We are pleased to share that the premiere episode of the Engineering With Nature® (EWN®) Podcast, Season 7, features WEST’s Director of Land Management and Water Security, Ricardo Aguirre. Host, Sarah Thorne, and cohost, Jeff King, National Lead of the Engineering With Nature Program, lead this discussion about Ricardo’s experience using holistic land management, water harvesting, and other EWN approaches at WEST’s demonstration site in Arizona.

The episode, “Regenerative Land Management—Nature Already Has It Dialed In,” describes how WEST uses land management and other animal impact techniques to increase soil organic matter, improve its water holding capacity, and thereby deliver effective flood control and drought management. As Ricardo explains in the episode, use of large livestock such as sheep and cattle prevents “forests from moving in on grasslands […] and grasslands from becoming a desert.”

Find the podcast on your favorite podcasting platform, or listen here.

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Before and after photos of the WEST Demonstration Site in Red Rock, Arizona. Background mountains highlighted for spatial reference. Photos courtesy of Mariko Yoshinaga.

Engineering With Nature® is the intentional alignment of natural and engineering processes. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Engineering With Nature® (EWN) initiative enables more sustainable delivery of economic, social, and environmental benefits associated with infrastructure.

Visit our land management services page to see how our work in this area can help you improve earth resources, boost productivity, and increase profitability, or to read about current land management projects.

Find out how you can take a tour of WEST’s land management demonstration site or sign up for a training with Ricardo here.