Brad Lancaster is a dynamic teacher, consultant, and designer of
regenerative systems. He’s taught throughout North America, Middle
East, Asia, Europe, Africa, and Australia; worked with the City of
Tucson and other municipalities to legalize, incentivize, and
provide guidance on water-harvesting systems, demonstration sites,
and policy; and designed edible rain-irrigated landscapes doubling
as flood control and community-building strategies for housing
developments, parks, schools, businesses, ranches, and
neighborhoods. Brad’s aim is always to boost communities’ true
health and wealth by using simple overlapping strategies to augment
the region’s hydrology, ecosystems, and economies—living systems
upon which we depend.
Brad lives his talk on an oasis-like demonstration site he created
with his brother’s family in downtown Tucson, Arizona. On this
eighth of an acre and surrounding public right-of-way, they harvest
100,000 gallons of rainwater a year where just 11 inches per year
fall from the sky. Brad is motivated in his work by the tens of
thousands of people he has helped inspire to do likewise, go
further, and continue our collective evolution.
Andy Lipkis is the founder and president of TreePeople.
“Harvesting rainwater was once a worldwide technology, but was
replaced by pipes, canals, and sprinklers: an inefficient and
wasteful strategy that results in running dry. In Rainwater
Harvesting for Drylands and Beyond, Volume 2 Brad uses the concept
of ‘planting water’ as a guiding principle in designing landscapes
that passively harvest resources to grow more resources. Such
brilliant, low-tech, regenerative systems are vital to hydrating
the land and maximizing the benefit that water brings to plants,
animals and people. Thus, this book is an excellent and
comprehensive tool for all bucket and shovel ‘engineers’ to
maximize the hydrological resource, reduce energy use and transform
their once erosive landscapes into ones of stability, botanical
diversity, and abundance.”—Arty Mangan, Bioneers Food and Farming
Program Director
“The original edition was a great book, and this edition is even
better! The clear prose and illustrations, the consistently
well-organized chapters, the themes and variations, the case
studies, the practical design and construction information, the fun
can-do attitude—these combine into a manual that is greater than
the sum of its parts. Like my copy, you’ll have yours dog-eared
with successful use!”—Dave Jacke, ecological designer, educator,
and co-author of Edible Forest Gardens
“The cheapest and sanest way to meet our growing need for water is
to squeeze (or cycle) more out of the water we already have,
especially rainwater and used household water. Lancaster approaches
these unsung streams as a farmer might, cultivating them in order
to nourish dry landscapes. He has produced a water-farming guide
that will inspire both the casual gardener and the card-carrying
permaculturalist. With step-by-step instructions and clear
illustrations, he guides the reader through simple techniques
-berms, curbcuts, greywater plumbing – which in turn guide water
into your soil and landscape. Lancaster is clearly determined to
save the world. And he’s determined to make it easy for the rest of
us to help.”—Hannah Holmes author of Suburban Safari: A Year on the
Lawn
“As mayor of a city in the desert southwest, this book is a
critical resource to me for implementing strategies that support
ecological restoration and community resiliency.”—Emily S. Niehaus,
founder of Community Rebuilds and Mayor of Moab City, Utah
“Brad’s work is a labor of love for water and life. The breadth,
depth, and clarity of this book goes far beyond the usual technical
manual. Its deep heart allows these ideas to stick and makes this
book a compelling invitation to actively participate. This is a
philosophy of life, an offering, made practical in a way that
renews life and expands our co-evolutionary engagement.”—Bill Reed,
AIA, principal in Regenesis. A founding Board of Director of the US
Green Building Council, co-founder of LEED Green Building Rating
System, and leader in Integrative Systems Design
“I highly recommend this book to those working hard to be good
living ancestors and to those who truly care about the next
generations.”—Lilian Hill, Executive Director, Hopi Tutskwa
Permaculture
“This is the right book at the right time for a world where water
security is one of the most important socio-ecosystemic challenges
humanity faces.”—Delfín Montañana, Urban Biologist,
Bio·Logica·Urbana consultancy; Director, Socioecological Education,
Isla Urbana
“There is nothing like this comprehensive and well-illustrated book
about capturing and repurposing rain and other free on-site waters.
