The Wild Farm Alliance Briefing Papers series explores many of the issues that define and distinguish the concept of farming with the wild. Each paper focuses on a particular issue set in the context of reconnecting food systems with ecosystems. With these papers, we are striving to bridge the gap between stewardship farming and wildlands conservation. 

   Wild Pollinators: Agriculture's Forgotten Partners

This briefing paper highlights the often underrecognized ability of native pollinators to support agriculture, provides ways to promote wildness on the farm, and underscores the role pollinators can play as ambassadors for agricultural systems that embrace wild biodiversity.

    Farming with the Wild Forever: Using Agricultural Easements to Support Biodiversity

This briefing paper covers new ground, focusing specifically on ways to support biodiversity on farms and ranches, and in the surrounding landscape, by using conservation easements designed to promote and sustain active management of land for various agricultural purposes compatible with wild nature.

   Making Connections for Nature: The Conservation Value of Farming with the Wild

Through wildlife corridors, protected waterways, and other natural linkages, wildlife friendly farms and ranches can help reconnect the landscape and restore its ecological integrity.

    Water: Life Blood of the Landscape

Agriculture accounts for 70% of the freshwater use in the world. If farms and ranches manage water wisely, they can support and benefit from the delivery of nature’s services, such as nutrient cycling, erosion control, and clean water.

    Grazing for Biodiversity: The Co-Existence of Farm Animals and Native Species

While truly sustainable grazing practices address all three components of sustainability— ecology, economics, and community—this paper focuses on those elements that most directly influence biodiversity.

    Agricultural Cropping Patterns: Integrating Wild Margins

A farm under cultivation, whether irrigated or not, can provide varying degrees of opportunity for wildlife to co-exist in the landscape. In fact, “farming with the wild” can improve the living situation for many wildlife species and make farming interesting without harming economic productivity.