In today's show we discuss the 4 R's of Regenerative Hydrology - Receive, Retain, Recharge, and Release - a simple mental framework for evaluating how your landscape is functioning with regards to the water element, AND how you can make changes in your management and design to optimize it for the benefit of your land, family, business and quality of life.
The 4 R's have parallels in managing a bank account.
- Receive is equivalent to Income - how much water does your landscape receive annually in precipitation? There isn't a lot we can do to change this number, but there are a few. It's important to know what you're working with from the outset.
- Recharge is equivalent to Deposit - how much of that annual paycheck is your landscape able to deposit into its interest-bearing savings account (i.e. your soil).
- Retain is equivalent to the interest-bearing savings account. How long is that water that you've managed to deposit into your soils or is being stored in some form or fashion remaining available to the web of life on your landscape? You can only put it to productive use if you retain it!
- Release is equivalent to Expenditure - we want to make sure that when we "spend" water we do so in a way that further increases our ability to receive, recharge an retain more water in the future! This means having systems of production and managing them so as to create a functional hydrology throughout your landscape!
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WHAT I DO:
Design:
On-Site Consultation
Online Site/Project Consultation
Holistic Ecosystem Design
Implementation:
Water Harvesting Earthworks
High-function, Low-Maintenance Access
Living Systems
Spring Development
Courses:
Minimum Holistic Goal
Media:
The Sovereign Homestead Podcast
YouTube
Instagram
Music by Alex Grohl
