drops a new video. This landscape was breathtaking
I don’t how you do it. You make the most inspiring videos on land regeneration. This week was my first week being a full time student again since dropping out during COVID to study plant biology (a major I chose so I could do work like this). It was very hard. I was sick, I felt like I was already falling behind, and I wasn’t sure if I could keep up with the course load. I had a few days this week wear it felt like I won’t be able to do this. It was kinda heart breaking to be struggling so much the first week of school.
But after watching this, I feel can do this. That I WANT to do this. That this is what the earth wants me to do.
Thank you for these videos. A reminder that tasks may seem too big or too complicated to complete CAN be done. It may take a lot of energy but I feel my passion and love for this subject willing to fuel my efforts.
I’ve never been disappointed by single one of your videos
I'm glad you are getting a lot out of the videos
♥️🇨🇦♥️ Keep going! You can do this! 👍🏽🌎
Andrew!! You and Geoff Lawton were the two people who exposed me to permaculture 6 years ago and sparked a lifetime of interest and passion. I'm just finishing Geoff's PDC and looking to buy a property this year hopefully. Excited to get started. Thank you!
Man the documentary Dr. Liu did on the Loess Plateau is so fascinating. I was following these guys years ago and lost track of them. Love this!
Love from another Wilamette valley resident. Always excited to see another video from you!
Amazing, I was just driving this afternoon through JAEN in southern Spain which looks just like this area also. And I was speaking with my wife about all the things you talk about here. So nice to see such success! ❤
Jaen is the worst in Amdalucia, the ground cover is ≈40% olive!
I understand almond production in particular is very water intensive. What an amazing project. And I love your channel. If I wasn’t so preoccupied with just trying to survive financially I would give my time to a project like this. Thanks!
So almonds just consume more water than other tree crops? Mulching doesn't work?
@@nunyabiznes33no, almonds are drought-resistant trees compared to other fruit trees, but in such a degraded environment it is normal that they also struggle
Not really... They grow without irrigation, but the amount of crop is much lower. Without irrigation and with 450mm rain/year (which is consider semiarid in a zone 10 Mediterranean region) you would get around 400kg/hectare. With irrigation that simulates an equivalent rain of 1200mm/year, which is pretty wet, you get 2000kg/hectare, 5 times more almonds. But most subtropical to Mediterranean trees require that much water, if not more, to be economically viable (or productive).
@@nunyabiznes33No, el almendro es un árbol mediterráneo un cultivo de secano y necesita poca agua.
It's hard when we have to put most of our resources towards just surviving. I hope you get to a place where you are thriving. Until then, you might be able to find ways to make a small difference right where you are by composting kitchen scraps, growing a few fresh herbs or greens on a stoop or in a window, mulching, or removing invasive plants (on public lands or where permitted), or just giving an encouraging word to folks around you contributing in their ways. We can all do something. 😊
Wow to meet john d liu -he did this stuff long before it was popular and I did not know that he is in spain now but his dokumentations on the loess plateau and other projects were impressive. Thanks for documenting this amazing project for us ☺️🙂
John does not live in Spain. He lives in China. But he travels all over the world for projects
It is incredible and very hopeful that recovery is possible. Bravo to all volunteers
This brought me so much joy. I'm now looking at eco-restoration programs. I had no idea this existed!
What an interesting video! Thanks for creating this!
I applaud the efforts of the new village to learn, experiment and share. I appreciate that they are looking for middle-ground so that industrial farming might find a way to migrate/evolve. I also appreciate learning these tid-bits as I evolve the small bit of land that I have in a high desert.
This is great, thanks, I live in the south of Spain, it's well needed
Another fantastic learning experience. I encourage everyone watching to enroll in Oregon State’s PDC Pro online program. It was life changing for me!
I am so glad that they are improving an area in Spain. I've seen so much about how everything in Spain is so dry and degraded, I'm glad there a bright spots there.
While that's true for a good part of the country (mostly sourthern territory), and we specially have a problem with agricultural water abuse, the north is very green (and rainy)
We have a pretty diverse ecosystem considering its size
Spain is one of (if not the) most biodiverse countries in Europe. There are areas that are dry, but that's how they're supposed to be. There's also a lot of oceanic and other wet climates present in the country.
Let them, it’s useless to explain it. The only thing they have to know is that if they buy in Spain, a 100% increase in taxes will be applied to them for not being EU residents.
