Brad Lancaster
Desert Harvesters – Tuscon, Arizona USA
Brad Lancaster has taught, designed, and consulted on regenerative-design systems of permaculture and integrated water-harvesting systems in seven countries since 1993. He created and lives on a thriving solar-powered 1/8th-acre (0.05-ha) urban oasis in downtown Tucson, Arizona, which harvests 100,000 gallons (378,000 liters) of rainwater a year where just 12 inches (280 mm) falls from the sky. Brad’s dynamic books, talks, workshops, and living example have inspired tens of thousands of people to ‘plant the rain’ to sustainably grow their local resources.
Brad is best known for his “Integrated Water-Harvesting” permaculture systems for projects including the Tucson Audubon Simpson Farm, the Milagro Development, and the Tucson Nature Conservancy water-harvesting demonstration site. He has also received another Hall Of Fame submission and an ARCSA Lifetime Achievement Award.
Brad is also a permaculture teacher, designer, consultant and co-founder of Desert Harvesters, a non-profit organization. Lancaster helped legalize the harvest of street runoff in the city of Tucson, Arizona, with then-illegal water-harvesting curb cuts at his and his brother’s home and demonstration site that made openings in the street curb to enable street runoff to freely irrigate street-side and in-street water-harvesting/traffic-calming landscapes of food-bearing native vegetation. After proving the concept, Brad then worked with the City of Tucson to legalize, enhance, and incentivize the process.
Lancaster co-created and now co-organizes the Neighborhood Foresters program which since 1996 has coordinated volunteer crews of neighbors to plant and steward over 1,500 native food-bearing trees and hundreds of native food-bearing understory plantings within or beside water-harvesting earthworks in his neighborhood, while helping and training volunteers from other neighborhoods to lead similar efforts in their neighborhoods
“The aim is to give back more than we take.”
Publication: Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands and Beyond.
Website 1) Havesting Rainwater
Website 2) Desert Harvesters
Video 1) TED Talk
Video 2) Plant the rain—don’t drain it
