permaculture

["Permaculture West" <permawest@olywa.net>]

BUILDING THE NATURAL
COMMUNITY
Permaculture Design Course
September 6th-19th, 1997

        ...imagine...living in a community that is blended into the natural
environment.  Homes crafted from the native landscape are designed to heat
and cool themselves while remaining elegant and affordable.  Integrated
into the surrounding neighborhoods are natural water systems where food is
grown safe from harmful chemicals and waste is managed for productivity. 
Neighbors, young and old, routinely help one another by sharing resources
and skills.  Local needs are met by efficiently managing local resources
thereby reducing transportation and pollution. By design this community
saves you money while making leisure time more abundant.  Most importantly,
however, the design of this community preserves the Earth's precious
resources.

        Through the simple and practical strategies offered by permaculture
design, a village lifestyle like this is not a dream.  By developing
climate-based zoning guidelines many such communities are emerging across
the U.S. and the world.  Seeking to emulate nature's sustainable model,
permaculture design has become a globally recognized framework for an
environmentally benign system of land-use management.  In nature, total
resource efficiency is accomplished by managing waste for productivity and
balancing consumption with multi-functional contributions from each of the
elements of the system.  Permaculture Sciences design human communities
that model the same inter-connections and multiple functions found in
natural ecosystems.
        Though relatively new to development in the U.S., permaculture brings 
to
home owners and design professionals an innovative approach to planning,
building, and retrofitting.  Perma-culture design is now taught regularly
through regional groups, private colleges, and universities around the
world.  At the local bioregional level residential two-week training
courses are conducted as an information intensive means of disseminating
principles of permaculture design.
        From September 6th-19th, Permaculture West will be hosting a two-week
Permaculture Design Course at the Wild Thyme Farm near Oakville, WA. 
Located in the Chehalis river valley just 35 minutes South of Olympia, the
Wild Thyme Farm is an evolving education and resource center.  Situated
within its own watershed the farm features a 100 acre second growth forest,
turn-of-the-century barn, fruit & nut orchards, greenhouses, sauna,
gardens, hot tub, streams, pond, cottages, and various microclimates
ranging from ridge-top meadows to low-land marshes and flood plains.  Wild
Thyme Farm has been a retreat center since 1989 and integrative
permaculture principles have continually guided its evolution.  
        This two-week intensive design course will examine the fundamentals of
developing sustainable villages and communities that are bioregionally
unique.  Elements of village design to be discussed include: local
economics, appropriate building strategies, edible landscaping,
agro-forestry, cottage industries, aquaculture, mushroom cultivation, site
analysis, natural education, bamboo, livestock & wildlife, food forests,
systems theory, and much, much more.  Information is presented through such
mediums as: slide shows, lecture, hands-on demonstrations, field trips, and
observation walks.  Participants completing the entire course will receive
a Permaculture Design Course Graduate certificate.
        Instructors include: Larry Santoyo; a world renowned permaculture 
designer
& educator who has worked directly with Bill Mollison.  Larry is one of the
foremost urban permaculture designers in the U.S. and has developed
sustainable industry programs for several major U.S. corporations.  Paul
Stamets; owner of Fungi Perfecti, the largest mushroom research facility in
the NW.  Paul has been pioneering permaculture strategies for
re-integrating edible & medicinal mushrooms into residential & commercial
landscapes.  Simon Henderson; co-founder of Bamboo People, the NW's leading
bamboo research & consultation firm.  Simon has traveled the world
documenting bamboo cultivation and uses.  He is author of Raising the
Dragon: Bamboo Agroforestry in Vietnam.  Michael Pilarski; founder of
Friends of the Trees, a NW non-profit dedicated to reforesting the world. 
Michael has been a permaculture designer for over 15 years and has more
than two decades worth of experience in international networking and
sustainable natural resource management.  Joanne Lee; has founded the South
Sound Exchange, a local economic and bartering system for the Olympia area.
 She is also involved with co-housing initiatives in Thurston County.
                                                                
Cost: $675 (includes camping, materials, and all meals)
Accommodations: Camping is free.  Bunkhouse: $150.  Guesthouse: $200. 
Space is limited, please inquire as to availability.
Course is limited to 25 participants.

Contact: Permaculture West
            72 Mattson Rd.
            Oakville, WA 98568
            Ph: (360) 352-6509
            Fx: (360) 273-7117
            E-mail: permawest@olywa.net


PERMACULTURE DESIGN COURSE OUTLINE
September 6th- 19th, 1997
Oakville, WA 



Session One: Caring for the Earth.  Program orientation & house rules,
video documentary - "In Grave Danger of Falling Food," group introductions,
international permaculture movement, ethics & principles of permaculture
design.

Session Two: Pattern Understanding.  Observation, edge effect & harmonics,
flow forms, fibonacci numbers, golden proportions, methodologies of design,
natural guilds, introduction to business guilds, housing designs, heating &
cooling, pattern language, passive solar design, straw-bale construction,
design teams.

Session Three: Reading the Landscape.  Introduction to zone & sector
planning, landscape profiles & biogeography, selecting land, introduction
to land-use planning, creating a base map, site planning, keyline, A frame
level, bunyip, design process, drafting techniques, presentation methods &
materials, design teams.

Session Four: Trees & Their Energy.  Hydrologic cycle, riparian area
management, water harvesting, swale construction, gabions, soil science,
tree planting & pruning, food forest orchards, restoration forestry,
designing a homestead, design teams.

Session Five: Independant Study.  Day off.

Session Six: Zone One & Two.  Observation, climate & weather, pattern
literacy, eco-imperialism, zone & sector planning continued, design to
avoid natural disaster, energy systems, conservation, guerilla planting,
design teams.

Session Seven: Garden Planning & Designs.  Observation, pattern
application, landscape & culture, micro-climate, irrigation, sheet
mulching, keyholes, seeds & seed saving, composting, windbreak design,
small livestock, waste management, roof water, wells, cisterns, grey water,
environmental tribalism, specialty crops, nurseries, design teams.

Session Eight: Zones Three & Four.  Observation, pattern understanding,
singing up the corn, sustainable agriculture, tree crops, grains,
irrigation, woodlot management, Fukuoka-san, keyline & Wallace plow, forage
systems, plant & animal guilds, human & animal nutrition, herbs, food
storage, constructed wetlands, chinampa, ponds, aquaculture, earthworks,
design teams.

Session Nine: Field Trips.  Fungi Perfecti - mushroom cultivation &
research station.  Strawbale barn.  Local CSA's & plant nurseries.

Session Ten: Independant Study.  Day off.

Session Eleven: Invisible Structures.  Caring for each other, urban
permaculture strategies, observation, pattern recognition, wilderness
preservation, regional natural & cultural history, design teams.

Session Twelve: Ecovillage Concept Planning.  Co-housing, collaborative
community, human dynamics, natural patterns for organizations, bioregional
organization, land trusts, conservation easements, individual project
presentations.

Session Thirteen: Ecovillage Design.  Eco-nomic development, alternative
money systems, redefining wealth, land access strategies, small business
strategies, commonworks, ethical for-profit business, non-profit
organizations, group re-introductions, individual project & design team
presentations.

Evening Talent Show / Celebration !!!

Session Fourteen: Ecovillage Development.  Individual project & design team
presentations, worknetting, working as a permaculture design consultant /
trainee, where do we go from here?

Adjourn.....