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

🔊 “Perennial Dreams and Realities” – Keynote by Dr. Ricardo Salvador, 2022 Perennial Farm Gathering

by Jacob Grace | Feb 15, 2023 | Perennial Farm Gathering, Podcast, Policy, Speaker

Imagining the landscapes of the future should be accompanied by strategies to transform the present reality. What will it take to overcome the power of trillions of dollars of sunk costs in the current structure of agriculture? In the closing keynote of the 2022...

Savanna Institute Provides Public Input on Implementation of Inflation Reduction Act Funding at the USDA

by Renee Gasch | Feb 10, 2023 | Policy, Press

The USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service is a federal agency we work with often at the Savanna Institute. NRCS is a primary federal funder of agroforestry projects in the US, and Savanna Institute's Technical Service Providers regularly help farmers apply for...

🔊 How NOT to Start a Farm – with Marie Raboin

by Jacob Grace | Feb 1, 2023 | Podcast, Silvopasture

The Internet is overflowing with advice on how to farm. But sometimes knowing what NOT to do is even more valuable than hearing what worked for someone else one time. With that in mind, podcast host Jacob Grace visited Marie Raboin, a beginning farmer in southern...