Detroit Flight Path Farm; Romulus, MI

Contact name

Kim Williams-Guillén - dtwflightpath@gmail.com

Agroforestry practices

Silvopasture

Windbreaks

Alley Cropping

Agroforestry Acreage

3

Years in Agroforestry

Since 2018

Agroforestry Summary

We have a 3 acre system integrating about 15 different species of (mostly native) fruit and nut trees where we raise pigs, poultry, and sheep. Our monogastric livestock feed on the fruits and nuts and also on our multispecies pasture. Our sheep graze the pasture but also browse some of our agroforestry trees (and reduce the mowing around the trees). Part of our agroforestry plot is in an alley crop configuration, the other half is in a series of smaller clusters interspersed in pasture (same numbers/density of trees as they alley crop system but a different spatial configuration meant to more closely resemble patchy distribution of trees in a savanna). The trees provide shade and cover for livestock and habitat for wildlife. We plan to more actively harvest and market tree products in future. We also have an older fruit orchard and a 7-acre oak forest where we hope to establish some forest farming (mushrooms, maybe run pigs out there) in the future.

Agroforestry Goals

Our agroforestry is mostly experimental at this point, and is somewhat inspired by the diversified agroforestry systems used by smallholder farmers in Central America. Our primary motivation in establishing agroforestry was to conserve and protect habitat, but we also see it as critical adaptation to climate change and as a long-term strategy for profitability for small diversified farming.

Practices and Production

We have planted a mixture of shrubbier, faster growing "understory" species and larger, slower growing "canopy" species. Species planted include: Aronia, Chestnut (mostly American or American hybrid, but also some Chinese and European), Crabapple, Elderberry, Hazelnut (hybrids), Hickory (shagbark, shellbark; I don't think any of the pecans survived), Mulberry, Oak (various including black, white, burr, chinkapin), American Persimmon, American Plum, Red mulberry, Redbud, Alleghany Serviceberry, Black walnut.

Site Details and Background

We purchased the property in 2017. Previously it had been in the same family for over 100 years and was used to grow a variety of vegetable and row crops. The land is very flat (was the shore of Lake Erie 13K years ago), loamy sand. Located a couple miles south of Detroit Wayne Metro airport, the area was once all farmland and is being increasingly gobbled up by conversion to housing developments/country estates.

Agroforestry Assets, Challenges and Support 

Assets: local conservation districts, nurseries like Oikos, Cold Stream, Forest Ag nursery. Challenges: access to funding (just paid out of pocket, at that time there wasn't NRCS support for agroforestry, as far as I know). I had previously done long term research on agroforestry systems in Latin America so I had a fair amount of knowledge going in.

Do you use other non-agroforestry conservation practices or other programs to help your Agroforestry Project? 

We have a CSP contract from 2024 which has been very helpful in providing support for the practices we installed at our own cost.

Are you be willing to be contacted by people who are interested in agroforestry?

Yes

Are you open or available for visitors?

By appointment only

Links to website, social media, etc., if applicable.

www.dtwflightpath.com