Silviculture Sea

Spring ‘22 | Critic: Farzin Lotfi-Jam and Christopher Battaglia | In Collaboration with Rex Miller

In pursuit of regenerative extraction practices, a 100-year model of cyclical growth and harvest sited in the Salton Sea stands to support the long-term well-being of the natural landscape while employing novel frameworks of extractive geographies. Each quadrant will regenerate for 75 years between 25-year harvest periods, and will be made of three zones: the Perimeter (timber forests), the Intermediary (phytomining), and the Interior (lithium brine). When used in conjunction with existing extractive methods, phytomining - the production of a ‘crop’ of metal by growing high biomass plants that accumulate high metal concentrations - can build long-term resource reserves and facilitate extraction through cleaner natural processes. Part of a dynamic, concentric system of lithium brine pools, phytomining farms, and timber plots, a hybridized extraction landscape offers greater resource abundance and ecological stability. Raw lithium can still be harvested through brine refinement, and conventional logging will continue - but under a sustainable and regenerative management model that scales back these traditional extractive methods.