Praise for

Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands and Beyond, Volume 2

“Brad Lancaster has written the definitive how-to guide for harvesting rainwater. Much of this information has been near impossible to find, and we owe Brad a huge debt for assembling it so lucidly. These universal principles work not just in drylands, but in wetter climates too. This is by far the best resource for designing and building Earth-friendly, low-cost solutions to help us save our most precious resource, water.”

—Toby Hemenway, author of Gaia’s Garden: A Guide to Home-Scale Permaculture

“Everyone wants to ‘go green’ lately and, usually, the expression is followed by a plug for a new product. Brad offers a shovel instead, and directs you, literally, not figuratively, to your own back yard. We’ve tried some of the methods explained in this book, and they work. Even if you’re a lazy, mediocre, vagabond gardener, like we are, they still work. And if you don’t take the time to understand every technical detail so thoroughly outlined in this bible of rainwater– these methods still will work.”

—Shay Salomon and Nigel Valdez, author and photographer, Little House on a Small Planet

“Get out your shovels and dance in the rain! That is what Brad Lancaster’s second volume in his trilogy on rainwater harvesting, will make you want to do. This outstanding book provides an abundance of well-documented ideas and tools for sustainable living in your watershed. You don’t have to let wasteful, polluting large-scale water systems get you down—get out, get wet, and become a positive part of the hydrological cycle!”
—David A. Cleveland, U of California, Santa Barbara (http://www.es.ucsb.edu/faculty/cleveland/) and Center for People, Food and Environment; co-author of Food from Dryland Gardens.

“Harvesting rainwater was once a worldwide technology, but was replaced by pipes, canals, and sprinklers: an inefficient and wasteful strategy that results in running dry. In Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands and Beyond, Volume 2 Brad uses the concept of ‘planting water’ as a guiding principle in designing landscapes that passively harvest resources to grow more resources. Such brilliant, low-tech, regenerative systems are vital to hydrating the land and maximizing the benefit that water brings to plants, animals and people. Thus, this book is an excellent and comprehensive tool for all bucket and shovel ‘engineers’ to maximize the hydrological resource, reduce energy use and transform their once erosive landscapes into ones of stability, botanical diversity, and abundance.”

—Arty Mangan, Bioneers Food and Farming Program Director

“This volume should be on the bookshelf of every conscientious homeowner in the desert Southwest. Rainfall truly becomes something to celebrate when we can use it to fill up the soil banks in our property instead of watching it rush down the street into a storm sewer.”

—Nancy R. Laney, Executive Director, Tucson Botanical Gardens

“The cheapest – and sanest – way to meet our growing need for water is to squeeze more out of the water we already have, especially rainwater and used household water. Lancaster approaches these unsung streams as a farmer might, cultivating them in order to nourish dry landscapes. He has produced a water-farming guide that will inspire both the casual gardener and the card-carrying permaculturalist. With step-by-step instructions and clear illustrations, he guides the reader through simple techniques – berms, curbcuts, greywater plumbing – which in turn guide water into your soil and landscape. Lancaster is clearly determined to save the world. And he’s determined to make it easy for the rest of us to help.

—Hannah Holmes author of Suburban Safari: A Year on the Lawn

“Brad’s book is a treasure. It brings much-needed clarity to a timely subject and what’s more it inspires, motivates, and lifts the spirit. It’s a resource that no steward of the land should ignore.”

—Owen Dell, landscape architect and contractor, author and educator, Santa Barbara, California

“The level of detail that Brad provides is unmatched in the water-harvesting industry. This is one of the seminal books of our time.”

—Nate Downey, author of Harvest the Rain and Rooftop Water Harvesting in New Mexico

“Water has been identified as a global crisis in the making and Arizona is fast becoming ground zero for this issue in the US. Fortunately people like Brad Lancaster are working to change our illogical, wasteful approach to water use. Brad is one of those outstanding teachers who communicate passion and excitement while bringing an amazing wealth of knowledge to water conservation. This second encyclopedic volume is a distillation of his many years of study, experience and experimentation and gathers together in one volume a vast number of resources. The information is thorough, well documented, clearly explained, and eminently useful. Every civil engineer, landscape architect, planner, and architect should read this book and implement its strategies. If they did, our coming water crisis could be averted and our cities could become far more productive and pleasant places to live.”

