Using Permaculture in Community Design

The Background
At the beginning of this term, I set out to gain "Comprehension and practice of introductory permaculture design concepts..." I also set the goal to "Investigate various models of community structure/design to help clarify my vision of community and steps to create it." The big picture provides some context for these goals:(from the intro to my contract) This contract begins building on a 10-year plan to establish an intentional community and education center in the Pacific Northwest. My vision for the community incorporates ethics of cooperation and deep connection with the natural environment, because sustainability must be informed from knowledge of local ecosystem function. Our community will incorporate a “freeskool” (for grassroots information and skill-share), long-term permaculture farm to produce a subsistence level of food for community members and guests, long-term internships in building a sustainable society, use of local resources (wild food and medicine, water, timber, etc.), and a documentary media collective. It will be financially sustained by our work as educators, foresters, artists, and farmers, and other diverse small industries.

In this contract I have actively pursued the above goals through readings, gaining my permaculture design certificate, networking, educating friends and the larger community about permaculture, practicing the skills of community organizing, and doing direct investigations of community structure.

The education in permaculture I received at the Earth Activist Training (EAT) was a perfect way to begin thinking about forming intentional community in the long term. People often think of permaculture purely in the sense of agriculture, but it is actually a way of thinking in a holistic way that can be applied to any aspect of life, including community design. Permaculture looks at the entire system and assesses how to aid and enhance the energy flows that already exist, creating balanced, regenerating systems. This works great in agriculture, because you get to use the natural patterns of nature to your advantage instead of fighting them. The same ideas can be applied to social situations. We can intentionally plan our organizations, community agreements and social behaviors, clubs, and personal relationships with a conscious eye to what would contribute to their self-sustaining, abundance-generating continuation.

At the EAT we focused on skills we can use to consciously design community, such as consensus, giving and receiving constructive feedback and dealing with conflict, addressing issues of power imbalances and learned behaviors inherited from the larger oppressive society, and doing bonding activities like intense emotional and spiritual processing.

Permaculture contains a set of principals which act as a guiding force for anyone seeking to design sustainable systems. I looked over my list of 27 principals and picked out a few of my favorite that I think are most applicable to social permaculture. Here are some examples of how I think we can apply these concepts.

The Principles, Socially
"System Yield" is the total surplus of energy produced by a system, after the system uses what it needs for maintenance, growth, and reproduction. A group of happy, well-rested people who feel close to each other can consciously generate extra energy to give away. This could be a community group helping in a societal crisis. A group generating energy from ritual or singing together uses it to "recharge" individuals first; excess is given away to the universe in intention and prayer.

"Resource." A resource is "any energy storage which assists yield." This is particularly pertinent in social application. If we focus on storing and conserving our personal energy there is more abundance in the group as a whole. Self-care prevents burn out, and makes the work we do more effective and efficient, so less work equals higher yield.

"The Problem is the Solution." We can turn our social constraints into resources--differences in communication or working styles can be used to add dynamism to group systems, conflict can be harnessed to add needed motivation for change and growth.

"Use Onsite Resources." In most cases, we need not look beyond this place and time to meet our needs. In designing, first use creativity to use what you have. In social application, look to the friends, community, and group members to meet the needs of the group before looking for outside "experts". This increases local bonding, trust in each other, and encourages skills development and sharing between people. This could also be applied to local organizing. Instead of relying on outside, far away governments to dictate laws for us, lets use the resources of the land and the intelligence of the people who live in our community to make our own decisions about how we want to live.

"Pollution is an unused resource." When a resource is present in a higher level than the system can use, it creates chaos and disorder. An example is that too much fertilizer in a garden can contribute to nutrient overload, making the nutrients inaccessible to plants. Children are wonderful, necessary members of a human community. However, if there are too many children compared to the number of adults, the joy, spontaneity, play, and wisdom of the young people go unappreciated because the adults are tired and worn out from too much giving.

"Stacking Functions." Let everything you do fulfill multiple functions--when having to do nasty housecleaning, organize a cleaning party and enjoy social bonding while you do an unappealing job. Let each person in an affinity group contribute multiple aspects of themselves to increase their feeling valuable and whole.

"Every Function is Supported by Multiple Elements." If one element in the system fails, another that serves the same function will be there to take up the slack; it's another way of saying "don't put all your eggs in one basket." An example could be a family or community's livelihood. It is better to have multiple income pathways, such as small businesses, to ensure that if one fails, money will still flow into the system.