Spain has the third biggest forest mass in Europe, not precisely a dry and degraded data. Even if you are the kind of person that consider Spain is just the Mediterranean coast, some parts of the Mediterranean coast are not dry and also covered in forest.
@@faragatanfarra It's better that they see us as an uninhabitable desert so they don't come and bother us.
This is amazing, educational, and inspiring! These communities in Spain and other parts of the world highlighted on this channel offer so many beautiful and successful real-life examples of harmonious, productive, beneficial and sustainable systems for growing food in a way that benefits people, food security, and wildlife and Nature. We really need ideas and food systems here in California's Central Valley. We grow a lot of food for the US and the world, but it's all corporate Big Ag monoculture that displaced the indigenous Yokuts communities, and is using up the water, sinking the land, polluting the water, air, and soil, and creating human health problems. The dominant narrative and politics pit farmers and food against the environment and human health, but we need to come together and realize that it's all connected and that farmers can grow food in a better, healthier way, and that all of us can. So thank you again for the knowledge, ideas, and inspiring examples of what we can do here and all around the world!
I have no words, I am so impressed, and loving it ! I've been wanting a video in spain for a LONGGG time ! and I am def not disapointed. It gives me hope 💚
Andrew would like to visit our country(Tajikistan)? We can organize a workshop and sponsor your trip. It would be very beneficial for our farmers, locals, government employees etc.
why dont you organize demos?
Do you have some good demonstrations to film? Maybe intact traditional systems?
I'm all for intact traditional systems
Talk to Jeff Dillon? Aussie guy who is already in Tajikistan doing this kind of things. He’s been farming there for probably a decade now.
Respect 👍
All the best
Greetings from Bavaria Germany
Thank you for documenting this great restoration. Congratulations to all those people who participated!
I'm exceptionally happy to see Europe doing this, because most of your previous vids focus on Asia & Africa. ☺️
Right, we have frequently drough problems in the Mediterraen area, expecially in Spain, Italy and Greece
I get a lot of comments when I show anything from him and others that somehow what he does is irrelevant because he's not doing it in Europe. My parents love to repeat "Australian scientists" as a slur.
Personally, I've been doing great on a small scale expanding my garden further, but for now they say I've been getting lucky. We'll see how many years in a row it's all luck.
There's a project in southern Spain that uses halophytes, or salt-tolerant crops, to create saltwater marshes. They can be harvested multiple times per year while still acting as wildlife habitat. The only input they need is sea water. Any arid coastal areas in Europe, Arabia, and Africa could be increasing their food production and wildlife habitat with zero fertilizer or freshwater inputs.
You can understand it with Ecosia economics. Ecosia collaborated with Alveal but it was discontinued because the same money had much more effect in African countries both in helping people and increasing the number of trees while in southern Spain trees grow slower and need more spacing so it grows less trees per dollar.
This video was so incredibly moving for me. Thank you for giving me hope for the future and inspiring me to take even more action.
Thank you for all of your efforts and education! I’ve been working with mixed forest clearcuts for 30 yrs here in Nova Scotia Canada. You’ve been a huge inspiration for us!
This video is very important in context to recent California Fires, they also follow a lot of monoculture and have dry climate.
Thank you again for showing something that not only heals the hurt in my heart for the damage done to this beautiful planet, but is certainly healing the planet one blade of grass at a time 💚💚💚
Madre mía que tontería tenemos. Nadie en este vídeo está salvando nada más que sus propios culos. El hombre habita esas tierras desde tiempos inmemoriales y lleva practicando la agricultura con finura dificil de encontrar y sabiduría de la que estos tipos del vídeo deberían tomar lecciones, en vez de darselas de salvadores de la humanidad o de inventar la pólvora.
OMG! It's so lovely to see (unexpectedly) an update on what Dr. Liu is up to these days. Awesome surprise!
You're truly making world a better place. Thanks, and I wish you all the best! 👍
Fascinating seeing the ponds because junquera is a reed bed suggesting that despite the "arid" description that would have been a natural water accumulation point before the intervention of industrial farming.
Interesting
I don't always watch your vids as soon as they get out, but when I watch them, I wonder why I didn't watch it earlier. This always keeps me up, and positive. Thank you.
