Published by Harry Greene
In this podcast, we'll talk about all things agroforestry and what you need to know to plant, grow, and monetize your trees.
Listen on Apple PodcastsBlack locust is a fast growing hardwood, native to the Allegheny Plateau and surrounding bioregions in the eastern half of the United States. The wood is highly durable, and rot resistant, and lasts 2-3x as pressure treated wood in contact with the soil. Robi Decking is a company that mills, processes, markets, and distributes black locust decking to all 50 US states and throughout Canada. Today, Robi’s founder Zach Rike joined us to dive into the uses of black locust, the downsides of tropical hardwoods, why pressure treated pine means planned obsolescence, the nuances of building with black locust, how much creativity you want in architecture, and more. A huge thanks to Zach Rike for joining us on Plant The Trees. Zach closed a lot of loops with this podcast, and it’s great to hear from one of the foremost users of black locust in the United States. Like he said, check them out at RobiDecking.com — both Jeremy and I have built with and experienced their products and we are extremely satisfied. If you’d like to plant trees on non-forested land that you own or manage in the United States, don’t hesitate drop us a line at propagateag.com . If you have questions for us or a guest, about agroforestry, send us a message on social media or comment on this episode on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.
An audio-version of our written article: https://www.propagateag.com/blog/the-nuance-of-invasive-species The Threat of Invasive Species The American Chestnut (blight) and Climate Analogues Native to when ? → Black Locust's native range Those who live in glass houses... Introspection without despair. What can we do ? Narrative vs. Action. Agroforestry Systems as an actionable next step Intro: Invasive species are non-native plants, animals, fungi, and pathogens that spread aggressively and disrupt native ecosystems. Documentary films on invasive species abound. Complete with dark humor and foreboding music, one memorable film featured cane toads in Australia. In 1935, 100 cane toads were introduced for pest control. They swiftly became a fleet of 200 million toads. These frogs are 6-10 inches long, and have toxic glands behind their head which poison the animals that attempt to eat them. When these predators die, the ecosystem loses balance: animals that would have otherwise been their prey explode in population. Invasive animals can be extremely problematic, given how fast they move. Domestic cats, introduced to Australia with British colonization, are responsible for the extinction of 29 species of mammals indigenous to Australia. After broad habitat destruction, domestic cats are the #1 cause of bird death in North America. Stateside, feral swine are responsible for $1.6b in damages to the agricultural industry. Burmese pythons are decimating native mammal populations in the Florida Everglades. Alien invasive animals, fungi, and insects make for a loaded term: invasive . Trees and shrubs can also be invasive, even though they move more slowly than animals. But there’s nuance here. Today we’ll unpack invasive species.
Amelia Baxter is the CEO and co-founder of WholeTrees. WholeTrees Architecture and Structures uses structural round timber (literal whole trees) to create durable, functional, aesthetically-breathtaking buildings and features of the built environment. The company was founded in 2007 to develop and sell products and technologies that would scale the use of underutilized or waste-trees in commercial construction. This increases forest revenues, and offers green construction markets a new material for the 21st century. Whole trees uses species from the classic conifers to rot-resistant white oak and black locust. We talked about how round timber can be dramatically stronger than milled lumber, designing buildings that feel like forests and how wood naturally calms the nervous system, how black locust behaves more like stone than it does wood, profit plus ecological balance as the definition of prosperity, and how structural round timber can re-shape rural forest economies. Please welcome Amelia Baxter.
Costa Rica has one of the highest standards of living in Latin America. Quite a few years ago now, they dissolved their military and placed their focus on services. Not just education and public health, but ecosystem services. Water quality, flood mitigation, biodiversity, weather stability… Scott Gallant is an agroforestry practitioner based in Costa Rica, and has worked there for over a decade. Today we dove into the agriculture, agroforestry, and agrotourism of Costa Rica. We talked about how trees create experiences, and how recreation might be the most accessible ecosystem service for farmers. We talked syntropic farming, and making it accessible. Understory and overstory tree crops, perennial vegetables, how we experience some of the best food you can grow. How do you design agroforestry for a hospitality operation? Where is the overlap between agrotourism in Costa Rica, The United States, and Italy? Without further ado, please welcome Scott Gallant.
We’re planting all of these trees, many of which carry the goal of ecological benefit: conservation, regeneration, fish, wildlife, water quality, flood mitigation, relative homeostasis in weather and climate. But what does intact nature really look like in the forested biome (biomes) of the Northeast United States? The Mid Atlantic, Great Lakes, the Humid midwest? How can we know? How can we get there? There is no one answer, and often many answers are inherent, given that diversity is the spice of life and the spice of the forest. Ethan Tapper is a forester from Vermont. He’s an internationally-recognized ecologist, and bestselling author of How to Love a Forest . An Audobon-endorsed forester, Ethan works with landowners to steward forests for both wildlife habitat and income. Ethan works as a consulting forester across Vermont, New Hampshire, New York, and Maine, and served as the Chittenden County Forester from 2016-2024. Ethan stewards Bear Island , his 175 acre forest, homestead and sugarbush in Vermont.