"Succession of Evolution" looks at the dimension of time within a system. Change is inevitable and should be welcomed as a healthy aspect of a working system. Each current manifestation of the system prepares and develops the system for the next stage. Group membership will always change and develop; each new configuration of people grows from the last, building knowledge, experience, and relationships toward the collective future.

"Diversity." All biological communities, including human communities, rely on diversity for resiliency (the ability to repair itself from disturbance). As systems mature, they become increasingly diverse over time. Rely on many different people; the more individual relationships you have, the stronger the group. With time, these bonds develop and strengthen. Disturbance that may occur in the group becomes a stimulating catalyst for change, but does not crush the system because there is a strong web that absorbs the impact.

"Observation." April Cotte, a teacher at EAT, does solidarity work with indigenous people on the US-Mexico border. When we interface with different cultures, she said, we must be very conscious if we are members of any oppressor group (such as a US citizen relating to non-US citizens) to observe for a very long time before asserting cultural assumptions in the situation. She has offended people by coming into the situation with too much arrogance about what she knows. Sometimes sitting back and not asserting change immediately can be an intense challenge; I know I was not raised with that kind of cultural sensitivity. But we may not be able to notice the intricacies of interaction in a new culture right away, and it might take a long time to understand how to act appropriately in that group. When in doubt, observe.

Thinking About the Whole Group
In community, if I walk into a meeting with my own agenda, not noticing the energy of others or the group needs, I could end up dominating a space and walking all over people, creating a sense of anger and alienation in the group. That group would not likely return easily to a feeling of relaxed cooperation. However, if I walk into a meeting with observation, assess what is working well and what isn't, I can act intentionally to help the group come away feeling closer, more empowered, and relaxed. The solution could include me acting in any number of ways, including opinionated and strong, or quiet and peaceful, as an ally or conflict-resolver; in essence, I would be adapting and cooperating with the existing environment.

Thinking about the whole means being aware of social interactions that are informed by our positions in society. We cannot deny that each of us were raised within oppression, and we carry the messages from that system, even if we are seeking to heal them. Part of social permaculture for me is noticing and addressing how I may be acting out racism unconsciously, or playing into my own internalized sexism. Oppressive behaviors are not regenerating, they inhibit our true selves and prevent us from realizing our full potential as individuals and a society.

Sustainability also means thinking about how we treat each other and making conscious decisions about what kind of relationships we want, including with ourselves. The way we treat each other and ourselves, whether it be with loving kindness or harsh criticisms, creates large waves of impact around us.

How Can My Current Communities Become More Intentional?
A couple of weekends ago I attended a skillshare campout on some undeveloped land hosted by dear members of my loose-knit anarchist, queer, back-to-the-land community in the Northwest. The event held the purpose of sharing skills of wilderness survival and cooperative living with the land in an open, non-hierarchical environment. I got to thinking about this loose-knit and rebellious group of folks with whom I have been involved for almost a decade. I got to thinking about the amazing intentions of this community to create a just world free from exploitation, where local communities are free to govern themselves in autonomy. I also got to thinking about some of the problems we face as a community as we surge forward toward this goal, and I wondered, "How can anarchists create more of an intentional, self-regenerating culture?" Not all anarchists would proclaim that they want this, but most of my friends, I believe, do. We want to see this world out of misery, and we want to create a world that is good for ourselves and all life. (By the way, I fully include myself as a member of the group to whom I am addressing in the following statements, not at all above and beyond these challenges.)

1) We have to recognize that structure in itself is not the enemy. Many of us rebel against any social structure because, I believe, it reminds us of the hated oppression of enforced class and race hierarchies. In reality, form and pattern and structure are found in countless layers within nature. In fact, on a cellular level, life itself is a complex and extremely organized structure; it's what keeps everything in place. Without structure, we'd be floating particles in the void. So, we have to learn to harness and use structure and organization for our intentional uses. Many anarchists struggle with social and political organizing from what appears to me to be fear of recreating hierarchies, or by attempting to create other models but reverting back to our learned behaviors of domination and separation. We must consciously replace structures of oppression with flexible, yet solid and well-defined, structures of mutuality, respect, and regeneration.

2) Self care is not just for sissies (but we love sissies, and they need it, too)! Okay, many active, caring, people struggle with this. Under the constant desire to fix the world we forget to care for our basic needs and we burn the candle flame at both ends. This is actually NOT creating the revolutionary culture of the future, but is just a reflection of the dominant paradigm of which instructs us clearly to disregard the needs of our bodies, emotions, and spirit to produce for the machine. Producing a revolution under the same model will not yield a result that we would want to live in. Rest, people! I say no more, as this is something I over-discuss frequently.