Fantastic video; such a hopeful restoration camp program. Thank you :) ❤🧡💛💚💙💜🤎
Congrats Andrew on another wonderful film which gives so much hope to those of us trying to do something - even if it feels small - for habitat and biodiversity. I hope you can compile all your work into a feature film one day. Wonderful to see John Liu still at the vanguard of ecological restoration too.
So uplifting-Thank you ❤
I'm so glad you don't use generative ai for your thumbnails.
Awesome positive video. I was on a trip in trip 5 years ago and the land looked so degrade when traveling in between cities, great to see the landscape getting greener
Wow, the local farmer at the end, Miguel Ángel Gómez. Keeps family tradition, adds flowering cover crops to preserve health of his soil, respects the shape of the land.
You can tell he actually lives there - you can sit in the shade and listen to the breeze. All he does is drive his tractor a little slower instead of in straight lines.
Amazing! Thanks Andrew and Team and all those Farmers and Workers.
You, and Myron cook, are the two best youtube channels of 2024. You two should collab on a general earth knowledge series!
I'm really happy to share such a revelatory solution to the lamentable ag/nature situation
I remember flying into Madrid and seeing the miles and miles of monoculture olive tree grids below. I was almost on the ground before I recognized them as trees. They looked so unnatural and alien. Shame that we have done that but inspiring that we are seeing a better alternative. Thanks for highlighting it.
Mejor cultivar olivos que invadir países para llevar "democracia"
Andalucia is best viewed at the sunset from ground level, because then you can't recognise the trees are in rows and the landscape looks beautiful.
Andrew, you and I are pretty close in age .. there is a sort of realization our generation is having at the moment.. we're the ones gradually becoming the next elders, and there are now 2-3 generations behind us. I understand that reflection you had, about kind of wishing this work and these learning experiences were available to us 20+ years ago. Like so many our age, I had to teach myself.. I had no one to guide me except books from people I never met. I hope the younger generations take advantage of the opportunities they have now to connect with people on projects like this and learn firsthand.. they will go so much farther than we could!! There is hope in that!
Well said. Elderhood is creeping up on us and we need to lay some pathways for new people to come up
we need you to help us do this in the U.S. in places like california, nevada, colorado, arizona and cities like los angelas. if we had progress like this maybe there wouldn't be so many devastating fires wrecking havoc. if the people in these regions had a hand in helping and maintaining this progress it would last for generations and help with problems like food security as well.
Seeing this vid, it fills my heart with joy. Thanks
Please do a video going more into depth on Hawaiian a hua pua and how to create the taro ponds the flow from the mountains to the sea. Please consider doing a video on the irrigation system at Petra and machu pichu
why?
Have you seen this video that I made on the Hawaiian Ahu'pua'a? ruclips.net/video/q7q8friw1p8/видео.htmlsi=FOt1F2WgoEPRCCtP
Yes but I want more
Thank you for your effort to reinvigorate the land. I would so love to contribute but i am 80 and can only observe. You are doing a wonderful job. Something that will make your life worthwhile and encourage others. I so admire your effort. The only thing missing are animals. Best wishes
nice one andrew! that part of spain has wonderful cities but some parts of that countryside around andalucia is just... olives... thousands of kilometres of olives with bare soil. its nice to see a cover crop planted underneath.
Earth healing projects are feeling so great for mind
My heroes John Liu and Andrew Millison together, great! Thank you so much! Please be aware, that a high level of vital energy in the fields is among the MOST crucial factors. Many desertified and abandoned areas are low - the methods of geomancy can bring this up with relatively litte efforts. The love for the beauty that Andrew expresses and many people feel is rising the vibrations already.
Ralf Otterpohl, Rural Development consultant, Geomancy teacher.
Southern Spain looks a lot like California's San Joaquin Valley. Lots of almond, pistachio, and nut trees in Fresno County with citrus in Tulare County and oil in Kern Co.
Central Valley shout out! I just left a comment saying that we can use these ideas and systems from this video and others on this channel here in the valley.
Bigs up Mr Millison, keep it up ❤
Your videos (and ones like them) are part of what has been giving me hope that humanity isn't going to die out in the next few generations.
Before the election, I was hoping to buy land here in the US and do as many permaculture techniques as I could. Now I'm trying to move out before I get put in a camp.
But still, even if hope for me personally is low, it's nice to think that humanity will survive.
How beautiful, impressive, thank you
Hola buenas, me encanta este canal y me parece estupendo por favor hagan más vídeos en español.
