u/Hardlydent

OK, so based on feedback from the community and an environmental scientist I spoke to, I've been wanting to redo the sketch for how the food forest on my land in Hi Vista will work.

1. 5 acres of the land will be for the food forest, surrounded by cat claw acacia. The reason for the cat claw is, 1) it's native to the area and 2) it doesn't allow raptors to perch, allowing for the plants/trees I grow within the boundaries to not be harmful to the surrounding endangered species via raptor nesting. The inner layers would have honey mesquite, followed by blue palo verde. Then, there would be the typical food forest trees/plants that are grown. I'm hoping the cat claw acts as a barrier for wind as well, but they're mostly a raptor sightline blocker.
2. The other 5 acres will be left as an ecological preserve and research area. I've had an environmental science student start logging some of the species, quantity, and location (via gps) there already: https://thelonproject.com/field-notes

I would also like to have some of the ecological preserve be used to grow a bit more of the creosote bush and maybe some other hyper local species that might be starting to die off in the area. I was thinking of having this area fenced off from humans and dogs and then having cat claw acacia surrounding this as well, but not sure if the acacia is needed since there wouldn't be anything except hyper local species grown here.

Any other thoughts from any ecologists/environmental scientists? I'd like to get feedback specifically from those in those fields, please.

I'm 40 now and not feeling too great. My career is okay, but I've just been feeling a general malaise due to a bunch of factors outside of my control. Not feeling much hope for our generation. What gives you hope?