Author photo for “The Wastewater Gardener: Preserving the Planet One Flush at a Time”

Thrity Vakil and Mark Nelson at Synergia Ranch booth, Santa Fe Farmer’s Market with organic fruits and vegetables, 2006.

Some of the speakers at the 2nd International Conference on Closed Ecological Systems hosted by the Institute of Biophysics, Krasnoyarsk, Siberia, 1989.

Front page of Krasnoyarsk newspaper with first western scientists to visit the closed system. Photo shows them around a model of Bios-3, then the most advanced closed ecological system in the world.

Mark Nelson at Fitzroy Crossing, West Australia rodeo, 1978. Mark helped start the Institute of Ecotechnics project, Birdwood Downs, which focuses on pasture regeneration in the tropical savannah.

Mark on an inspection of the southern Iraqi marshes, 2011, in conjunction with the Eden in Iraq project, an art-ecology demonstration venture to bring ecological wastewater treatment to the Marsh Arabs living in the restored marshes.

Mark on an inspection of the southern Iraqi marshes, 2011, in conjunction with the Eden in Iraq project, an art-ecology demonstration venture to bring ecological wastewater treatment to the Marsh Arabs living in the restored marshes.

Pruning fruit trees in the Synergia Ranch orchard, mid 1990s.

With partners in “Biotechnic Woodwork,” a furniture and carpentry company Mark co-managed at Synergia Ranch from 1970-75.

Mark giving a talk at the I.E. Mountain Conference, Kathmandu, Nepal, 1979.

At Birdwood Downs, a 5000 acre (2000 ha) pasture regeneration project in the Kimberley region of northwest West Australia, 1980.

Mark Nelson at Synergia Ranch, 2013.

Presenting a conceptual model for ecological management at the 1980 I.E. Planet Earth conference, Les Marronniers, Aix-en-Provence, France.

Checking soil moisture next to a device that measures carbon dioxide released by soils, Biosphere 2, 1991-1993.

Collecting sorghum stems after harvest for animal fodder, Biosphere 2, 1991-1993.

During the “Victory Garden” campaign in Biosphere 2, making additional food crop areas to increase use of “sunfall”, Biosphere 2, 1991-1993.

Managing the constructed wetland which treated wastewater in Biosphere 2 and recycled water and nutrients back to the farm soils, 1991-1993.

Linda Leigh and Mark re-measuring trees in the savannah biome of Biosphere 2 as part of a biomass increase study, 1991-1993.

On exercise bike in Biosphere 2’s medical laboratory with Dr. Roy Walford. Studies documented the health benefits of our restricted calorie diet and adaptations to lowered atmospheric oxygen.

Greeting with the biospherian handshake, John P. Allen, inventor of Biosphere 2 and its Executive Chairman, and Academician Oleg Gazenko, Director of the Institute of BioMedical Problems, Moscow, Russia, 1993.

Standing with Prof. H.T. Odum, father of ecological engineering, in front of the first Wastewater Gardens in Akumal, Yucatan coast, Mexico, 1997. These systems were studied for my Ph.D. at the University of Florida and were the start of Wastewater Gardens International, implementing the eco-technologies in 14 countries.

In front of portrait of Charles Darwin with Dr. Lydia Somova and Prof. Nicholai Pechurkin from the Institute of Biophysics, Krasnoyarsk, Siberia during the 4th International Conference on Closed Ecological Systems and Biospherics held at the Linnean Society of London in 1996.

Mark Nelson in Biosphere 2, 1991-1993.