I have mucho videos en espanol: www.youtube.com/@AndrewMillisonEspanolyQuechua
@@amillison gracias, no sabía que tenías un canal en español ahora podré aprender más sobre la permacultura.
Ud. puede usar las leyendas, hay opciones para muchas lenguajes.
We drove around spain last summer and became so apparent to me how terrifying these ‘mechanised’ monocultures are
Danke!
Thanks for your support 🙏
AMAZING!!! Absolutely amazing!!!
Love that village! I would loved to have lived somewhere like that when I was young.
Land restoration should be the new social cause as the Vietnam war and political issues who brought millions of people together in America and Europe. We can change the world if we stick together and start talking with one voice. It is difficult to ignore millions of voices and we are much more powerful that the folks in the 1960's and 1970's, because the have social media.‼‼‼‼
Perhaps this group needs to try and get the Almond farmers on board and get swales dug on the big farms and plant some citrus , olives or what ever grows there .
a few income streams is always good on any farm
This is very interesting on landscape restoration with these innovative techniques. I have just started my channel and I want to focus on agricultural land management. I look forward to learning from your channel and growing together
Spain the best place on the planet.The Spaniards have magic hands .
Lots of areas y villages are left abandoned.
Great video y how these areas can be regenerated Thanks
Hi Andrew, just wanted to say thanks for what you do.
I think I saw you the other day while I was picking up a car for the police and you were riding by on your bike. I was blocking the road and in a hurry, so wasn't quite sure and kept quiet.
Been kicking myself since😄
Anyway, thanks again, I really appreciate your work.
I ride my bike a lot so probably 😁
thank you for this
evolutionary
The water running off of those orchards has got to have an effect on flooding too?
A few more areas that actually capture and retain rainwater is better for everyone.
Only thing would be how much food they can produce this way, but looks like they're working on that too.
Great project and prospects!
You mentioned it once, but I'd be interested in the economics of systems like this. Having 50 people work on a relatively small plot with a bunch of volunteers and students sounds like it wouldn't be viable as a normal farm, considering they have so much more land to support themselves that they don't manage like that. I would like to see things that just work without agritourism or volunteering projects. Farms that have some low maintenance mechanized way of improving all these environmental factors. Something that can really be transformative to conventional agricultural practices. What's something a lot of farms should do? I am very aware of the problem of habitat loss in biodiversity so having lower overall farming areas for increasing food demands seems very important to me without increasing food costs by a lot
thanks to cover this project and great video! I already heart of Alvelal but lost track again
Awesome video! In terms of doing it “right” they are certainly doing an amazing job with the litany of tools, support, and education they have. One of the key soil health components I often see overlooked is animal integration, and using the animal as the most accessibly effective tool for regeneration. Grazing management is the simplest, most scalable way to regenerate, and do so profitably. Would love to see support and amplification for all these approaches. Great work
They tried rotational grazing, and it didn't work for them.
thank you...happy new year
I cant afford those classes from my part of the world, but your videos help me find points on where to start looking for how it can be done, and do up ideas to try in the backyard and combine with my land. I hope to get an orchard done right going there that is in symbiosis with my bees for most of the year. Tough its a bit difficult with the EU subsidiary funds as they generally only support single crop structures. Nor are multi purpose orchards supported.(sorry dont know the terminology)
I think the EU with its green movements and subsidiaries has great potential to trully become something special, but it needs to support these permaculture and non mono culture farming options more to become viable for regular people. Hard to grow food the right way if you plant with a subsidiary fund that forces you to do it the wrong way.
IF regenerative farming techiques get made subsidiary viable and encouraged like these people are trying to do in the video, even if in limited fashion, then Europe has the economic power to turn into the world's ultimate regenerative food basket and set the example for the rest to follow.
Amazing!! I want to make part of this project!!
I would definitely volunteer here, especially that we have similar climate in Morocco and I want to gain relevant experience. wonderful work.
I only came across your videos fairly recently, but since I started watching (and greatly enjoying them!) there have been these terrible wildfires in LA etc. I hear people on news media talking about how trees or vegetation are catching fire, then hot cinders are blowing onto properties and causing them to burn. My heart sinks as it sounds like they are blaming the sparse vegetation for causing the problem. Something has gone horribly wrong with the way land is managed when it's built on.
I just wonder if there are any properties in those affected areas that have survived because they are landscaped with permaculture principles. A video investigating this would be very interesting don't you think?