3) Taking on leadership roles is good. For the 'under-confidenced' ones of us, being in leadership makes everything go better around us. If you are born and socialized male and forced to be in charge and given all the encouragement to be big and loud your whole life, then leadership may be something better to put on the back-burner. But for the folks born with identities that made them a target for the esteem-damaging oppressions of sexism, racism, ableism, etc., leadership is a powerful gift and taking it on will help everyone around you. Think of leadership not necessarily like you have to be the one giving the directions; instead, let it be a state of being where everything you do is self-empowered, done with a mind on what will help the whole group and world move in a positive direction. This will absolutely make it impossible to wallow in victimhood or fear, and your world will change around you to reflect your emanating power. I know this is true because of my own experiments. When I lead, things go better.

4) We need to look to traditions, as well as create traditions, because re-inventing the wheel constantly is exhausting. A multi-generational community is a stronger community, especially with strong, respected elders. There is a certain amount of arrogance in the rejection of old people by the younger generation--but we actually need them. However, we cannot take advantage of other cultures traditions because they are pretty, convenient, or comforting to us. Look to our own histories, or traditions held in common by all people, or traditions made up by your grandparents.

Those are my insights about my community, and I hope the preachy side of me didn't dissuade the ability to absorb the conviction of my thoughts. I feel a deep sense of possibility around conscious efforts to change our culture and society, and I, for one, am psyched to start with my upcoming intentional community, my current community, my individual relationships, myself.

Permaculture in Practice: Seed Balls Project!

Uses
Seed balls are a no-till method for vegetating an area, especially well suited for disturbed areas, compacted, or barren soils. Seed balls create a protected venue to keep seeds safe from blowing away, drying out, or being eaten by animals while they germinate and get established. The clay provides protection and the compost provides beneficial nutrients and microbes to help the seeds thrive. When seed balls are spread on a site, they don’t seed any irrigation, because they wait patiently until the rains come to wash away the clay and germinate the seeds.
You can use seed balls in your driveway, the barren lot next door, construction areas, in your garden, native habitat restoration, or to spread edible plants around the city guerrilla gardening style. It takes less time, effort, and money than more traditional till-methods of farming.

Seed balls have been used by some First Nations indigenous peoples, and developed into this current form by Fukuoka Masanobu, a Japanese ecologist and founder of the ideas of “natural farming.”

Recipe
Recipes available online are specific. I’ll say that at the Earth Activist Training our method was much more casual. Throw together some compost, some wet clay dug from the ground, and whatever seeds you have lying around. Don’t get too worried about getting it right! The seeds that are right for your location will flourish, and the others will struggle and not last, and that’s OK!

-One Part Seed Mix
-Three Parts Compost (not animal manure)
-Five Parts Clay (red or brown clay provides more nutrients, use local if you can)
-Water as needed (especially if you are using dried clay or compost, you will add enough water to make the mixture stick together)

Take out any rocks or clumps from compost and clay and mix together. Lay out in a layer on a tarp and sprinkle seeds on top. Add enough water to make the mixture sticky. Roll into calls about the size of a marble. Let the balls sit in a shady place until dry (a few days). Don’t store in plastic.

Distribute your seed balls at any time of year at about one seed ball per square foot.

Selecting your seeds: Plant Guilds
The key here is OBSERVATION, as in all aspects of working with nature. Think strategically about where you are sowing the seed balls and the seeds’ particular habitats before you sow. If you are using non-native or cultivated varieties of seed, only use them in areas that are close to human habitation, in the thick of the cities. Lots of damage to ecosystems has been done by spreading introduced seeds from other places in natural areas where they can potentially become weedy and out-compete native plants. Native seeds can be sown anywhere, because if they are not suited to a particular site, they simply will not grow there.

Plant guilds are a group of plants which grow together in a self-sustaining system of mutual support. Plant guilds could be seen as a loose associated community. They are not the same as companion planting, which combines specific species of plants which work well together. Plant guilds emphasize the functional roles of the plants instead, as well as the overall function of the guild as a whole. Functional roles include nitrogen fixers, dynamic accumulators, and insectary. Diversity is emphasized as important because species diversity strengthens the resiliency of the system and adds more interconnected beneficial relationships. We chose one plant from each functional category to highlight these roles, but ideally one could have dozens of plants that filled these roles, with many that have overlapping functions! We chose three native plants so that you could use these seed balls to spread beautiful native seeds anywhere you want, especially wild, disturbed or degraded areas (think areas around the housing developments on the Westside!). Within the overall function of your guild, design to have representatives from each functional category.