Darren J. Doherty, founder of Regrarians, is a pioneer in modern regenerative agriculture and agroforestry in the anglosphere and beyond. He’s planned hundreds of farms across Australia, New Zealand, The United States, Vietnam, India, The Country of Georgia, Mediterranean Europe, and beyond. Today we’ll dive into the mechanization of planting trees. Trees are permanent infrastructure, so you want to plant them in the right place, the first time, and in the most efficient way possible. Often that means mechanization, from soil preparation and simply marking where the trees go, to understory management and fertilization. He has been a trusted advisor of Propagate since we started the business 10 years, and without further ado, here is Darren Doherty.
How do you further mechanize tree planting? Where are the leverage points? How do you get the trees on a perfect grid or a Keyline grid, at inch-accurate, GPS-guided intervals? Can you mow, subsoil, rototill, seed, and mark all in the same tractor pass? Bob Walker is a core member of the Propagate Team. He has decades of experience farming, and I’m really thrilled to finally get him on the podcast, because he’s the guy that makes all of our work truly efficient and effective. Here we’ll dive into soil prep, tree planting, and a whole lot more.
Jeremy Kaufman, together with our CEO Ethan Steinberg, and I, started working on Propagate in 2016. 10 years later, we have some insight into planting trees on farms, not without the standard battle scars of entrepreneurship. Today, we walk through why trees need to make money, the financial and economic bottlenecks in agroforestry, working with farmers and not replacing farmers, Jeremy’s family business in the wood products industry, and why black locust and chestnuts stand out.
It’s one thing to plant trees. And stewarding a chestnut ecosystem is a multigenerational endeavor. Today we’ll dive into chestnut yields, harvest and post-harvest processing, predatory wasps and soil nematodes, chestnut buyers & markets, and a lot more. This might be the most information-dense episode yet. Dr. Amy Miller is a wealth of knowledge, and we’re thrilled to bring this conversation to you. Route 9 Cooperative Propagate Website
Before you plant apples, blueberries, and black walnut, try these 5 species instead. I started out 15 years ago planting black walnut and apples, because apples are the go-to fruit and black walnut veneer logs can pay off a mortgage. But what other species can feed us, create economic value, and provide ecosystem benefit with a more gradual learning curve? For best-fit tree options on non-forested land that you own or manage, don't hesitate to reach out to our team: https://www.propagateag.com/contact-us
How are we paying for trees? How are you paying for trees? At the end of the day, there is no free lunch. We’re either paying with our time, or paying with our wallet. We’re going to explore both sides of that coin, and hopefully leave you with a better understanding of funding agroforestry in the United States. If you’re not in the US, you’ll still get a lot out of this episode. Link for how to work with us: https://www.propagateag.com/technical-assistance
Farmland is often considered marginal because it’s rocky, steep, or because the soils are too shallow. But in much of the northeast and midwest, farmland is “sub prime” or less productive because it’s wet or poorly drained. Not wetland, but damp farmland that’s harder to access until it’s dry in mid summer. The question here is: what tree crops work for this soil? Chestnuts don’t like clay, or wet feet. But yellowbud or bitternut hickory is a great fit, and this tree produces high quality culinary oil for cooking, baking, salads, and bread. It tastes really good. Jesse Marksohn is a pioneer of growing hickory trees for oil, and he might be the best person in the United States to speak on the topic. Carya cordiformis is hardy from Northern Florida to Northern Minnesota, so the range is huge, and so is the value proposition for ecosystems and farms.
Global perspectives on forest-driven economies. It’s easy to confine ourselves and our thinking to our own countries, states, and bioregions. But we all live on one planet, and the integrity of our rural economies and our ecosystems reaches beyond the borders of our nation states. Today we’re joined by İsmail Belen and Marton Németh. İsmail is from the country of Türkiye (Turkey), and he is the Chair of the United Nations Forum on Forests and the Inspector General of The Turkish Forest Service. Márton Németh leads Silvanus Forestry, from the country of Hungary. Silvanus specializes in improved tree genetics for industrial roundwood, namely shipmast black locust. Here we dive into forests in Turkey, and how trees create rural livelihoods and increase ecosystem function in a mediterranean climate that’s been farmed for a very long time. What role do non-native pioneer trees play? When does honey production from forests create more value than wood? How does black locust reduce erosion and improve marginal soils? How does Turkey steward $4b toward forestry? Monoculture forestry vs. multi-species multi-yield plantations? Chestnuts as non timber forest products? We’re going to talk about it all in plain English, even though we speak a combined seven languages. There’s a lot of good info in this episode.
