The Earth Steward in You

Supporting Ecology by Uplifting Land, Life, and Social Design Solutions

BY KERI EVJY

Forest Ecology is a long, dynamic process. It takes millennia of nutrient cycling and succession to grow the scaffolding for the diverse plant and animal species dependent on the bedrock material, elevation, soil and solar conditions. Forests provide innumerable and intangible ecological services: they build and cover soil; keep water hydrating and sustaining life; provide oxygen; host the bacteria and mycelia that decompose waste and are food for other species; and are home to “standing lakes’’ trees, which retain moisture high in the watershed and prevent erosion. The temperate broadleaf forest biome is the building block for the fertile and flourishing Appalachian mountainsides that draw so many in their search for home.

As development continues through the Appalachians, more marginal lands and steep slopes are being considered for human housing and settlement patterns. For those purchasing land, the best time to begin their land stewardship and engage with ecologically literate professionals is at the beginning, before any development, excavation or build occurs. They should understand the ecological patterns impacting the land, site opportunities and limitations so they can protect the watershed and forest services.

While excavators can perform a variety of essential functions and maximize non-renewable energies to create ponds, grade land for a home site, build retaining walls, etc., they can also do decades and centuries of expensive and irreparable disturbance and damage in an hour. Rushed excavation can result in the need for emergency services to stabilize and cover denuded slopes; reforest; add immediate earthworks to mitigate flumes of water down scarred slopes; terrace; and hold back the mountain from generating a creek full of topsoil. This often is a result of steep hillsides being stripped of vegetation and cleared, generating unchecked water and soil erosion coursing down the mountain, causing gullies on the land and deep downhill neighbor frustration.

It is important to be on the same page with the excavator operator and be present with them when the tool is at work. Take the time to make a map of wild plants to keep and delineate boundaries where the machine can disturb and where to not forge. For new building sites, the best ecological option is to ask the operator to take an hour and scrape off the native topsoil and set it aside during construction, with a plan to put it back once complete, so that the biodiversity and the embodied energy of soil making can be preserved.

I have known land stewards that wished they had this empowering information before the operator came to “clean up” their land — meaning removing everything growing in a steep slope environment (not wise) and deeply burying the native topsoil that once teemed with life. The machine operator in these cases lacked stewardship, understanding of the ecological services at play on the site, and understanding of how to account for the steep terrain for ecologically sensible earthwork movement.

At an initial land consult, the best ecological response, depend- ing on the situation, is usually to create the scaffolding for succession of a forest, to make and disseminate seed balls of fast-growing cover crop, lay down a biodegradable erosion mat and plug with native hardy perennials, install shrubs and earthworks, and to check dams and on contour swales — to slow, infiltrate and redirect the water. It is ideal to work in concert with ecological time and consider the goals of the human client and the earth client in tandem. As we all are responsible stewards to our home, it is well worth it, for generations to come, to educate yourself, bring in earth literacy professionals early on, cover the soil as soon as possible, add vegetation, straw and address erosion at the source.

Keri Evjy is a creative entrepreneur, permaculture designer, teacher, and community revitalist committed to supporting ecology by uplifting land, life, and social design solutions. She is the Founder and CEO of Healing Roots Design, LLC, Regenerative Life Design, LLC, and author of the multimedia Regenerative Life Design Playbook. Learn more at healingrootsdesign.com.