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EARTH-HEALING
PERMACULTURE DESIGN COURSE
August 30 - September 14, 2003
Skalitude Retreat
Center
Methow Valley, Washington
in the beautiful North Cascades.
A two-week permaculture design course focused on
earth-healing and ecosystem restoration.
About this Course
Every permaculture course teaches how to design
productive and beautiful yards, farms and properties.
This course also has a major component on how to help
restore degraded ecosystems in cities, agricultural
areas, overgrazed, polluted and disturbed
environments. You will learn how to help enhance and
speed up nature's natural recovery processes.
Healing the earth is one of the most important tasks
facing humanity in this century!!
This course will impart permaculture principles and
methodologies which can be applied anywhere in the
world. Through lecture, slide shows, discussion,
observation, field trips and hands-on activities,
permaculture design students will develop the
practical skills and knowledge to design and implement
sustainable systems that are in harmony with the
natural world. We will cover hundreds of crops which
can provide family needs or cash income. Medicinal
herbs will be a major focus. Although this course's
focus is on the Northwest, participants from other
bioregions are welcome.
Instructed by:
Michael Pilarski
Christopher Mare
Anne Schwartz
& guest speakers.
Course fee:.
$750 between July 1 and August 1.
$800 after August 1.
Some partial work trade positions available. Inquire.
$250 deposit holds your place ($100 non-refundable).
For further information contact:
Friends of the Trees Society
PO Box 253
Twisp, WA 98856
(509) 997-9200
friendsofthetrees@yahoo.com
www.friendsofthetrees.net
Michael Pilarski is a farmer, educator and author who
has devoted his life to studying and teaching how
people can live sustainably on this Earth. He has
extensive experience in organic farming, seed
collecting, wildcrafting medicinal herbs, plant
propagation, horticulture, teaching, and international
networking. Michael has personally worked with over
1,000 species of plants. Michael is the founder of
Friends of the Trees Society (1978) and is the author
of books on forestry, agriculture and agroforestry. He
has been involved in the permaculture movement since
1981 as a writer, teacher and networker. He has taught
20 full Permaculture Design Courses in the USA and
abroad.
Christopher Mare designed the world's first B.A.
degree in "Ecovillage Design". He has studied
permaculture and and ecovillage design in Ireland,
Scotland, France, Australia, Mexico and the U.S.
Currently he is finishing a Masters program in whole
systems design at Antioch University, Seattle. Mare
recently founded the Village Design Institute.
Anne Schwartz, of Blue Heron Farm & Nursery has been
an organic farmer for 30 years. Her specialties are
livestock, vegetables, berries, nursery stock and
bamboo. Anne has been a leader and spokesperson for
the Northwest's organic farming community for many
years.
Other guest speakers to be announced. Course
participants will also bring a wide range of knowledge
and experience to share. We are all students. We are
all teachers.
The Skalitude Retreat Center is a beautiful site for
the Course. It is nestled at the end of a remote
mountain valley in the North Cascades in the Methow
Valley watershed. The main inhabitants are ponderosa
pines, douglas firs, aspens, bunchgrass, countless
wildflowers, deer, coyotes, bear, and cougar. The
center is a 160-acre site surrounded by national
forest. Facilities include a large, log-cabin lodge
which will be the main classroom. We will have a
large, roofed, outdoor kitchen to prepare our
community meals. Many course activities take place
outdoors. There are showers and a sauna. The center's
intent is to provide a retreat and educational space
for healing and spirituality. In creating a
Permaculture design for the property, these elements
will be considered.
Permaculture, at its basic core, is about humans
working with nature to establish healthy ecosystems in
their yards, their neighborhoods, their cities, or
wherever they live. We can assist nature to
regenerate healthy biospheres. This means soils get
richer, forests increase, trees get bigger,
biodiversity increases, the web of complexity of
relationships increases, more oxygen is produced and
more carbon is stored. At the same time, the
productivity of the landscape to meet human needs
dramatically increases. Currently, almost all food,
fiber, and wood products are imported into cities
causing an immense strain on the world's ecosystems.
We are going to see increasing global system
perturbations and breakdowns until humans mend their
ways. Permaculture offers a set of principles and a
design process that can be applied on any site or
within any culture in the world. Permaculture also
offers a huge storehouse of strategies and practical
techniques gathered from all around the globe.
Permaculture is an international network involving
tens of thousands of people.
Certification: Course graduates will be certified as
Permaculture Design Trainees, and after two years
experience will be eligible for Applied Permaculture
Design diplomas. Graduates are entitled to use the
term "Permaculture" in pursuit of livelihood, and for
educational purposes.
Course topics:
* Permaculture principles
* Permaculture methodology
* Large property design
* Ecosystem restoration
* Native plant restoration
* Erosion control
* Bio-engineering
* Bio-remediation
* Organic gardening
* Organic agriculture
* Agroforestry systems
* Natural building
* Livestock raising
* Urban permaculture
* Appropriate energy
* Village development
* Intentional communities
* Observation skills
* Site analysis & design
* Ethnobotany/ethnoecology
* Water harvesting
* Irrigation
* Dry land strategies
* Edible landscaping
* Tree crops
* Windbreaks, hedgerows
* Medicinal herbs
* Wildcrafting
* Seed collecting
* Aquaculture/ponds
* Sustainable forestry
* Integrated pest management
* Permaculture networks
* International resources
* Barter economies
and much, much more . . .