SWAAN Webinar:

Dryland Agroforestry Across Time and Place: Transferable Lessons from Historical Systems for the Southwestern United States

By: Casey Jones

Thursday, June 25, 2026 at 10:00am - 11:15 am MST

FREE

Presentation Description:

The drylands of the Southwestern United States face pressure from increased development and land degradation in an increasingly arid climate. Agriculturally the area has been predominantly used as a low-intensity rangeland and secondarily for commercial high input, irrigation-based crops such as alfalfa, hay, corn, and wheat. Rangeland is not irrigated and often overgrazed.

Agroforestry is perceived as a practice for more humid locations, so lacks widespread implementation in the Southwest. This paper evaluates historical examples of successful agroforestry systems around the world and applies the findings to the Southwest. Key to this task is understanding the difference between aridity and drought, how the climate is changing, and what works in similar locations around the world. This knowledge serves as a foundation for developing an implementation plan here, particularly addressing water scarcity, which is the major limiting factor in this region, and species selection. This study shows that new techniques are necessary for the increasingly arid climate and agroforestry is a useful tool for improving livelihoods, restoring the land and preventing desertification. Increased awareness, technical expertise, plant stock, and policy changes will enable land stewards in the Southwest to reduce risk as well as to improve crop reliability and economic success over modern conventional agriculture practices with agroforestry techniques, becoming a model for dryland agroforestry around the world.