Some examples of plant guilds:
Prairie restoration (native grasses and wildflowers)
Pizza garden (basil, tomatoes, zucchini, onions, garlic, oregano, etc.)
Greywater filtration
Erosion control

Insectary
Insectary plants are attractive to beneficial insects, providing important habitat, nectar, pollen, or other resources to pollinators and predatory insects which will help control the population of insect pests, such as aphids. Insectaries are also plants which repel unwanted insects. They are also pretty!
Some examples: Anything in the carrot family (Apiaceae), anything in the sunflower family (Asteraceae), the mint family (Lamiaceae), roses, yummy smelling and bright colorful flowers!

Nitrogen fixers
Nitrogen fixers form a symbiotic relationship with soil bacteria on their roots that capture nitrogen from the air and transform it into a form accessible to plants. Nitrogen is essential for healthy plant growth, especially leaf and stem development! Nitrogen fixers help build healthy fertile soil, especially important for depleted or eroded areas.
Some examples: Anything in the pea family (Fabaceae; Acacia and carob trees, vetch, garden peas or beans, lupine, scotch broom), Ceanothus (red root), alders.

Dynamic accumulators
Dynamic accumulators are deep tap-rooted plants which reach far into the soil layer and draw up micronutrients from the lower soil, making those nutrients more available for other plants to use! This restores depleted soils. Also, the hearty thick taproots help break up compacted soil and return oxygen and organic matter after they decompose, building fertile topsoil.
Examples: Any deep tap-rooted plant! Comfrey, dandelion, plantain, mustards (any Brassicaceae), dock, borage, Echinacea.

Our Seed Mix: Yarrow, Lupine, Lomatium

Insectary: Yarrow!
Achillia millifolium
Asteraceae
-grows in nutritionally poor soil
-attracts wildlife
-pollinated by insects
-flowers from June to August,
-seeds ripen July to September
-Adaptable to many soil types
-Drought tolerant, semi-shade or sun
-Edible and medicinal
-First aid- stop bleeding,
-increases body temp for fevers and colds,
-Bitter and aromatic digestive stimulant

Nitrogen fixer: Lupine!
Lupinus Polyphyllus
Fabaceae
-flowers July to August
-seeds ripen July to October
-Bee pollinated
-grows in nutritionally poor soil and a variety of soil types
-requires sun, drought tolerant
-Seeds may be marginally edible; some contain a bitter toxic alkaloid which can be leached out through soaking, draining, and cooking

Dynamic accumulator: Lomatium!
Lomatium nudicaule
Apiaceae
-Needs sun, tolerates a range of well-drained soil types
-Insect pollinated
-Edible raw or cooked
-Young plants high in Vit C
-Leaves, seeds, or dried root as a spice
-Root roast
-Seeds medicinal to end pain, increase sweating, reduce fever, as a laxative, and for respiratory ailments.
-Many plants in this family are deadly poisonous!!


Resources

The Earth Path, by Starhawk.2005. HarperSanFrancisco.

The Earth Activist Training
www.earthactivittraining.org
The Permaculture Activist
www.permacultureactivist.net

City Repair in Portland, OR
www.cityrepair.org

Resources/References for Seed Balls

Television Trust for the Environment
http://www.tve.org/ho/doc.cfm?aid=1401&lang=English

Path to Freedom
http://www.pathtofreedom.com/pathproject/gardening/seedballs.shtml

www.seedballs.com
(Although I could not find this site, many other sites reference it, and it may be temporarily down)

Plants for a Future
http://www.pfaf.org/index.html

Ryan Drum on Lomatium and Yarrow:
http://www.ryandrum.com/threeherbs2.htm#icp

Leading and the Report-Back from the Earth Activist Training

On Wednesday Feburary 20th a momentus thing occured: I co-lead a fantastic event detailing my experiences from the recent two week Earth Activist Training (EAT) in permaculture, activism, and magic. My goal for the evening was to bring back some of the inspiration and practical knowledge of living close to the earth to my community from my experiences. I wanted to push myself, against all feelings of insignificance, into leading what is important to me. I wanted to participate as a member of my community in the responsibility of each others earth-education. I wanted live the things we learned at EAT, to have them sink into my life.

In preparation for the event I created tantalizing flyers and distributed them at all social/educational/political gatherings I went to for two weeks prior. I emailed my entire email list, posted on myspace and Olyblog, and personally invited friends. We had a great turn-out of about 25 people.

Margaritte and I also did a radio interview before the event with the Radical Freeschool Radio Show (see link on sidebar). We talked about our vision for a world free from industrial agriculture, about how to work with nature in designing human resource support-systems, and how to build a long term connection with place as a radical act against the capitalist patriarchy. Talking on the radio really helped me think through my ideas and gain confidence in my ability to speak articulately and passionately. I went into the event on Wednesday feeling stronger because of it.

