SOUTHWEST AGROFORESTRY ACTION NETWORK

in partnership with the Arizona Community Tree Council

presents online/via Zoom

Desert-Adapted Nurse Plants and Agaves in Climate-Friendly Perennial Polycultures for Southwest Agroforestry Initiatives

July 13, 9:00am MST (AZ)

9:00 – 10:00 (60 minutes)

After registering for this program, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.  This two step process allows us to track attendance for CEUs and CFEs.

Presented by Gary Nabhan

Regarding continuing education credits for this program:

• Approved for 1.5 hours of Continuing Forestry Education (CFE) credits (Cat. 1) by the Society of American Foresters (SAF – contact Andy Mason, acmason1954@gmail.com).
• Approved for 1.5 hours of Continuing Education Units (CEUs) by the America Society of Agronomy (ASA – contact Mick O’Neill, moneill@nmsu.edu).

Presentation Description:

Few agroforestry systems have ever been intentionally designed to address environmental health, human health, and community (economic) well-being at the same time. Single miracle crops will not work as silver bullets. In light of the severe challenges facing the Southwest US and Northwest Mexico with respect to severe drought, heat waves, water scarcity and salinity, we as a multicultural society are in desperate need of climate-friendly perennial polycultures than can address all three issues. We will 1) discuss the challenges facing this binational arid region; 2) quickly move to systems design that takes into account these three criteria; 3) discuss candidate agroforestry genera and species that meet these criteria; and then 4) discuss rules for assembling them into desert adapted polycultures. Three pilot projects in Arizona and Sonora will be highlighted. Those interested in reading an overview my click this link: Nabhan et al., 2020, Plants, People, and Planet, Vol 2(6) 

Presenter:

Gary Paul Nabhan is a desert agro-ecologist, ethnobotanist, and biocultural restoration practitioner. He is also an Interfaith Franciscan Brother and literary naturalist who has authored or edited too many books. He is involved with fostering community-based solutions to poverty, access disparity, and mitigate environmental degradation through a restorative economy that enriches rather than depletes natural and cultural capital. You can get a sense of his work in progress at www.garynabhan.com; https://makewayformonarchs.org, and https://www.healingtheborderdisorder.org

Following the presentation will be a 15 minutes of Q&A with the presenters and a program wrap-up.

All participants are invited to attend the 30 minute SWAAN Business Meeting led by Steve Price, Chair that will begin at the close of the education program.