As bush-crafters, we rely on the natural world... that same world is being destroyed at an alarming rate by pollution, logging, current agricultural practices, and urban sprawl. Also, the less deciduous trees, the more extreme the weather worldwide because they regulate temperatures by shielding the ground from the summer sun but not the winter sun. Individually, not much of a difference, but the cumulative effect is the difference between a thunderstorm and an f5 tornado, or between abundance and famine due to rainfall (it has been long known that the cooler air under a canopy of trees can cause water to condense out of the air and fall as rain or appear as dew).
So, what can we do to stem the tides of destruction of our habitat, and by extension, our way of life? Lots of simple things actually. I'm not going to suggest use of the so-called "green technologies" or any other high-tech solutions because those are just money-making schemes. The solution to our problem is to restore the damaged systems to their former glory by planting seeds and mulching. It really is that simple. We can also coppice trees for lumber instead of clear-cutting. What you see in the picture below is an area in my backyard where I grow squash. Looks more like a forest floor than a garden bed. This is intentional use of fallen maple leaves and twigs in soil remediation. the soil there has not been dug or loosened in any way, and is currently so lush in the planted ground-cover that I have to prune the stuff back to keep it from choking out the more slowly-growing zucchini. Wherever I look under the leaves, there are worms and pill bugs (they prefer to eat the mulch, but will settle for your crops when none is available, so mulch). What does a mulch do? It holds water like a sponge, adds soluble minerals to the topsoil as it decays that were brought up from the water table by the tree, promotes populations of beneficial microbial life, provides food and moisture to all 3 types of earthworms thereby loosening and blackening soil up to 8 feet deep over time, shields the soil from rain thus preventing erosion and from the sun thus preventing evaporation, and provides living space for insectivorous animals (a good thing in any garden or field). Okay, but what to plant? Start out with native taproots, legumes, fast-growing trees, and fast-growing drought-tolerant perennials. Mulch the areas immediately around the bases of the plants if you can't do the whole area. Also toss seed balls around made of compost, potters' clay, and seeds collected from local grasslands. These plants tend to perform the function of succession of woodlands. They pave the way so to speak. Bringing leaves from an established woodland and grassland can help seed the proper microbes and insects more quickly. Chop and drop the field plants until the trees are tall enough to shade them. Come back in a few years, it will have transitioned without you into a functional woodland. You can tweak it by bringing in plants and seeds that you find useful so you don't have to go looking for them in the woods. The act of propagating useful wild plants in a woodland is called Forest Gardening. It was the first type of agriculture practiced by humans. The concept of Permaculture (Sustainable agriculture and society using natural processes to produce abundance.) is based on this successful strategy. Not turning the soil is important because soil has layers. In each layer, there are different mechanisms of nutrient production that benefits plants. Some deep-soil bacteria will die if exposed to oxygen, and mycelial mats that move nutrients and water die when they are dug into smithereens and exposed to bacteria from layers they wouldn't naturally venture into. Soil will be adequately aerated and dug by worms and other burrowing creatures. Fungi and bacterial films can handle small amounts of stress, but nothing can really survive overwhelming stress of being ripped to shreds, infected, and starved at the same time.
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