Publications

Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands and Beyond, Volume 2: Water-Harvesting Earthworks, by Brad Lancaster. Rainsource Press, 2008. A thorough guide describing how to create and use a wide variety of water-harvesting earthworks. Many case studies are featured along with tips on how to integrate your earthworks with multiple on-site resources and challenges so that they do far more than harvest water. Includes a chapter on integrating the harvest of greywater. More than 225 illustrations and photographs.
www.HarvestingRainwater.com

Drylands Watershed Restoration: Introductory Workshop Activities, by Ben Haggard. Sol y Sombra Foundation, 1994. A wonderful, albeit hard-to-find resource about water harvesting earthworks and how you could set up workshops on the subject.

An Introduction to Erosion Control, by Bill Zeedyk and Jan-Willem Jansens. Earth Works Institute, Rio Puerco Management Committee, Quivira Coalition, 2004. Basic how-to guide for simple and effective erosion-control strategies that harvest soil and water.
www.quiviracoalition.org

An Introduction to Induced Meandering: A Method for Restoring Stability to Incised Stream Channels, by Bill Zeedyk. Earthworks Institute/Quivira Coalition, 2004. An illustrated field guide to simple riparian restoration concepts and techniques.
www.quiviracoalition.org

Water Harvesting from Low-Standard Rural Roads, by Bill Zeedyk. Quivira Coalition, 2006. This book addresses the construction and maintenance of unpaved rural roads and includes the practice of harvesting water from the roads as an important aspect of maintenance activities.
www.quiviracoalition.org

Water for Every Farm – Yeomans Keyline Plan, by Ken B. Yeomans. Keyline Designs, 1993. A dry but valuable resource covering farm, road, and subdivision design around keyline water harvesting principles; contour fields; forests and cultivation; and erosion control.
Keyline Designs, P.O. Box 3289, Southport, Queensland, 4215 Australia.

Porous Pavements, by Bruce K. Ferguson. CRC Press, 2005. The comprehensive guide to porous pavements.

“Dynamic Water Storage,” by Tim Murphy. Permaculture Drylands Journal, #30, Summer 1998, pp. 22-24.

Alternative Irrigation: The Promise of Runoff Agriculture, by Christopher J. Barrow. Earthscan, 1999. An introduction to strategies of runoff agriculture used around the world.
Earthscan Publications Ltd., 120 Pentonville Road, London, N1 9JN, UK.

Semiarid Soil and Water Conservation, by H.J. Finkel. CRC Press, 1986. Good practical guide with engineering calculations.

Policy and Practice in the Management of Tropical Watersheds, by H.C. Pereira. Westview Press, 1989. Good information and case studies.

A Landscaper’s Guide to Mulch, by Alameda County Waste Management Authority and the Alameda County Source Reduction and Recycling Board. A great guide put out by a California county which illustrates how governmental departments and private businesses are successfully using mulch to reduce costs and reduce waste.
Alameda County Waste Management Authority, 777 Davis Street, Suite 100, San Leandro, CA 94577. Email: acwma@stopwaste.org.
www.stopwaste.org

A Landscaper’s Guide to Grasscycling by the Alameda County Waste Management Authority and the Alameda County Source Reduction and Recycling Board. A great guide for those who just can’t break the lawn addiction. At least reduce the size of your lawn and then read how a different mowing technique can help save water and maintenance by putting your grass clippings back into the soil rather than tossing this resource into the garbage.
Alameda County Waste Management Authority, 777 Davis Street, Suite 100, San Leandro, CA 94577. Email: acwma@stopwaste.org.
www.stopwaste.org

Keyline-specific resources

Keyline systems of water and soil conservation were developed in Australia during the 1950s by P.A. Yeomans as a response to increasing desertification and erosion of the landscape. His book Water For Every Farm (see “Resources” below) is an important resource on holistic farm design. Keyline is a set of principles and techniques based on a whole systems approach that works with natural patterns to restore or increase the depth and fertility of the soil, while increasing its water holding capabilities. Keyline integrates terraces, ponds and cultivation techniques with the natural landscape to infiltrate water into the soil efficiently and hold it on the land as long as possible. In order to work effectively with nature, implementing a Keyline system requires careful observation and assessment of a site.
- From an article by Tobias Policha in the October 2001 issue of Oregon Tilth
www.foodnotlawns.com/keyline_water.html

Darren Doherty, Australian Approved Keyline Design & Farm Planning Consultant (2002)

Whole Farm Planning Certificate ~ Train the Trainer, 1995. www.permaculture.biz says this is one of the best articles examining the Keyline Plan:
http://www.yeomansplow.com.au/basis-of-keyline.htm

The Keyline Plan, by P.A. Yeomans. P.A. Yeomans, 1954. After only three years of experimentation with the Keyline system, Yeomans self-published this, his first of several books. In the tradition of Louis Bromfield and Plowman’s Folly, it is an eye-opening look at how to help land retain all the rainfall it receives, opening the whole soil body to root penetration and releasing the natural fertility of the land. This book became an agricultural best seller and sold out. It is still sought after by collectors. The book is offered here (see link below) without restriction through the permission of Allan Yeomans, who himself is writing a book offering a cure of global warming through better farming by increasing the carbon retained in the earth as humus. Allan Yeomans also runs a farm-implement company in Queensland. A pre-publication version of Allan Yeoman’s book can be read and Allan and his farm implement company can be reached at through his website.
http://www.soilandhealth.org/01aglibrary/010125yeomans/010125toc.html

The Challenge of Landscape, by P.A. Yeomans. Keyline Publishing, 1958. This massive illustration-filled book is primarily a practical farming textbook focused on water conservation and small-scale dam construction and gravity-fed irrigation projects. Especially useful for practicing sustainable rainfall-dependent farming above the broad flood plain where water is always feast or famine. Made available here without restriction with the permission of Allan Yeomans.
http://www.soilandhealth.org/01aglibrary/010126yeomansII/010126toc.html

The City Forest: The Keyline Plan for the Human Environment Revolution, by P.A. Yeomans. Keyline Publishing, 1971. This is a tiny book of barely 100 small pages written in very compressed form, chock-a-block full of partially-developed insight. It should not be the first of Yeomans’ books that a person reads, as having the background of his earlier works will make it more comprehensible. It is an almost-utopian plan for human betterment, having as much or more to do with city planning and landscape architecture on a macro-scale as it does with farming. Made available here without restriction with the permission of Allan Yeomans.
http://www.soilandhealth.org/01aglibrary/010127yeomansIII/010127toc.html

Online resources

Raingardens: A Household Way to Improve Water Quality in Your Community, by the University of Wisconsin Extension offices, 2002. Available for free at:
http://cleanwater.uwex.edu/pubs/raingarden/gardens.pdf
www.raingardens.org

Stormwater BMP Design Supplement for Cold Climates, by Deb Caraco and Richard Claytor. Center for Watershed Protection. This document is specific to stormwater control strategies, rather than water harvesting. Nonetheless, much of the info can be applied to water-harvesting earthworks.
Center for Watershed Protection, 8391 Main Street, Ellicot City, MD 21043.
www.cwp.org.

Videos/DVDs

Harvest Rain, by Fundacion San Bernardino. Highlights the dramatic success of constructing check dams in the watersheds of El Coronado Ranch, Arizona.
Contact Valer Austin at vaustin@elcoronadoranch.net.