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Various Teachers: Northern Arizona Permaculture Design Course
September 25, 2009 @ 9:00 am - 5:00 pm
The course consists of four three-day weekends held in Flagstaff, Tucson, the Verde Valley & Sedona: September 25-27, October 2-4, October 16-18, and November 13-15. Partial registration is available for just Weekend 1 &/or Weekend 2.
Learn how Permaculture design can meet and exceed human needs by transforming human gardens and communities into fully functioning ecosystems. Receive hands-on experience on how to apply the principles of ecological design in your own home, neighborhood, and city.
Permaculture is an integrated ecological design system for creating sustainable human settlements. Far more than a set of gardening tips and techniques, Permaculture is about understanding and designing the connections between people, the earth, plants, energy, climate, water, transportation, shelter, animals, economics and much more.
This course is for:
Home owners, renters, gardeners, farmers, ranchers, landscapers, architects, builders, developers, civic planners, educators, environmentalists, students … everyone who wishes to learn how to live sustainably and apply the principles of holistic design to their respective fields.
Course topics:
- Permaculture ethics
- Permaculture design principles
- Understanding natural patterns
- Creating healthy soil
- Plant selection, plant guilds & food forests
- Site analysis & design
- Mapping
- Climate and microclimates
- Water harvesting
- Energy
- Natural building
- Bioregional theory
- Local food systems & community land access
- Co-housing, eco-villages & City Repair
- Design for peak oil & ecological collapse
- Ecological economics & community currencies
About the course: This 72 hour curriculum will cover Bill Mollison’s PERMACULTURE DESIGNERS MANUAL plus more recent material. The course consists of four (4) three (3)-day weekends held in Flagstaff, Tucson, the Verde Valley & Sedona. The spread out weekend format is to accommodate local residents schedules to participate in this valuable learning experience taught by regional experts in Permaculture & Sustainability. Course experience will include classroom instruction, field trips, hands-on activities, required & suggested readings & completion of a permaculture design project. Upon successful completion of the course, the student will receive Permaculture Design Certification.
| Course Information | |
| Instruction on all course dates is from 9 AM to 5 PM, with the exception of the field trip to Tucson. Weekend 1, Sept. 25-27 – Flagstaff, AZ “Introduction to Permaculture Design” This first week session lays the ground work for permaculture design and can be taken as a single “Introduction to Permaculture” workshop. This session will include Permaculture Ethics & Principles, Regenerative, Generative & Degenerative Systems, Pattern Recognition, Climactic Pattern Understanding, Site Assessment, Forests & Energy, Permaculture Design Methodologies, Solar Cooking lunch demo by Lisa Rayner & tours of urban & rural, active, mature Permaculture sites including Quaking Aspen and Mountain Meadow Farm. Weekend 2, Oct. 2-4 – Tucson, AZ “Permaculture in Practice” In the second weekend session we will look at “Permaculture in Practice” as we tour Tucson with permaculture and water harvesting expert Brad Lancaster. In this session students will learn the fundamentals of water harvesting, tour co-housing developments, meet with city officials who are applying permaculture in the government, learn about simple neighborhood community co-operative sharing models, backyard Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) examples, and much more. Due to the popularity of this weekend, we are offering the “Permaculture in Practice” session as a single workshop as well. Course participants will camp near Tucson Friday and Saturday nights. Weekend 3, Oct 16-18 – Cornville, AZ The third weekend builds upon the first two as we learn to apply Permaculture on farms and ranches. Topics include Keyline Design, Perennial agriculture systems including guild planting, agroforestry and food forests, Animal Husbandry, Seed Saving with Bill McDorman, and the Soil Food Web. Hands-on projects include creating water harvesting earthworks at a 10 acre farm in Cornville. Weekend 4, Nov. 13-15 – Sedona, AZ In the final weekend we will apply permaculture on the community scale and learn about Land Access, The City Repair Project, Creating a Local/Regional Food Economy, Alternative Economics and Local Currencies, and Right Livelihood. This weekend will feature a hands-on natural building project with Cassandra Lasdin and a visit to the Crescent Moon Ranch Community Garden. Culminating the whole course will be student design presentations and the infamous permaculture costume and talent / no talent show! |
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| Course Instructors | |
| We have an exciting line-up of teachers for this year’s permaculture design course, including… | |
