Salt Lake County, UT

Forests that work

WildGuild designs permaculture forests with Utah-native plants. Every project serves a purpose: clean water, food production, fiber harvest, wildlife habitat. Self-sufficient ecosystems that thrive without you.

Water Filtration / Food Forests / Fiber Production / Ecosystem Restoration
The Approach

Plant guilds, not gardens

A guild is a group of plants that support each other. One fixes nitrogen. Another attracts pollinators. A third suppresses weeds. Together they form a living system that gets stronger every year without fertilizer, pesticides, or constant watering.

WildGuild designs these systems at forest scale using plants native to the Wasatch Front. The result: a productive landscape that looks like it belongs here, because it does.

01

Natural Water Filtration

Bioswales, rain gardens, and deep-rooted native plantings that filter runoff and recharge groundwater. Designed for Utah's arid cycles, where every drop matters.

02

Food Forest Design

Multi-layered edible ecosystems. Fruit and nut trees on top, berry bushes in the middle, herbs and ground cover below. Productive from year two, self-sustaining by year five.

03

Fiber & Material Production

Native species selected for fiber, timber, and craft materials. Willow for basketry, dogwood for tools, flax for linen. Productive landscapes that build local supply chains.

04

Ecosystem Restoration

Degraded land brought back to life with native plant communities. Soil rebuilding, pollinator corridors, and habitat creation that reconnects fragmented wildlands across the Wasatch Front.

Seven Layers Deep

Every forest is an architecture

Permaculture forests aren't random. They're designed in seven distinct layers, from canopy trees down to root crops and ground cover. Each layer fills a niche, captures light at a different height, and contributes to the whole system's resilience.

CanopyTall fruit and nut trees
UnderstorySmaller trees and large shrubs
ShrubBerry bushes and woody plants
HerbaceousPerennial herbs and wildflowers
Ground CoverLow creeping plants
VineClimbing and trailing plants
RootUnderground crops and tubers

Utah needs forests that give back

The Great Salt Lake is shrinking. Lawns drink water and return nothing. WildGuild replaces extraction with regeneration: living systems built from native plants that filter water, produce food, build soil, and sustain themselves. This is what Utah's landscape was designed to be.