The Need for the Integration of Agriculture and the Natural World

Many people believe we need to separate ourselves from nature. They think that humans are an overwhelming source of harm against the natural world and thus we need to set aside sanctuaries and preserves where there is little to no human impact. These in and of themselves are not a bad idea. We do need to protect species against habitat destruction, pollution and other potential harms that people are creating for wild ecologies. However, this mindset can take a dark turn when people come to the conclusion that the only way to save the earth is to remove people from the equation completely.  Not only do they believe that human numbers should stop growing, but some believe we need to do things like sterilize people and even phase out human growth altogether leading to a controlled human extinction.

The main problem with this mindset is that they are looking at only one side of humanity which is it's destructive side. But there is another side that is often overlooked that can actually heal and restore natural ecosystems and make them even more ecologically productive than nature itself can.

Unfortunately this "good" side of humanity is not in control for the most part right now and it is evidenced pretty obviously in the dominant way we grow our food using conventional agricultural practices.  Annual tilling of the ground leads to depletion and erosion of the topsoil. Vast fields of monocrops creates largely lifeless areas that only support the hardiest and most adaptable wildlife. Large scale irrigation draws down reservoirs and aquifers leaving less water in rivers for fish such as salmon and steelhead. Frequent spraying of fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides kills off the beneficial soil life leading to dead lifeless soils as well as chemical runoff into rivers and oceans creating huge dead zones. All of these practices are increasing slowly over time and as our need for more food grows to feed the growing population of earth they will destroy natural wildlife habitat and continue to pollute the earth.

So from a certain perspective it is easy to see why a lot of people have an overall negative view of humanity and think that the earth would be better off without us. I however do not hold this view. I think there is a way to prevent these problems and not only stop the destruction of the natural world, but actually improve it and make it even more productive than what nature can do on it's own. The key would be not to separate, but to integrate humans with the natural world.

What do I mean by this? Well basically there is only so much land on earth. We need land for our own settlements as well as for all the food we need to feed the world. We also need to protect and even restore the natural environments so that we can reverse environmental damage and prevent species extinction. The only way to really do this is to largely share the same space with the natural world. Our food production areas need to double as great wildlife habitat. Cities and towns can also be integrated with the natural environment to some extent and even the extraction of resources such as mining and logging can be done in a way that is largely sustainable or at the very least able to be restored after the extraction process is done.

But the largest areas on earth that will need this integration are our food producing regions.

So how then could we go about this integration of natural ecosystems and our agriculture? Luckily there are many different options for us to choose from. For large scale commercial agriculture one way might be what is referred to as restoration or regenerative agriculture.  This style of food production uses no till methods, polyculture plantings, natural forms of fertilization and pest control, cover crop plantings, livestock integration and many other methods that leads to very productive and resilient crop production that can often exceed the production of conventional crops. The other benefits of this type of system is less inputs such as fertilizers, pesticides, irrigation, etc which leads to lower overall costs and higher profits. It also will naturally build the topsoil over time and increase fertility leading to even more productive harvests down the road. The use of polyculture also supports a more diverse range of wildlife and leads to a healthier ecosystem. One person who is well known for this style is Gabe Brown and I would recommend googling some of his lectures if you're interested in learning more.

Another possibility is to use what's known as permaculture. Permaculture is a very broad category of agriculture and goes even beyond agriculture in a sense. The basic premise is to mimic nature in order to produce a sustainable and highly productive source of food. One well known method is to create what's known as a "food forest". With a food forest you mimic a natural ecosystem by planting edible plants for all the niches in the ecosystem.  For example you could have nut trees in the canopy, fruit trees in the subcanopy, berries for the shrub layer, grapes and kiwis for the vine layer, root vegetables for the root layer, etc. These types of systems are usually very diverse and since they grow and develop just like a natural forest would they tend to make excellent habitat for a huge variety of wildlife. Other things you can do with permaculture are make hugelbeds and earthworks that help store moisture underground lessening the need for irrigation especially in drier regions. Permaculture offers a huge amount of possibilities for the integration of human and natural ecosystems and some people who are popular proponents of this system include Geoff Lawton, Sepp Holtzer and Paul Wheaton. I would highly recommend checking them out.

The last food producing system I will talk about is the one I created this blog for which is my own wild game system that not only integrates the natural world with a human source of food, but it makes the resources of the natural world, wild game, into a sustainable food source.  With this system you are basically creating optimal habitat for multiple game species in order to produce a high amount of wild game calories on a per acre basis. So in practice this would mean planting the most optimal plant species that will be able to feed game species year round as well as produce plant based foods for people to harvest as well. This would look very similar to the concept of a food forest, but would likely be more open resembling more of a savanna ecosystem for the majority of the target game species in America, but could easily be altered depending on the species that you'd be managing for. A lot of these areas would include forbs and broadleaf browse species that would produce a high amount of optimal forage for various herbivorous game species such as deer and elk. A lot of the food species would double as cover providing everything needed by the game in a relatively small area. I believe that If done correctly a system like this could produce a very high amount of meat calories per acre as well as some plant calories and could potentially be more productive and with less inputs than more conventional food producing systems. This system would not only produce high numbers of game, but also a ton of other non-game wildlife that would benefit from the high production value of the managed ecosystem.

