EarthFest Expo 2025

Savanna Pastures: Regenerating Earth’s Ultimate Ecosystems – Peter Allen

We’re thrilled to announce Peter Allen, ecologist, researcher, teacher and farmer, will join the EarthFest Expo as our keynote speaker. Oak savannas were the dominant ecosystems across much of North America including the Driftless for millions of years. Of prairie grasslands with scattered fruit and nut trees and shrubs, savannas were the most diverse, functional, and productive ecosystems on this continent. They nourished indigenous communities for millennia and megafauna for millions of years prior to that. Although they are now the most rare and endangered ecosystem in North America, oak savannas offer the ultimate model for productive and profitable agro-ecosystems. Peter will talk about the savanna history and ecology and how we can reclaim our role as a keystone species and regenerate Earth’s Ultimate Ecosystems across the Driftless.

Peter applies his background researching and teaching ecology and complex systems science towards the design, restoration, and management of diverse and agriculturally productive savanna ecosystems. He owns and operates Mastodon Valley Farm, a 220-acre regenerative farm in Southwestern Wisconsin where he has built a timber-frame homestead, planted thousands of fruit and nut trees, and grazes cattle, sheep, goats, pigs, and poultry across the fertile valleys, steep hillsides, and restored native prairie pastures. Peter and his wife Maureen grow all their family’s food on their homestead and are raising some amazing children off-grid nestled in a grove of oak trees. Peter combines his background with over a decade researching and teaching ecology and complexity science together with a decade of experience farming regeneratively to provide unique and effective consulting and educational opportunities, helping people design, build, and manage diverse, ecologically functional, and economically profitable agroecosystems.