Learning Syntropic Agroforestry with Reflorestar Portugal

While the world is going crazy some of us have been keeping our feet firmly on the ground out here in Portugal. Scott and Emma have been working with the Reflorester Portugal Crew replanting intensive Eucalyptus plantation and recreating mixed woodland.
We’ve learned that the EU subsidies for this mono cropped paper pulp crop are partly behind the summer fire problem here, and a move to mixed forests of Cork Oak, Pine, Strawberry Trees and other native plants and trees is ideal.

In the Syntropic Farming method, coined by Ernst Gotsch shrubs and trees are planted much closer than in standard Agro Forestry with the intention that the competing root systems support each other and more ground is covered in the early stages, then some will be used for biomass, and others pruned out later on when needed.

We’ve had a blast this week, we’ve been named best volunteers ever and gifted Reflorestar Portugal T-Shirts! Check out some of our pictures and videos below….

Day 1 was about taking down most of the eucalyptus, we donned our safety gear (an oddity in Portugal) and got to work. Each of the coppice stools had 4 or 5 eucylptus growing from them. We left 1 in each as the root system can be beneficial for the mychorizal interchange And overall health of the forest.
It’s just that eucalyptus is a very thirsty tree so too much of it dries out the ground and surrounding unstorey (See where this links to the fire problem in Portugal yet?)

The remaining eucalyptus in good balance with the other (native) trees and shrubs will provide cover from the sun as they get established and will be the top / ‘emergent’ layer of this Syntropic agroforestry installation.

The chipper came in and we stripped the branches of their leafy tops and fed them in, not without teething problems as the chipper broke down, but we had enough wood chip to be going on t=with for the afternoon.

Day2. - You can see here The mulching and pruning that we did to encourage the cork oak and stone oak trees which are native to Portugal, to grow higher and become the canopy in a few years.

We are still just working with natural regeneration, nothing is taken out at this stage. the Syntropic method recognises that root systems are codependent and increase biodiversity in the soil feeding the mychorizal fungi, known as the internet of the earth, which In turn feeds the bushes trees and plant.

In around 4/5 year Reflorestar say they would rather have the problem of too many plants and decide which ones to take down, rather that empty soil to fill.

A great use of this invasive cacti, to help the Newley planted trees to get established.

And this brings us to the end of our volunteering week. We were named best volunteers ever and presented with Reflorestar T-Shirts which we are really pleased with.

We were fed extremely well all week and the Farmer, and the team loved looking at Scott’s books on Grow Your Own Nuts, Brewing, Mushroom Growing, and the Forest Garden books helped us to understand each other - although the tree Geeks were alright knowing the Latin Names which stay the same in every language!