Great idea
I am going to try and do this on my farm
we are going to try and change that
❤thanks u
Pobre Miguel Ángel, que buen esfuerzo para hablar cuando se nota lo poco familiarizado que está 🤎
Thank you so much for this amazing video
Marvellous! The way to go.
Great project!
Another inspiring video! Thanks nature. 👍🌱
This idea would be amazing in Nevada . Especially in Barstow and Arizona
Thank you all for this great work you do on the land in spain and all over the world, if all people would live like that we would not have a climate crisis as we witness in these days, it is so sad to see what we are destroying at all territory with monoculture
We don't have a climate crisis, we have a climate fear-mongering campaign.
Something that has always puzzled me about these large commercial orchards is that by focusing solely on one crop, as a farmer, you really limit the amount of income you can expect to earn from your land. Even if you were to have, say, only two types of fruiting trees, by choosing the right species, you could spread your harvesting season across more of the year, saving on the overdraft fees your bank charges whilst you wait for your crops to come in, thus making your business more profitable.
The large gaps between the almond trees puzzles somewhat. It leaves the ground exposed to the sun and the resulting evaporation. Even if one were to only use a non-cropping nitrogen fixing tree in-between each fruiting tree, and one that you could chop and drop in order to provide more organic matter, this would give any orchard a huge boost in terms of productivity over time, and in a water stressed area such as this, save a small fortune on irrigation costs.
They are expecting them to get bigger while still needing to prune for production.
If they had to pay for externalities they'd be broke as soon as the bill came in.
Speak is a piece of cake, do you understand the amount of work that needs to be done? And who pays the work? That is why its mainly done by volunteers...
Maybe they could at least grow cover crops in between the trees to prevent erosion (what would be warm climate equivalent of clover?). Then just replant after trampling then when harvesting the almonds.
@wildalentejo I grew up on a farm. Dad ran his 600-acre farm mainly on his own, with occasional assistance from the family and contractors at haymaking time. I'm fully aware of the level of commitment running a farm entails - it's why my sister & me didn't want to be farmers, much to Dad's disappointment. We worked this out as 5 and 7 year olds respectively. Getting up in the wee hours of the morning during winter in the freezing cold and pissing rain to feed out hay off of the Land Rover before having to then get up for school settled the issue for Skinny and me.
Much of love. Wauw 🤩
Fantastic work. Hope to do the same in Algeria
Great episode as always Mr. Miilson. Is there a list or directory of the 80 restoration communities you mentioned?
Link to Ecosystem Restoration Communities is in the description
Andrew, huge fan here in your homeland of Oregon; any suggestions on finding a good site for your permaculture design class? I live on only a small residential property I don't own.
Do you have a friend or relative with a site? We've also had students use a public park, or inquire with a local farm. Where are you located?
@amillison in Salem, Oregon. I don't know anyone directly with a good amount of land that's close by. If you wouldn't mind answering, about how many times do you think you need to access the site? What would an acceptable site look like?
@@danielglen410 Please reach out to Tao Orion Oriont@oregonstate.edu . She can assist you with the site selection process.
@@amillison thanks, I'll reach out to her! I enrolled in the winter class but cancelled. I'm looking forward to hopefully enrolling in the spring class!
This looks amazing
Of course we can restore anything! Even Mars! It's only a matter of will! I moved from the big city to a small village of 10 and it was the best move of my life! Restoring the house, building the soil, off-grid lifestyle, permaculture, contact with nature, better nutrition, better air.... Just make the move!
Thank you for the video
Fantastic, I´d like to see this in my area of Spain too. What grew there before they farmed almonds? How healthy was the soil then? I ask because in my area, nothing but a bit very thin shrub grew before they planted the oranges, almonds and pomegranetes, so I am not sure that would work as well here. Interestingly, the orange farmers used to plant yellow clover in their fields, but killed it all about 15 years ago.
Beautiful
Great work in Spain. 😊
I love your videos, gives me hope for combatting climate change, especially the way we human beings have degraded our land. I live in Alberta, Canada. Hope to see videos about prairie landscapes.
BRAVO.🌟 MAGNIFIQUE.🍀 🙏💙🌷💖🙏
Brilliant!!! 🎉😊❤
This is one of my main dreams roght here❤
It would be great to see something about the impact this has on wildlife as well.