| Brad Lancaster Brad is the author of the acclaimed “Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands” series. He is also a permaculture teacher, designer, consultant and co-founder of Desert Harvesters (DesertHarvesters.org). He has taught programs for the ECOSA Institute, Columbia University, U of AZ, Prescott College, Audubon Expeditions and many others. He has helped design integrated water harvesting and permaculture systems for homeowners and gardeners, including the Tucson Audubon Simpson Farm restoration site, and the Milagro and Stone Curves housing developments. He lives in Tucson, Arizona, where he harvests over 100,000 gallons of rainwater a year on his 1/8-acre homesite. |
| Josh Robinson Josh Robinson has a strong love of plants, soil, and ecology. It is only natural that he finds himself working to transform conventional landscapes into their full and sustainable potential as abundant gardens of Eden. Josh is certified in permaculture design and has a master’s degree in Ecological Landscape Design. Josh also encourages people to reclaim their own gardens through education. He has taught numerous classes, workshops, and slideshows on permaculture and ecological landscape design including courses through Northern Arizona University, Coconino Community College, Prescott College, and the ECOSA Institute. Josh lives and gardens in Flagstaff at “Quaking Aspen,” an award-winning 1/4-acre ecological and food-producing paradise. |
| Chris Anderson Chris Anderson has been practicing sustainable living since 1994, when he began working on organic farms. He later developed a market garden business and co-created a mobile environmental education program for schoolchildren in Appalachian Ohio. Chris earned a Permaculture Design Certificate in 2001 and became a Rainwater Catchment Systems Accredited Professional in 2008. Chris is Vice President of Eden on Earth, LLC, an ecological landscaping company specializing in creating abundant and edible landscapes that are irrigated naturally with rainwater and greywater. Chris gardens at his West Sedona home and is creating a community Food Forest at the Crescent Moon Ranch Community Garden. |
| Lisa Rayner Lisa Rayner is a writer and teacher of sustainable cooking and permaculture design in Flagstaff, Arizona. Lisa is known as a progressive political activist who rides her bicycle to meetings and events all over town. Lisa has a Bachelor of Science degree in Natural Resource Interpretation from Northern Arizona University. She is a graduate of the 1993 Black Mesa Permaculture Project’s Design Certification Course and 1994 Coconino County Master Gardener Program. |
| In addition to this excellent core group of teachers, we have many guest instructors including:Bill McDorman – a Cornville resident, Bill has been lecturing about seeds and seed-saving for 23 years at institutions that include the University of Montana. He founded, and remains president of- Seeds Trust, Inc., a company dedicated to genetic conservation, sells non-hybrid varieties and teaches seed-saving. High Altitude Seeds, one of Seeds Trust’s mail order departments, remains the world’s only mail-order seed company specializing in vegetable and wildflower seeds for high elevations, listing seeds for more than 100 wildflowers, 25 native grasses, and 200 vegetable varieties. Bill published his first book in 1994, titled- “Basic Seed Saving”, which contains seed saving information for 29 wildflowers and 18 vegetables. He received his permaculture certification from Larry Santoyo through the Permaculture Institute (USA). Cassandra Lasdin – holds a Master’s Degree in Sustainable Studies and has been working in the field of natural building for 6 years. She has focused on earth and lime plasters, cob, strawbale, and light straw clay construction. She has worked for permaculture landscape companies and permaculture farms fitting natural building into the landscape. She has worked with both adults and children and loves empowering students as they learn to build dwellings from on-site materials and teach others in their community. And many more to be announced. |
| Registration | |
| Registration costs for the Northern Arizona Permaculture Design Course are as follows: • $600 per person if a non-refundable deposit of $150 is received by August 25 • $625 per person if a non-refundable deposit of $150 is received by September 10 • $650 otherwise • The balance of the course costs are due on or before the first day of the course • Registration for Weekend 1 or Weekend 2 sessions only is $200 per weekend per person. A non-refundable deposit of $100 is required to hold your space.Make checks payable to: Chris Anderson, PO Box 615, Sedona, AZ 86339. With your registration, please include your name, address, email address, and phone number. If you wish to pay by PAYPAL, contact Chris @ activehope@yahoo.com or 928-202-6649.and refer to PAYPAL and the Northern Arizona Permaculture Design Course. For more info call: Donna Lay @ (928) 202-2363 |
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