Why storing water is more important than storing carbon with Zach Weiss from Elemental Ecosystems: 101

In this session I had the pleasure of speaking to the founder of “Elemental Ecosystems” Zach Weiss. Zach earned the distinction of being the first person to earn the Holzer practitioner certification from revolutionary Austrian farmer Sepp Holzer through a rigorous two-year apprenticeship working alongside Sepp in North America and Europe. Zach created Elemental Ecosystems as a for-benefit social enterprise focused on solving societies growing environmental problems by considering the elemental relationship between biology and hydrology. In this interview, Zach and I start by talking about the difference between a healthy water cycle and one that’s been compromised. We unpack the reasons why humans have desertified nearly one third of the earth’s land and how we can begin to reverse and regenerate that process. Zach also touches on some of the steps that anyone can take, whether you live on a large farm or a small city apartment, to positively impact the water cycles in your local area, and he also shares many resources you can look into to learn more about watershed regeneration. This interview represents just the tip of the iceberg around water system regeneration and I would love to do a follow-up interview with Zach very soon, so to those of you listening to this, please write to me at [email protected] and send in the topics and questions you’d like for us to explore in greater depth when I get the chance to continue this series again. Resources: Elemental Ecosystems Zach Weiss’ TEDx talk Tom Duncan’s podcast with Abundant Edge Desert or Paradise with Sepp Holzer The Rebel Farmer with Sepp Holzer (in spanish) Willie Smits’ TED talk The Flow Partnership