I believe that in order to solve the world's environmental problems as well as feed the earth's growing population then it will be completely necessary to integrate ourselves and our production systems with the natural environment.  Luckily for us there are several possible options to use to successfully produce this outcome. It will likely take a mix of these types of food producing systems as well as ones that have yet to be thought of in order to fulfill this integration.  And once these systems are implemented and refined then it's likely our quality of life and our health would greatly improve and we could once again see the positive side of humanity and its ability to live in balance with the natural world.

Common Weeds that make Excellent Deer Food.

What are the Deer Eating on Your Property?

When managing for game on your property it's important to know the preferred food sources. On my property I am mainly managing for White-tailed deer. Because of this I need to continually observe and determine which food sources the deer on my property are using. In this post I will show you how to figure out what game are eating on your property using my property as an example.

The main thing I am looking for when trying to determine what deer are eating is plants that have been browsed on. I will walk my property and look for the signs of browsing on certain plants as well as look at other general signs of deer such as beds, trails and droppings.  

Browsed plants will look like normal plants except the ends of the plant will be broken off abruptly. If it is fairly fresh the browsed tip will still be green and could be releasing sap, which can sometimes look milky such as with prickly lettuce and salsify. If it is not fresh then the tip will tend to be more brown and dried out while the rest of the plant will still be green. Once you have identified plants that have been browsed it becomes easier to spot them because you are training your eyes to pick them out.  Once you have learned to identify some plants that are known to be preferred browse species then you can more closely inspect them when you find them on your property and get a good idea of how much they are preferred compared to other plants on your property. Here are some plants that I've noticed are preferred browse plants by deer on my property.

This is Red Clover. It is a herbaceous cool-season perennial that is found throughout most of the country. This is a highly preferred species in most areas and on my property the majority of the red clover I find has been browsed on,  however it is somewhat uncommon on my property so it is probably not a staple in my area.

This plant is Yellow Salsify. It is a herbaceous cool-season biennial that is common in drier meadows, especially in the west. This is also a highly preferred food source for deer. It is very common on my property and in some areas it is almost the dominant forb. Probably about 30% of the individual plants of this species I find on my property have been browsed and because it is so common I believe it makes up a large bulk of the deer's diet during spring and summer.

This next plant is Prickly Lettuce. It is warm season annual that is common throughout most of America. It is a highly preferred food plant for deer and most individual plants I find have been browsed, however it is somewhat uncommon on my property so it likely is not a large percentage of the deer's diet.

This plant is called Campion. There are several varieties including White and Bladder Campion which I believe are herbaceous annuals. This species is fairly common on my property and seem to get a moderate amount of browsing from deer. It does not seem to be a highly preferred food source though.

This plant is Sulfer Cinquefoil. It is a herbaceous cool-season perennial. It is extremely common on my property and is the dominant forb on the majority of it. This species is known to have a high amount of tannin in it's leaves which make it mostly unpalatable to deer. However, I have noticed that when it is growing in mostly shaded areas that it receives a lot more browsing from the deer. It is likely that the shaded conditions makes the plants produce less tannins and this makes them more palatable to deer. In general though this is not a preferred food source and likely is browsed mostly because of it's sheer abundance.

This plant is known as Heal-All and is a herbaceous perennial forb. It is common across most of the US and is somewhat uncommon on my property. It seems to receive a moderate amount of browsing from deer on my property and likely has a moderate preference.

This last plant is a species of Dock which is in the Rumex genus and which I believe is a biennial. It is somewhat uncommon on my property and does not seem to be a preferred browse, however I was able to find a few that had been browsed on especially in shaded conditions similar to the Cinquefoil. It likely is a low food preference for deer.

As you can see there is quite a large variety of plants that deer will eat and I focused only on herbaceous species during late spring and early summer. During other times of the year and in other areas there are many many more plant species that deer will eat. But these are some good examples and can help you determine what deer are eating on your property.

Once you determine what the deer are already eating on your property then you can use this information to help determine how you will manage your property.  If you are planning on making a "Wild Game Meadow" like I talk about in my previous posts then this information will help you determine which plants you will want to allow and which ones you will want to get rid of. When you allow these preferred food sources to grow on your property as well as add seeds of other preferred foods then you will be able to make your property that much more attractive to the wild game on your property.