I also spent a lot of time re-reading all my notes from the training and researching seed balls, which we led as a hands-on activity at the report-back. See previous blog entry for my seed ball research.

I am including a group email which I sent out to my fellow members of the Earth Activist Training because it shows my thinking around how important the step of sharing my knowledge was for my personal growth. And I share the letter specifically, because it too was an act of personal growth in a similar way to the report back.

Hey my dear magic permaculturist friends!

I have been thinking about you all lots since our
training, and meaning to write to you!  As many of you
know, Margaritte and I are doing independent study
this term at Evergreen, and EAT was the beginning of
our term.  We have continued learning about nature,
awareness, community, and connection to place since
then.  As part of our program, last week we gave a
public two hour event to share what we learned at EAT!
We had a great turn out of at least 25 people!  I
wanted to tell you all about it because the experience
of sharing this knowledge with my community at home
was very powerful.  It really brought all the new
knowledge into the forefront of my life and gave me
something to immediately apply it to: teaching!  I
was, of course, scared out of my wits!  But, it went
well anyway!  Both Margaritte and I have received tons
of gratitude from friends and folks who attended who
say they understand permaculture better than before,
and feel more hopeful about creating change.

For me, going to EAT was a major act of stepping into
my power.  In areas I often feel powerless (like
changing the world, my relationships, and my
relationship to nature), I took charge and decided to
live in the reality of how influential I am.  Teaching
the report-back for my local community was even more
of an act of magic in living my power.  Though I
doubted my ability to be interesting, intelligent, and
clear, I did it anyway! We taught about observation,
patterns, and basic permaculture concepts, as well as
sang songs from EAT, gave a slideshow, and did a seed
ball making project!

I want to encourage any of you who may be feeling a
little listless after the training--perhaps feeling
like "what was it all for?" or just stuck in the
routine of everyday life and feeling the burden of the
oppressive society hanging over you--Share your
knowledge!  Even though we are not experts in this
area (yet), we have skills and an experience of
learning about change in a magical learning community,
and that is so valuable to other people!

In my process I am learning about my own significance,
which is part of the act of this email I am writing to
you all.  Keeping you all in my life by sharing about
my ongoing experiences and learning pushes me to be
bigger than I have previously been comfortable with.
How can you be bigger in your life than is
comfortable?

You all are a dear dear group of people; I am
immensely glad to have been through EAT with you, and
I look forward to many more experiences building a
just, vibrant world with each of you!

Loves,
Heron

I have gotten lots of feedback from participants, which has helped me reflect on what I learned from the experience. We passed out feedback forms, which got great responses such as these answers to "What did you learn from the report back?": "People want similar things," and "healing the land and ourselves is easy." These answers point to a key desire of mine to lift up my fellow people from the despair which so easily plagues us and help us feel something good about our world and our power.

One friend said to us "You are like a lightning rod for this community." Wow! Another friend specifically appreciated the way that Margaritte and I worked together in presenting information. He noticed how Margaritte had the knack for giving detailed stories and examples, and my skill at tying the details in with the bigger picture to show overall themes and concepts. I noticed that dynamic in our presenting as well, and it was nice to hear that it was a good thing. I was worried about it being a problem!

But not all feedback was sugar-coated. One friend commented that the whole thing felt like an infomercial for EAT. He said there wasn't enough specific learning, and we talked too vaguely about things that felt like an inside experience. I think he wanted more skills-building. When prompted he said that he did learn a lot from the discussion on patterns and observation, and the seedballs project. That feedback was hard to hear, mostly because I already carry so much self-criticism inside that I battle all the time. It is hard to hear things that reflect a little of that self-criticism, because it always sounds worse from that lens than the person actually intended it.

It took me several days of suffering under my own negative blabbing about how embarrassed I was and how I would never set foot out of the house again to realize that the event was actually spectacular. Sure, we could use some improvement, but so can most teachers. I am taking the stance of appreciating all the courage it took to put myself out there. Specifically, I think we did great at advance curriculum planing, and at pulling in people's inspiration and ideas during the event by getting group brainstorms and giving people a chance to share a little bit of themselves. I liked how we planed the event with the awareness of balance around hands-on, lecture, and discussion. We pulled out the juicy pieces from the training.

