Amy Scanes-Wolfe grows complete diet on Niwot's arid land

Amy Scanes-Wolfe asks the question whether we need to reclaim our arid lands of the West by addressing the serious problems caused by our centuries-long disruption of nature's balanced ecosystem.

In her Jan. 11 presentation to the Niwot Community Connection (NCC), it was clear Scanes-Wolfe is passionately committed to doing just that. She led NCC participants on a wide-ranging journey combining her cultural anthropology, ecology, agricultural and natural history backgrounds.

Scanes-Wolfe explained in a nutshell that early Native Americans in the area now known as Niwot were nomadic and ate foods from plants and animals that thrived naturally. When explorers, hunters, trappers and miners arrived, they slaughtered the majority of bison and beavers in the area. Those who settled here then converted much of the land to agricultural use, which greatly increased the demand for this region's scant water.

Scanes-Wolfe and her collaborators are testing potential regenerative design approaches on land here in Niwot, with the goal of being able to produce a complete diet and reduce water needs for agricultural purposes.

One promising approach has been The Niwot Homestead Project, which, on a 1.5 acre site, is a microcosm of a balanced ecosystem of native fruits and bioregional grains integrating with pigs and chickens. The early success of this small-scale program is being expanded to larger sites of five to 80 acres.

As water concerns heighten, Scanes-Wolfe explained that these and other innovative methods will be particularly important in maintaining the health of our small farms.