Byron and I first encountered syntropic agroforestry in the same way. There was a stunning documentary released in 2014 called Life in Syntropy. It profiled farms in Brazil utilizing planned ecological succession to grow food and restore the vibrant, verdant Atlantic Rainforest. Now we both incorporate the processes and practices of syntropy into our work, Byron to a much greater extent than I do. We always look to adapt the principles to different people and landscapes around the world. We ask questions such as: On the continuum from ecological reforestation with a bit of food along the way, to productive agriculture that increases biodiversity and grows its own biomass, what is the optimum trajectory given the wills and desires of a land manager? We dive into ease of management, and communicating complex agroforestry tactics to a diverse audience. Have questions about planting trees on your land? Visit propagateag.com/contact-us to talk to someone from our team!
Julie Richards stewards the operations of Ohio Chestnuts and Wintergreen Tree Farm. 200+ acres of chestnuts produce great food for real people, while improving water quality in the streams and creeks that flow into Lake Erie. Julie grew up with chestnuts, and came back to the family farm not just because chestnuts are really satisfying crop to work with, and not just because she had the opportunity, but because it was a really good financial and logistical decision for her and her family. Here we’ll dive into not just chestnut genetics, but chestnut markets and how to sell the crop. Please join us for an informative, nuanced conversation with Julie Richards. Have questions about planting trees on your land? Visit propagateag.com/contact-us to talk to someone from our team!
It’s 1972. Led Zeppelin IV just hit the airwaves, and Greg Miller is planting chestnut trees as a junior in high school. With time on his side, he goes on to get a PhD in plant breeding, and vastly improves chestnut yields, nut quality, and disease resistance. 50 years later, the trees are still bearing huge crops. Greg has planted tens of thousands more trees, having refined the genetics over multiple generations of Chinese Chestnut and Chinese-American hybrids. Widely regarded as the pioneer of commercial chestnut growing in the United States, we’d need 40+ hours of audio to cover Greg’s wealth of knowledge. For now, please join us for a conversation with Greg Miller of Empire Chestnut and the Route 9 Chestnut Cooperative. Have questions about planting trees on your land? Visit propagateag.com/contact-us to talk to someone from our team!
What do agroforestry-interested land managers have in common? And how do they differ? Are they open minded and risk averse? Are they extroverted and orderly? Our hypotheses, based on working in this space for 10 years, may surprise you. It’s well established that we have to fit the tree species to the soil type. Listen on if you’re curious about aligning the tree species with the people that are managing the land. Have questions about planting trees on your land? Visit propagateag.com/contact-us to talk to someone from our team!
Russell Wallack, founder of Breadtree, joins us to talk chestnuts and perennial pantry stables. Breadtree farms on 800 acres in the Upper Hudson Valley (NY) and Southwest Vermont, where they steward 20,000+ food-producing trees and shrubs — including chestnut , hickory , oak , seaberry , apple, pear, mulberry, and persimmon — in orchards grazed by sheep and cattle. The practice of raising food crops, trees, and animals together has a long history in many cultures, and (today) is often called agroforestry . Russell believes chestnut trees — an ancient staple food across the temperate world — play an integral role in recreating an agriculture of place; he has dedicated the past 8 years to creating a viable business centered on the growth of a regional industry for this tree crop. Outside of Breadtree, Russell has consulted internationally with multi-billion dollar food supply systems, advised the European Commission on regenerative agriculture policy, and worked with leading regenerative agriculture organizations to impact thousands of acres. Have questions about planting trees on your land? Visit propagateag.com/contact-us to talk to someone from our team!
Planting trees? On farmland? But what about feeding the world? There’s a lot wrapped up in this question, and we’re here to bring you the frameworks and the data on how agroforestry can feed the world with caloric staple crops, ecosystem services, and financially successful farms. Have questions about planting trees on your land? Visit propagateag.com/contact-us to talk to someone from our team!
Take a listen to this phenomenal interview with Dana Shapiro, CEO of the Hawai‘i Ulu Cooperative. Ulu is the Hawaiian word for Breadfruit, which is a tree crop starch that traveled across the Pacific Ocean in canoes, and can still grow straight out of lava rock. And the conversation got. good. and I think we did a solid job of profiling this case study in rebuilding a food system with agroforestry. Hawai‘i imports 90% of its food, while half its farmland is fallow. Meanwhile, Dana and her team are harvesting over 200,000 pounds of breadfruit every year, building a farmer-owned supply chain across four islands. They are proving that this ancient crop can once again feed communities.And this isn’t just a feel-good story. We talk about the real life economics of getting ulu into the market and onto dinner plates in Hawaiʻi. There’s rum made from sugarcane windbreaks, chickens boosting tree yields, and farmers learning to transition from field crops to multistory agroforestry. If you’ve ever wondered what it really takes to bring heritage staple crop back online — not just agriculturally, but economically, socially, and culturally — this episode is for you. Have questions about planting trees on your land? Visit propagateag.com/contact-us to talk to someone from our team!
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