Things I think could be improved: I didn't think about being true to the flier in the material presented at the report back. I put on the flier "regenerative activism," but when someone asked a question about it, I realized I felt awkward addressing it and like I didn't really know what I was talking about. Also, I think we could've used some help with transitions. And often I felt like I didn't have everything planned with margaritte. Would it have worked better to be even more separate in our presentations? I sometimes felt a sense of panic at being perceived as boring, and when Margaritte was talking I didn't have the control; I was scared margaritte was going to be boring. In reality I know this isn't the case, so maybe the answer is just to feel the feeling and focus on relaxing.

Honestly, though, I think that ease and interest in teaching comes with practice and that is the key to improving on this skill. I think that the act of sharing this information in whatever way is radical and I am so glad to push myself headfirst into my own BIG LIFE!

Garden Volunteer Day at OAEC

Occidental Arts and Ecology Center, Occidental, Sonoma County, CA
Wednesday January 24th, 2008

Margaritte and I have had our eye on this place for at least a year because of its unique organizational structure and its apparent functionality as a combo education center business and residential intentional community. After finishing our two-week permaculture training, we take advantage of our close proximity to the Occidental Arts and Ecology Center (OAEC) to show up for garden volunteer day to pull weeds and pick the brains of any community member who will talk to us.

We arrive in the morning from the wild concrete mess of San Francisco, where I drove back and forth across the tangled, crowded city streets early that morning in search of lost items, and the night before, a quiet place to sleep. Tanoaks and madrone, not yet affected by Sudden Oak Death**, line the short driveway and hand-painted colorful signs bid us to slow down and warn unwanted visitors to not drop by unexpected. The rich green gardens cascade in terraces down the hill, vegetables interspersed with fruit trees, winding trails and quaint natural wood buildings. It is obvious upon looking around that this land has been lived on with love and attention for a long time. It shows up in the care of design and detailed art weaved into things functional: a dragon shaped cob bench, a shed with a metal sculpture of a face with lightning bolts on it's side, a wooden stage set into the backdrop of the creekside forest, carved intentionally for flow and beauty. I think of how my dad would love the buildings here, how his eyes would light up with fire and dreamy ambition to create spaces such as these for the development and nurturing of community spirit.

In the garden our first task is weeding and mulching the garlic. Doug and Michelle are the two main gardeners whose full time job is managing this lush system of food- and beauty-producing gardens that provide year round for community and guests to the center. The kitchen feeds community members, which number around twenty, and whoever else is present for workshops or events, such as our workparty crew. We squat in the rich built-up beds with a small crowd of other volunteers, delightedly chatting and pulling the tiny weeds away from the maturing garlic leaves. I am struck by the feeling of peace and communal ease on the this land, and I mention this to Michelle, a short middle aged woman with long curly brown hair and a round amiable face. She reveals that, in all the time the land has functioned in its current legal entity (since the early nineties), no one has left the community permanently. No one has left!!! Turn over = zero. This is incredible! Longevity is the main problem I see in the intentional communities I have been a part of and it is the key issue I have set out to understand on my personal journey of creating a land based intentional community. To me, this land looks like a model utopia. I am aware of my naivety, and ask her to define what she thinks creates longevity in community. How do you create this sense of family? What makes people want to stay? Is is possible to define? Much to my delight, she busts out with a simple three point program. It's as if she has been asked this question countless times by young idealistic community-seekers, thus developing the perfect answer to feed their hopeful idealism; her answer is exactly in line with my own thinking, and I feel a surge of creative energy within me as my wildest hopes are confirmed with her clear, experience-informed wisdom.

Michelle's Magical 3-Point Program for Community Longevity (unauthorized).
1) Begin with prior relationships with the people you wish to live with. At the very least, have an extended trial period before accepting new people into the community.
2) Have an established structure for emotional process that the community has agreed upon and is employed regularly. This foundation is invaluable for avoiding emotional build-ups of resentment and miscommunication. Michelle prefers Naka Ima as a model.
3) Create a land-based culture that is a built-in bonding system for people to feel connected to the place where they live and the natural rhythms of the ecosystem. Many community-seekers were raised in the city, or in the mindset of the city, and living with natural rhythms is not ingrained; it must be harbored and developed through regular activities that connect our life cycles with the land, i.e. growing food and eating it. We must re-create the need for local knowledge by linking our needs to those of the land.

At OAEC people also get to do their own thing; the structure is set up to allow people to follow their own inspired life's work, not restrict it. "Why would they leave?" Michelle says matter-of-factly. She herself has come back and forth several times, and no longer lives on the land but is employed by the center as the gardener and is very connected to the place.