—Antony Brown, Director, Ecosa Institute

“This is a fascinating book, full of real life examples and lots of inspiring ideas for a variety of sites and soil types. Anyone who wants to live and garden more sustainably will enjoy it.”

—Elizabeth Davison, Director, University of Arizona Campus Arboretum, Lecturer, Division of Horticultural/Crop Sciences, University of Arizona

“The prescription for water sustainability Brad has painstakingly drawn up in this very informative book is based on real life successes, has a very wide application even across the seas and is simple and reliable. What touches us most are his friendly narration and the ‘tell-tale’ illustrations that have an eye for detail.”

—Shree Padre, Messenger of Rainwater Harvesting, India

“Brad is an earth and water sculptor. Practical, easy to follow, well researched and logical, Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands and Beyond, Volume 2 is destined to be one of my more dog-eared resource books. It’s probably going to get a little muddy too!”

—Cado Daily, University of Arizona Cooperative Extension, Water Wise Program

“The book is a wonder of practical and progressive strategies for anyone interested in preserving our precious surface-water resources and putting them to good use. Brad Lancaster has outlined how to use earthworks to capture rainwater and to use it to foster productive plant life. Volume 2 of this three-volume work builds on the conceptual framework of volume 1 and introduces easy-to-understand definitions, diagrams, and photographs to implement these water-harvesting ideas.”

—Corky Poster, Architect and Planner, Director, Drachman Institute, Distinguished Professor of Outreach, University of Arizona, College of Architecture and Landscape Architecture

“As a permaculture teacher and designer, Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands and Beyond is my ‘go to’ source for how to design a sustainable water system.”

—Dan Dorsey, Sonoran Permaculture Guild

“Those who apply the lessons Brad Lancaster describes so clearly in this one-of-a-kind book can dramatically lower their consumption of water from conventional sources, yet live in a virtual oasis, even in the driest climates! Buy a copy today and put it to good use.”

—Dan Chiras is author of The Homeowner’s Guide to Renewable Energy, The Solar House, The New Ecological Home, The Natural Plaster Book and many more.

“After guiding us to see the world of water harvesting as he does in volume 1, Brad Lancaster now gives us the details on how to shape our landscape to capture as much water as possible in volume 2.

Volume 1 provided us with the principles for water harvesting and volume 2 gives us the blueprints, methods, and tools for applying those principles to our own or neighborhood landscape. Details abound. While others say the devil is in the details, Brad shows us that success is in the details—along with doing it yourself. When I first became interested in water harvesting it was sufficient for me to be satisfied with understanding water harvesting as the process of applying hydrology to small watersheds. But, the students have shown me that that is not enough! You must do it to really understand it. Volume 2 gives us the details for catching the water on our land and putting it to use, thereby reducing consumption of utility-provided water, and if we can get whole neighborhoods to follow also reducing the magnitude of street flooding.

You need to understand and apply the 8 Principles of Water Harvesting given in Volume 1 in analyzing your site. Once you know what you want to do, you can select the appropriate practices and then with volume 2 you can do it. I don’t think you’ll find yourself reading volume 2 cover to cover as you need to do with volume 1, but volume 2 is a practical engineering guide where you can look up the details you need for a given project.”

—James J. Riley, Ph.D., Soil, Water and the Environmental Science Department, University of Arizona

“Brad has outdone himself with this volume. I think it will be an even more valuable reference and resource for the thoughtful public than the first volume. Thank you Brad for making the effort to do justice to that most precious of water sources—our rainfall.”

—Val Little, Director, Water Conservation Alliance of Southern Arizona

“Whether you have years of experience or are just beginning to explore a greener way of living; whether you’re a do-it-yourselfer, an educator, a client, or a consultant/designer of regenerative systems, this book (and these 3 volumes) is for you. You will love the ease of reading, clarity, and beauty of illustrations. And it will get you off your buns and out into the land you love.”

—Barbara Rose, Dancing Rocks Community, Education, Integrated Design, Consulting, and Local/Native Foods and Herbs, Tucson, Arizona