My Plan for Creating a Wild Game Meadow on My Property

Creating and maintaining a food plot should not be something that requires a lot of work. If left to mother nature a disturbed area will eventually transition into a meadow. So in theory if we can design a meadow made up of highly palatable and nutritious perennial and self-sowing grasses and forbs that mimic a natural meadow and that are adapted to the planting site then it should be possible to simply choose the right seed mix, plant it, possibly do some minimal maintenance and then reap the benefits with healthier wild game and an awesome hunting spot.

I think the key here will be in choosing the right seed mix. We will need to figure out species that fill all the niches that exist in a natural meadow. You'll likely need both grasses and broadleaf forbs, both perennial and self sowing annuals, as well as cool and warm season species. The plot will need to have as much dense growth on it as possible to prevent spaces for weeds to take hold. This is because weeds need sunlight and soil contact to germinate. If you can create shade with living plants and mulch with dead vegetation then weeds should not become a huge problem. And with less weeds means less weed seed and you will greatly reduce the seed source for weeds in the future. This also means we will most likely be using a pretty dense planting of desirable species. A lot of the seeds we plant will likely not make it, but it will also ensure that weeds will have a harder time as well.

So for my plot this is how I will go about setting it up. I will be starting it in an area which is mostly covered in dense perennial forage grass. This area was once an old cattle pasture and possibly a hay field as well so it is already in a meadow like state. I will need to get rid of as much of the grass as possible and try to prevent most of it from coming back. This gives me a few options. My first option would be to simply hoe or rip up the grass in order to til it under which would likely get rid of the vast majority of it. This however would expose a lot of the soil to sunlight and potentially create a perfect environment for weeds to germinate.  My other option would be to cut the grass to soil level several times during the growing season in spring and early summer to suppress it and that way the cut grass would act as a mulch in a way to somewhat cover the soil surface, keeping it shaded and allowing less weed seeds to germinate. This, however, would likely not kill all the grass which I'm not too worried about since this grass type is a preferred forage grass for wild game especially in the springtime, but I would just need to make sure it didn't take over the rest of the species I plant. So after I take care of the grass with either method my next step would be to start spreading seed. If there was a light mulch of dead grass left over I could likely just broadcast the seed and it would fall in between the mulch and make contact with the soil surface while also being somewhat shaded and protected from seed predators such as birds. If not then I would either lightly rake the seeds into the soil or add a thin layer of dead grass over the top of them. Depending on the species I would either plant in late summer, fall or early spring. I may even do multiple planting on the same plot in different seasons to make sure it is well seeded. After that I would monitor the plantings during the growing season and remove any weeds or grass that was too dominant. And that would likely be it for this initial planting.

I would probably start on a fairly small plot not much bigger than a large garden and if I saw it was a success then I could expand the area out every year until it was of the desired size. In the meantime my previous plantings would likely be maturing and ideally would be growing well enough and dense enough so that I wouldn't really need to worry about weeds.

This method if successful would likely be able to be replicated in practically any environment as long as the seed was well adapted to the property. Over time it is likely that this type of planting would mature into a mostly perennial dominated meadow, but if any small disturbance happened such as a mole hill etc then the seed bank would contain seeds from some of the self-sowing annuals that were originally planted. Also if enough disturbance was created at the edges of the plot then it is likely that it could gradually spread out across the property intermingling with the vegetation already established on the property creating even more food for wild game.

As I've stated several times doing your research and choosing plant species that are adapted to your site would be one of the most important aspects determining the success of your plot. After a lot of research I think I have a good base of possible species I could plant on my property. My property is a temperate dry summer climate with somewhat cold snowy winters, wet springs, and hot dry summers.  Some of the species I think might do well on my property are Alfalfa, Sanfoin, Red and White clover, Small burnet, Lamb's Quarters, Common Ragweed, Chickory, Prickliy Lettuce, Salsify, Aster's, Goldenrod's and Sunchokes. These are just a few of the species I'd like to create a mix of. One thing to notice is that I have both native and nonative species as well as some people would consider weeds. However, many species people consider weeds are actually excellent wild game forage, a good example being ragweed as a deer forage. That's why it's important to keep an open mind and let the research show what are the best forage species for your area.

So this is my basic plan for my experimental test plot on my property. As you can see it is extremely simple in terms of the type of work and maintenance I will do. I think this is important because if I can make this work than it will show that you don't need expensive equipment and loads of fertilizers and herbicides ect to make a productive food plot. This is the way nature does it. All it needs is a seed source, a disturbance and the right climate and soil conditions and a meadow will naturally form. We're just tweaking this natural process a little bit by choosing species that are attractive to wild game and will create an awesome food plot, or "wild game meadow".

In the future I will document and keep you updated on the establishment and progress of this plot. There's a chance it might not work the way I think it will and I might experience problems I didn't foresee, but even then I will be able to learn from my mistakes and come up with a better plan. Then on the other hand it might work out better than I expect and could become my best idea yet for creating awesome wild game habitat. I'm hoping I can share my successes and failures with everyone who is interested in creating better habitat for game animals on their property that way they too can be better set up to enjoy nature's bounty.