After weeding we move on preparing a bed to plant some late-season garlic. We spread compost and manure on the dark earth; then Michelle teaches us the wonders of Tai Chi Gardening. It seems that every system in this place is designed to prevent burn-out, including the use of your body as a valued, irreplaceable, lovable tool. She instructs: your strong hand goes in the middle of the fork handle, your non-dominant hand on end (just for support-don't use the muscle on that hand). Take a wide, low stance; knees bent, one foot in front of the other with your pelvis tucked in to protect your lower back. As you turn the top layer of soil backwards you rock your body by shifting the weight from front leg to back leg; don't use your back to pull and don't exert your arm muscles. The movement is all in your legs, not your upper body or back at all.

As I practiced this extremely awkward new way of moving I noticed my chronic feelings of disregard for my body, how I use it like a cheap tool able withstand a lot of abuse for the sake of production. (For a self identified anti-capitalist, how capitalist is my own mind-frame about my own body?!) Michelle is adamant about garden workers respecting their health and bodies and not burning out in farming as we age. New radical concept! Farming (or, working in general) as a practice in body mindfulness meditation!

I left the day at OAEC with an increased sense of possibility about my own dreams, and an ambition to pursue a possible internship there. Something about the way the structure functions by keeping the legal entities of community (a Limited Liability Company) and business (a non-profit) separate from each other yet linked through the people and the land seems to create a flexible and clear situation that leaves room for community bonding and functional business like I have never seen. Could the community I want to create function like that, I wonder?




**Sudden Oak Death. Once a staple food for the indigenous peoples of this land, and still a foundational species to the wildlife of the area, the tanoaks of northern California are dying at an extreme rate due to sudden oak death. Michelle tells us that it is caused by an algae that spreads through mud and waterways. It constricts the vascular system of the trees, stressing them to the point where they are vulnerable to beetle invasion, which moves in to finish them off. Humans haven't found a way to stop it. The forests in this area are visibly affected: crispy brown tanoak leaves, which normally remain on the tree year-round, are littered thick on the forest floor. Looking across a valley, large brown patches in the hillside vegetation point to the extremity of the loss.
Once, salmon returning to spawn in the clear waters left their dead bodies as offerings of nutrients to this ecosystem. Now they are mostly gone, and their missing presence is one possible link to the cause of sudden oak death. According to a Native friend of Starhawk's, the tanoaks need the humans to tend the land just as the humans need the tanoaks for food. The loss of the human interaction with this species through food foraging and fire management could be creating its mass extinction.

The Earth Activist Training

The first day began as all fourteen days at The Earth Activist Training (EAT) would begin: with ritual. We are instructed to close our eyes and reflect for a moment on why we came to this intensive permaculture, activism, and community building training. At the beginning of any event, we are reminded, always make your intention clear. What do we intend to create together? Why have we come? Someone begins, stating their affirmative purpose, and joining hands with their neighbor. We continue clockwise around the circle in such a fashion, twenty eight people linking hands and speaking our truth as a magical act to bring each member into the circle and create a sacred energetic container. The circle is cast.

All ritual begins with casting a circle--symbolically establishing the energetic space to do work together as a group. Casting a circle for the entire training allowed us to all arrive in the same location, leave behind the burdens of wherever we had come from, and recognize the common work we had come here to do.

After arriving into ritual space together, we begin with observation. Observation was to become the single most overarching theme through all the work we did in the coming weeks. In this westernized culture we often over focus on our visual sense, sometimes to the detriment of our other input systems: touch, hearing, smell, extra-sensory energy. We close our eyes. We become completely immersed in awareness of our surroundings; our chattering brains quiet; we become fully present, observing the moment.

At least, this is the theory. I find this hard. Mostly, I want to criticise my way of observing, feeling that I should be more skilled at intuitive perception and quieting the constant yabber of internal dialogue. I am already familiar with this process and the inevitable criticisms that arise. Yet, I sink into it again. It is the half-dream, half-quiet realm of sensing.

Before I came to this training I had undertaken this goal: to calm the habit of thought-addiction and reconnect with nature through my awareness, as a member of it, not an outsider. I am glad that we start with observation; as a skill it ties together community building, awareness and sensitivity to nature, and designing of sustainable systems for human living. It is the foundation of my education strategy and future goal of living in land-based intentional community. Who knew that such a task would provide me with a continuing sense of failure and challenge! Every time a thought jerks my mind away from my senses I despise the task of making the thought retreat--I want to indulge it, rest in the comfort of busy-to-do-list-fantasy distraction.

