For life
on Earth.
Our Work
Healthy soil -> Healthy communities -> Healthy life on Earth.
We work across two mutually reinforcing priorities: managing working landscapes for ecological function, and cultivating perennial foods and medicines that mimic and contribute to healthy ecosystems. We measure both over time, tracking what changes and what doesn't. This combination of research and praxis helps us build toward land capable of regeneration, a more resilient food system, and a deeper relationship between people and the living world.
What We're Seeing
A decade of work across Boulder County is beginning to show. Vegetation cover at Elk Run and Yellow Barn improved 12.3% and 22.1% respectively in 2024, despite drought conditions that stressed most of the region. Average plant survival across our four research sites sits at 74.7% since planting began in 2021. Managed systems that began as degraded dryland soils are now approaching or within the NRCS healthy target range for soil water holding capacity in clay loam soils, a significant threshold that most degraded dryland soils fall well below. Predator insect populations, which are among the most responsive indicators of food web health, declined in 2024 following the Stone Canyon Fire near our research sites, but we're tracking their recovery. All told, what we're seeing is that the land under DAR management is showing improved resilience, even when conditions are not favorable, and that's the signal we find most encouraging.
Perennial Agriculture
The annual systems that society has come to rely on produce food but they deplete rather than improve ecological capital. Perennial plants build soil structure, deepen infiltration, and reduce input dependency over time. DAR is demonstrating this transition at Yellow Barn Farm, where years of soil-building have prepared a one-acre plot for succession into a perennialized food and medicine landscape rooted in community relationship.
Careful observation and honest measurement are fundamental to everything we do. We track how our land stewardship and perennial systems perform over time to improve our own decisions. That's the first test. That same data gives our partners visibility into how the land is actually responding. We share what we find as a contribution to the broader body of knowledge on dryland stewardship.