The Problem
Great Basin Green Project
The Problem
Aquifers in the Great Basin Desert are being rapidly depleted by hay farming. Some by as much as 10 billion gallons per year. There are two plans to address this. Make it worse, or Great Basin Green. The current plan created by the government and farmers is to slowly shut down farming, draining the aquifer of another 600 billion gallons of water while leaving several thousand acres fallowed and abandoned. This plan doesn’t stop aquifer depletion fast enough. Abandoned, fallowed fields don’t get reclaimed by nature in the Great Basin Desert. They remain barren dust bowls for decades unless purposely restored by human intervention. The “Make it Worse” plan has an exit… If the aquifer gets brought back into balance, the current plan to make it worse gets abandoned.
Phase 1
Fix basin floor farming
- Convert water intensive hay crops to low water browse plants and let animals graze directly on irrigated pasture.
- Only grow enough hay to cover supplemental feed for winter.
- On-site processing to own value chain, reduce transportation stress on animals, reduce fuel use, improve water recycling.
Initial Goal is to purchase 3 farms on 5 properties
1. Convert to goat dairy and pasture raised eggs.
2. Pasture raised wool farm.
3. Pasture raised chicken and turkey meat.
4. Supplemental hay & pasture raised poultry.
5. Restore to native habitat for wildlife.
6. (Bonus property) 458 acres of fallowed dust bowl. Restore for pasture raised meats.
The Result
- 6,642 acres protected
- Conservation easements permanently limit land use.
- Estimated 1 billion gallons a year of groundwater saved.
- Reduce diesel fuel use by 12k gallons per year.
- Establish employee ownership (ESOP) to encourage value growth over value extraction and share that growth with the workers who help create it.
Phase 2
The Mountain Benches – Water harvesting
- Purchase 2 adjoining cattle ranches covering 10,101 acres
- Estimated 2.8 billion gallons per year of rain falls directly on this land.
- Estimated 3 to 6 billion gallons runs over it from uphill.
- Currently zero effort or plan to get this water into the ground.
- This water all runs downhill to a terminal basin, where it sits until it evaporates.
- The downhill slope is 3 miles long.
- Build earthworks to slow the water & infiltrate it into the ground along the slope.
- Plant low water flowering shrubs & trees along earthworks so roots create passages for water.
- Continue cattle ranching. Add poultry & bees.
Phase 3
Structures & Wells
- Deconstruct (to recycle) & replace old, drafty farmhand houses with new, ultra low energy, water recycling, passive solar homes.
- Convert or replace farm structures into passive solar structures.
- Add solar to all roof tops and convert water well pumps to pure solar or net zero.
Our Story
About Great Basin Green
Great Basin Green is a project created by teenage homeschooler Cole Summers to reimagine how the Great Basin Desert is farmed, changing the priority from depleting the natural resources of groundwater and soil for hay farming, to conserving groundwater and building soil while letting animals live more natural lives.
Starting in one of the most depleted basins within the Great Basin Desert, our goal is to purchase existing hay farms to immediately reduce their groundwater, fuel, and power use. Some fields will be restored to nature. Others will become examples of naturally raised, heritage livestock spending their lives on pasture.
During the conversion to regenerative agriculture practices for preserving the aquifer and the soil, we’ll also be converting the business model currently used by hay farms. The days of one family benefiting from the extraction of natural resources will come to an end, replaced by a model where the typically poor farm hands are trained in value growth business skills and earn shared ownership over the product of their labor. The resulting employee-owned farm will not sit at the bottom of its value chain, but will own the brands and products sold to consumers. The longevity of this project will not depend on a family’s next generation wanting to continue farming.