Observation informs all choices related to designing permaculture systems, both in physical and social structures. Throughout the training we talk at length about how to assess a physical site for its attributes, based on what we notice and interpret about its preexisting state. For example, let's take water systems--before one would install a rainwater catchment, one needs detailed information gained through observation about the quantity and timing of the rains, how much water is needed for use versus how much is expected in precipitation. If one went and built a huge system without taking these simple facts into account, one could end up with a design inappropriate for ones needs, such as too much storage space, etc.

Permaculture is the art of systems thinking applied to design. It is the active participation with your environment to create self-sustaining relationships of abundance and regeneration. It is the act of taking information gathered from our own thoughtful, protracted observation and traditional knowledge of the land and applying it to modern westernized society. Using these skills, our relationship with nature can change from one of abuse to one of cooperation and positive participation. The word comes from "permanent culture" or "permanent agriculture," and was coined by the originator Bill Mollison in 1970. In this sense, "permanent" does not mean stagnant and rigid, but means consistency within adaptation. Three main ethics form the foundation of permaculture: 1) Care of the Earth; 2) Care of the People; and 3) Fair Share (surplus is returned to the whole system, not horded by individuals).

The final group project earned us our permaculture design certificate. We worked in small groups to design a holistic permaculture plan for one of several options presented to us by the instructors. I chose to work on a design for Starhawk's property, for its similarity to my goals of owning and designing land in the future. It is about 40 acres large, situated on sunny hillsides of the Cazadero hills in Sonoma County, CA. There were several structures in place, some marginally functional gardens with chickens and some permaculture aspects, forests, powered off the grid from a micro-hydro system, a misplaced wind turbine, and solar panels. We were to design the fantastical image of Star's Ranch with no holds barred on our imaginations or the practical constraints of reality such as funding or labor. We were to dream big and place our designers mind on full blast.

Our ultimate product was a redesign of the gardens and buildings in what is referred to in permaculture as "zone 1", the location immediately surrounding your most-used dwellings, the place where all your immediate needs are provided for. During the process of assessing the site, brainstorming, and designing gardens, fruit orchards, social community building techniques, water catchment for rainwater and greywater, I realized a key piece about myself as a designer. Before presenting the project, I was convinced I had vast shortcomings as a permaculturist. But our presentation to the group was received with so much appreciation, including from the owner of the land, that I began to wonder if these shortcomings were actually attributes of my personality I could just accept and not judge myself for, and might in fact be assets.

Of all the project groups that have created a design for Star's land every year of this course, our project was appreciated as being the most practically useful. This highlights what I was most worried about in our project and in my own style--that we focused on the reasonable, the small changes, the ways to work with forms already present on the land. I was worried there wasn't enough grand alterations; we hadn't visioned the ultimate design that would be the utopia of permaculture sites for all generations in Sonoma County. I learned that small changes are good. My tendency to assert minimal change on my situation, be it social or physical, is not necessarily a shortcoming from lack of confidence, but an asset that allows me to see a situation/place with acceptance and humility. I think change is much more effective on small scales over long term. This idea is stated in the several permaculture principals, which are 27 ways to think about designing systems. The principal "least change for the greatest effect" says that the best change is the least change. It says we should avoid drastic alterations in present systems because then you are less likely to alter it beyond repair if you make a mistake, and you are working in harmony with the energy flows which already are in place.

I am inspired to bring back the knowledge I learned at EAT in many ways. For my dumpy well-loved rental house, I imagine a new garden in front where the land is degraded and compacted from being used as a parking spot. Special plants and fungus will bioremediate the toxins add nutrients, sheet mulching will kill weeds and build the soil without tilling the ground. I imagine a worm composing bin and a rudimentary greywater system in the bathroom. Our veggie garden in back could be designed to support a diverse community of insects and wildlife as well as producing food by using functional plant guilds: groups of companion plantings that combine the attributes of micronutrient uptake from the soil, beneficial insect attraction, and nitrogen fixation.

For my community, I see myself taking the information and skills from EAT and reaffirming my commitment to leading a big life as a leader in nature awareness and sustainability. I need constant reminding of this commitment because of my tendency to sink into feeling overwhelm or powerlessness. This training was another chance to remember my true self as powerful and equal in creating the world I want, surrounded by a loving community of people and nature. I felt like I could create anything I set my mind to. I have plans to teach a class this spring in developing stronger relationships with nature using the tools of botany, wildcrafting, and nature awareness. This summer I plan to facilitate a collective in organic farming, small business management, communal living, and ecological restoration. These are not roles I take on with ease; I take them on with a sense of purpose, a choice for struggling against messages that say I cannot make the world I want. I do not choose this path to feel "good." I choose to fight for myself and the world and my community because it feels right, and it needs to be done.

The future is a world waiting to be created by our intentions.