There is another aspect to hydrating a landscape that accelerates the repair of degraded landscapes and builds soil very rapidly. This is the use of a keyline plow.
This is a plow with narrow tines and a wider blade on the end, and different lengths of shanks. It is similar to a chisel plow, but custom designed for this job. When dealing with degraded, compacted soil, you want to open the soil to allow air and moisture into it, but you want disturbance to be minimal, especially once you start healing it. We’ll cover why this is in the Soils section.
Usually, plowing the land once per year for three years, going deeper each year, is enough to open it sufficiently to allow grasses and grazing animals to continue the healing process.
This is done slightly off contour, with the downslope headed toward the ridge. Why would that be? Because the primary valleys get all the water and the ridges get none. By sending a little bit more water to the ridges (and because of the slight slope, it’s not that much more), the rehydration happens across the entire landscape. This is useful when you want to plant an orchard or graze or plant polycrops, or just rehabilitate the ecosystem.
If you're interested in broadscale regeneration of degraded landscapes or harsh environments, keyline plowing and knowledge of keypoint dams are vital tools to have in the toolbox.
