The exceptional qualities of the Maya milpa forest garden cycle disclose not only the success of an indigenous annual cropping strategy but also the well-developed management of successive perennials in a system linked to sacred beliefs. The astonishingly productive strategies are flexible and can be intensified. Tree nurturing, crop yields, and land-use methods balance land cover and harvests over countless generations. Far from being destructive, the Maya farmers we have come to know are spiritual caretakers and co-creators of the Maya forest.