12: Darren Doherty – Living With Fire & Regenerating Landscapes

On this episode I speak to Darren Doherty. Darren is one of the world’s most well-respected farm planners. He has developed a design system called the Regrarians Platform, which incorporates ideas and from existing frameworks with Darren’s own innovations. The platform was greatly influenced by people such as PA Yeomans, whose scale of permanence forms the basis of Darren’s framework. Darren’s approach also draws on Allan Savory’s work in holistic management and Bill Mollison and David Holmgren’s insights from permaculture.

Darren has worked around the world in many different kinds of climates and also has extensive experience regenerating landscapes in Australia.

Darren and his family have also produced an award-winning film called Polyfaces, which profiles Joel Salatin and his family on their innovative farm in Virginia. You can stream it at polyfaces.com.

I wanted to talk to Darren about his own history, and also get his thoughts on the bushfires in Australia, and how we can try to mitigate them in the future.

We don’t spend a lot of time specifically discussing the Regrarians Platform itself, so I encourage you to look up Darren’s lectures on YouTube, or go to regrarians.org to learn more about it.

At some points, we do get a little bit into the weeds, but even if you’re not familiar with land management or farming, I think you’ll still find Darren’s insights on those topics interesting.