Yeomans Keyline

A collection of 60 posts

Newsletter

Restoring Biodiversity - 7/29/2025

How to rebuild a burned forest. A hugely significant discovery which offers a new perspective on the earliest human occupation. And more...

Conservation

Chihuahuas and Keyline

“Chichuahuas and Keyline” explains Chocolate the Keyline Dog’s take on contour subsoil plowing. NOTE: this post was originally published to this site on September 13, 2017, and again on March 10, 2022.

Yeomans Keyline

Keyline 101: Desert Grassland Restoration

This video was filmed in the Sierra Diablo Mountains, Hudspeth County, far-West Texas, for presentation at the Quivira Coalition Conference in Albuquerque, November 11, 2015.

Regenerative Ranching

During the Drought

Michael Thompson, a young farmer in Kansas, is regenerating his soils with no-till, cover-crops practices coupled with Adaptive Multi-Paddock (AMP) grazing - giving his farm resilience during the severe 2011 and 2012 droughts.

Conservation

Desert Permaculture: Gulleys for Grass and Wells

Here is a gulley treatment that restores grassland and recharges aquifers. Gulleys for Grassland Restoration from Christopher Gill on Vimeo. NOTE: this post was originally published to this site on May 8, 2017, and reposted on October 8, 2021

Cattle

Desert Permaculture: Using a Stock Tank for Irrigation

Stock tanks can be easily and cheaply modified to serve the additional purpose of restoring grasslands for cattle and wildlife.      NOTE: this post was originally published on April 24, 2017, and then reposted on Sept 16, 2021.

Bio-Diversity

Plow and Tractor for Desert Grassland Keyline Subsoiling

This video discuss equipment for Keyline subsoil plowing. Over 30 American companies make plows that can be used for Keyline contour subsoiling.

Bio-Diversity

Desert Aerators in Mexico

Where brush has grown into small trees, crushing the growth is a plausible alternative to poison. Aerators can sometimes work where grades or topography make subsoil plowing impractical. Once plants are thinned, aerators might be followed by subsoiling. Smaller is better. Use of contours is essential. Applications must vary since

"Invasion Biology"

Biodiversity and Holistic Management

These excellent thoughts on the importance of biodiversity apply to wildlife as well as agriculture. NOTE: this post was originally published to this site on November 20, 2016. And reposted again on July 1, 2021

"Invasion Biology"

Drought Busters 101 : A 21-Minute Video on Desert Grassland Restoration

“Drought Busters” is an inexpensive, quick, physiologically and economically sustainable method of habitat and wildlife restoration. We call it Drought Busters because it increases effective rainfall by rebuilding soil fertility and the soil’s ability to absorb and store water. This 21-minute video explains Drought Busters, and our experience on

Bio-Diversity

Plug and Spread Made Easy

This is a 4-1/2 minute video about the “Plug-and-Spread” method of harvesting water from gullies. Water harvesting including Plug and Spread, in combination with Keyline sub-soiling, wild animal impact and planned grazing of cattle are the cheapest, easiest and quickest way to restore water function to degraded desert grasslands.

"Invasion Biology"

Drought Busters: Restoring Desertified Desert Grasslands

We call the combination of wild animals, planned grazing, water harvesting, and Keyline subsoiling “Drought Busters”. Drought Busters is cheap, fast, poisons no plants, kills no animals, and increases the numbers and diversity of both. Drought Busters can’t make it rain, but it will make actual rain more and

Conservation

Keyline Desert Ranch

This video is about Keyline soil restoration on a desert ranch in Northern Mexico.   Keyline “flood-flow” channels are combined with Keyline contour ripping between “flood-flow” channels. Both channels and rip patterns are on contours established by drone survey and laser transit.   Disturbed soil has been seeded. Regrowth following 6-inches (150

Conservation

Keyline in the Desert 2-Years Later With 78 Mm of Rain in the Year 2022

Below is an interesting video showing the results of Keyline treatment 2-years later, after 3 inches of rainfall. Although the video is in Spanish, the results of the area that was treated, and the area that was not treated, are evident.   <span style=”display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow:

"Invasion Biology"

Beavers in Arizona Deserts

Beavers are keystone species in desert ecosystems.    NOTE: this post was originally published to this site on July 30, 2018. And again on May 27, 2020.

Bio-Diversity

Gulleys for Desert Grassland Restoration #2

Using a gulley to create a riparian meadow in the desert.   NOTE: this post was originally published to this site on May 31, 2017      To see another example of this practice, click here.

Bio-Diversity

Rangeland Restoration: Subsoil Contour Plowing at Circle Ranch, in far-West Texas

Subsoil contour plowing is an excellent way to increase water absorption in the desert grasslands of far-West Texas and Southern New Mexico. The effectiveness of the practice is shown in these before-and-after comparisons.   NOTE: this post was originally published to this site on October 9, 2017.

Conservation

Gulleys for Grassland Restoration: #7 Best Equipment

When we divert rainstorm runoff from eroding gulleys to restore desertifying canyons and grasslands, what are the best equipment & practices? Our conclusions might surprise you.   NOTE: this post was originally published to this site on September 4th, 2017

"Invasion Biology"

Gulleys for Grassland Restoration #5: Upper Pennel Canyon at Circle Ranch

Using a mountain gulley for erosion control and desert grassland restoration at Circle Ranch in far-West Texas.   NOTE: this post was originally published to this site on August 14, 2017.        This little dam took 45-minutes to build.

Bio-Diversity

Using an Eroded Gulley to Recreate a Wet Meadow

This video, #8, is a companion piece to #3 in the series. It shows how Fred’s Dam works during a rain, how the redirected water has created a seasonal wet meadow, what is happening to the water as it exits the wet meadow, and how that water might be

"Invasion Biology"

Drought Busters 101

“Drought Busters” is an inexpensive, quick, physiologically and economically sustainable method of habitat and wildlife restoration. We call it Drought Busters because it increases effective rainfall by rebuilding soil fertility and the soil’s ability to absorb and store water. This video explains Drought Busters, and our experience on how

"Invasion Biology"

The Resistance to Holistic Wildlife Management

Across the West as well as in Texas, agencies, universities, governmental and conservation organizations resist holistic wildlife and agricultural management practices. Most Western public grazing rules make holistic grazing very difficult if not impossible  In this 5-minute video, range scientist Allan Savory discusses why this is so, and how this

"Invasion Biology"

Uprooting FDR’s ‘Great Wall of Trees’

This article highlights the environmental mentality of the modern farming methods taught in our universities. As described below, farmers are destroying the Northern Great Plains shelter belts which the WPA planted – for their benefit and at great cost – during the Great Depression. Quoting the authors: “FDR, long fascinated by forestry,

Bio-Diversity

Circle Ranch: A Chihuahuan Desert Sky Island

Laurence Parent’s stunning pictures of the Sierra Diablos in far-West Texas. Renowned Texas author and photographer Laurence Parent has done 44 books. His latest, Colorado: A Photographic Journey was published in 2016. New Mexico: A Photographic Journey was published in 2014. Texas: Portrait of a State, was published in

"Invasion Biology"

Rancher Takes an Unconventional Path to Restoring His Land

“Chris Gill, 72,  together with his family own Circle Ranch in far-West Texas. He thinks of the desert habitat, its flora and fauna, as a single system.” NOTE: this article was initially posted to ReportingTexas.com on December 12, 2017. It was written by Austin Price, and all photography credits