Farmer Mark Shepard petting a pig beneath trees

🔊 New Forest Farm Tour with Mark Shepard

by Jacob Grace | Mar 15, 2023 | Climate, Podcast, Tree Crops

When you talk with someone who’s familiar with agroforestry in the Midwest, the name “Mark Shepard” usually comes up pretty quickly. Mark’s book Restoration Agriculture was published ten years ago this year, and through his book and his speaking appearances, Mark has become an inspiration to countless farmers and landowners interested in agroforestry and perennial agriculture.

This video tour of Mark’s farm is currently the most-viewed video on our YouTube channel! Don’t miss it:

Mark operates New Forest Farm in southwestern Wisconsin, which serves as a living demonstration of his vision for diverse, perennial agroforestry. We’ve been fortunate to work with Mark a number of times over the years, including swapping tree varieties with him and featuring him and his farm in our videos and educational materials.

Mark began growing hybrid hazelnuts on his farm in the early ‘90s. Here is what he’s learned:

Our latest podcast episode is taken from an interview and farm tour we recorded with Mark at New Forest Farm back in 2018. It was the day after southwest Wisconsin had received catastrophic heavy rains, and as Mark tells us in the video below, he and his car were nearly washed away in the floodwaters. Experiences like this have only strengthened his sense of urgency in expanding restoration agriculture across the Midwest.

For Mark Shepard, combating the climate crisis has gotten personal:

More from Perennial AF

Savanna Institute’s Response to the IPCC Climate Report

by Renee Gasch | Mar 21, 2023 | Climate, Press

Spring Green, WI: On Monday, the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released its latest report, issuing what UN Secretary-General António Guterres described as a “clarion call to massively fast-track climate efforts by every country and every sector and on every timeframe.” The report, dubbed a ‘survival guide for humanity,’ underscores the urgency for local and global leaders to limit warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, and forecasted an overshoot of the goal as early as 2030 if major course corrections are not taken. The Savanna Institute, a Wisconsin-based nonprofit working to transition Midwest agriculture to a climate solution, issued the following statement.

🔊Shower Goats and Arctic Kiwis with Xinyuan Shi

by Jacob Grace | Mar 9, 2023 | Podcast, Silvopasture, Tree Crops

Xinyuan Shi spent 2020 as an Agroforestry Apprentice working with chestnut growers Greg and Amy Miller at Route 9 Cooperative in Ohio. Last year, Xinyuan joined the Savanna Institute staff as a research fellow to update a USDA guidebook on conservation buffers. Now in...

Planting a Food Forest: Adventures with Kids and Berries

by Savanna Institute | Feb 20, 2023 | Climate, Tree Crops

This essay was recently published by staff member Bill Davison on his blog, Easy by Nature. I reached out to municipal officials in my hometown in the fall of 2015 to propose that we work together to establish a food forest in a town park. I was inspired by the...