It’s a must-have for every household, policy maker, and
professional interested in making their homes, communities, and
world more sustainable, self-sufficient, and vibrant.”—Betsy Damon,
Founder of Keepers of the Waters
“From Rajasthan to Arizona, Brad learns and teaches, showing how it
can be done and why it should be done. Hugely practical and
genuinely inspirational.”—Fred Pearce, journalist and author of
When the Rivers Run Dry
“This very informative book, based on real-life successes, has a
very wide application even across the seas. What touches us most
are Brad’s friendly narration and the ‘tell-tale’ illustrations
that have an eye for detail.”—Shree Padre, Messenger of Rainwater
Harvesting, India
“With this book anyone, at any scale of project, can harvest the
rain.”—Judy Mielke, landscape architect and author of Native Plants
for Southwestern Landscapes
“As someone working along with others to directly help refugees and
other displaced populations grow more of their own food—often in
dryland situations—this book gives us the tools to create lasting
change. I carry it in my travel bag wherever I go.”—Thomas Cole,
Resilience Design and Agroecology Consultant
“Bridging the gap between DIY and savvy professional work, this is
the book everyone should own if they get rainfall in their
climate….that means YOU!”—Matt Powers, educator and author of The
Permaculture Student 2
“Brad Lancaster has written the definitive how-to guide for
harvesting rainwater. Much of this information has been near
impossible to find, and we owe Brad a huge debt for assembling it
so lucidly. These universal principles work not just in drylands,
but in wetter climates too. This is by far the best resource for
designing and building Earth-friendly, low-cost solutions to help
us save our most precious resource: water.”–Toby Hemenway, author
of Gaia’s Garden: A Guide to Home-Scale Permaculture
“Everyone wants to ‘go green’ lately and, usually, the expression
is followed by a plug for a new product. Brad offers a shovel
instead, and directs you, literally, not figuratively, to your own
back yard. We’ve tried some of the methods explained in this book,
and they work. Even if you’re a lazy, mediocre, vagabond gardener,
like we are, they still work. And if you don’t take the time to
understand every technical detail so thoroughly outlined in this
bible of rainwater– these methods still will work.”–Shay Salomon
and Nigel Valdez, author and photographer, Little House on a Small
Planet
“Get out your shovels and dance in the rain! That is what Brad
Lancaster’s second volume in his trilogy on rainwater harvesting,
will make you want to do. This outstanding book provides an
abundance of well-documented ideas and tools for sustainable living
in your watershed. You don’t have to let wasteful, polluting
large-scale water systems get you down! Get out, get wet, and
become a positive part of the hydrological cycle!”–David A.
Cleveland, U of California, Santa Barbara
(www.es.ucsb.edu/faculty/cleveland) and Center for People, Food and
Environment; co-author of Food from Dryland Gardens
“Many approach water as a problem: there’s too much, too little, or
it’s in the wrong place. Brad Lancaster’s indispensable book
demonstrates the myriad ways that no matter where you live, water
is an opportunity to create more beauty in our cities and
landscapes, to grow more food, to build community resilience and
reduce infrastructure costs, and to mitigate climate change—since
climate is largely driven by hydrology. Brad’s book is filled with
essential information ranging from general insights on how water
moves to detailed instructions for professionals and homeowners on
how to implement water harvesting.”—Judith D. Schwartz, author of
Water In Plain Sight: Hope for a Thirsty World
Kirkus Reviews– "This comprehensive second edition includes
Lancaster’s revised tactics for rainwater harvesting, new
anecdotes, a host of visually pleasing images by debut illustrator
Marshall, and many colorful photographs by the author and others.
Much of the book extols the virtues of various earthworks—like
berms that capture runoff and spread water over a broad area. Using
earthworks can also flush out bad salts from the soil over time,
reducing the loss of precious farmland. Lancaster’s smooth prose is
easy to read, and it’s not necessary to have a scientific mind in
order to understand his eight common-sense principles for rainwater
harvesting. For example, he suggests that potential water farmers
begin by studying the land to learn its patterns of rain and
sediment flow and determine the best type of earthworks needed.
Practical tools are included, such as illustrated, boxed
instructions for measuring the slope of the land. Presenting many
choices of earthworks—such as mulching, digging basins and
trenches, planting vegetation, and building terraces—this expansive
volume provides inspiration for harvesting rain and runoff in many
types of yards and farmland. The author also delivers inspiration
and advice for ways to harvest and reuse wastewater from appliances
like washing machines. Readers who enjoy real-life success stories
will find plenty of memorable ones here. For example, Chris Meuli
of Albuquerque, New Mexico, fills trenches with junk mail, creating
a “sponge” for watering trees. A valuable wellspring of hands-on
advice for effective watershed stewardship."
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