New Here, Biome Question

O.k. I am new here to this sight (love it), new to the permaculture/ restoration agriculutre idea ( really loving that), and have just moved to a new area. We've been in Ce4ntral MT for 11 years and have moved to just south of Lewiston,Id/Clarckston,WA. I was wondering if some one could tell me which Biome we are in here? We are not living in the canyon, we are up on top, above Kamiah.

Anyone else doing permaculture or restoration agriculture in the area? We are looking at doing a permaculure orchard and also following Mark Shephard's format.

Thanks

Welcome to permies.

According to http://www.pollinator.org/guides.htm you are in the Great Plains-Palouse Dry Steppe Province.

Their guide for that region is not yet ready.
However, the areas immediately north and south are currently available.
There is probably not too much difference between those 2 regions and yours as far as pollinators and plants go.
You could start there, and 'fine-tune' once your local guide is ready.

http://pollinator.org/PDFs/Guides/MiddleRockyMtrx9FINAL.pdf
http://www.pollinator.org/PDFs/Guides/NorthRockyMtForestStepperx4FINAL.pdf

Thanks JOhn for answering the question, that was exacty wahat I needed. WE actually talked to Mark SHepherd today and are working out details for him to come to idaho and do a workshop on our place. Exciting

You might want to look up Kamiah Permaculture, and see if they are still around and doing anything. I'm not that far from you up on the Prairie. I'm just getting into this as well. PM me it would be great to have someone close by to bounce ideas off of and maybe offer some support/help. Keep us posted on the Mark Shepherd workshop, sounds awesome!

Hey Dave,
Glad there is someone else close by interested in doing this. I found the Kamiah permaculture websight, and have emailed them a few times but have not gotten a response from them, so don't know if they are still around or not. I'd like to see what they are doing? We are waiting to here back from Shepherd on an exact date for the workshop. He will be doing the earthworks on our place when he comes. He did say we could do the swales with a two bottom plow, so we just need to locate someone with one of those who would be willing to help out. we just moved into the area last year in July so don't really know anyone yet.

I have access to a tractor with a front bucket on it. I'll look around for a double bottom plow...sounds like it might be a nice addition to the implement collection. I would be happy to help out if need be, but definitely interested in the workshop. Let me know if I can help.

I just scored a two bottom plow from craigslist so........ any body know how it should be set up for making swales or what the process for making them with a plow would look like?

Alright awesome! Don't know the exact process, but the quick rundown the Shepherd told us over the phone was, you plow once, then again, and then on the third pass you flip the second plowed up berm over the top of the first one.

We emailed him today with a few questions, and one thing he mentioned was possibly having a single shank subsoiler available also, you don't know anyone with one of those do you?

He said that he hopes to at LEAST get all the countour lines marked out and get SOME of the earthworks started, if the conditions are right. So I am assuming it can't be to muddy otherwise the tractor's will just be slipping and sliding tearing up the ground. We are considering maybe pushing this off a month to let things dry out just a little bit, just so that we can get as much as possible done while he is here to over see and teach us how to do it. Do you know when it usually stops raining so much around here? We were thinking maybe may or june might be a better time? Any thoughts or ideas?

It probably would be wise to push the workshop out until the middle/end of May. I know a lot of the farmers up here will try to get on the fields in April, but it's not consistently dry enough to work the land until May.

I hooked my plow up to the tractor today and tested it out. Burried the first blade then spun the tires. Definitely too wet to do anything right now.

I broke out my transit level and shot a couple contour lines, just for the heck of it. It's really interesting how your eye plays tricks on you. You would swear that the lines were running up hill. Guess you just need to have faith in your equipment.