Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands and Beyond by Brad Lancaster

Brad Lancaster, Jerry Yudelson, & Others: Coneybeare Cleantech Leaders Conference, May 14, 2015 — Irvine CA
2015-05-14 09:00 - 19:00 (America/Los_Angeles)
Calling all community and government leaders; utility executives; property owners and managers; clean technology companies; “green” architectural, engineering, and construction firms; and venture capitalists who want to be part of the evolution to provide superior-performance technologies at lower social, environmental and economic costs:
Come to the Coneybeare Cleantech Leaders Conference to learn about innovative, cost-effective, high-impact, scalable strategies in water, solar, and renewable energy from a wide-ranging group of leaders in their fields, while engaging in conversation with new connections and enjoying excellent food throughout the day.
Brad’s talk, Integrated Harvests of Sun, Water, & More, will wrap up a day-long conference featuring speakers Jerry Yudelson, LEED Fellow; Miguel Pulido, Mayor of the City of Santa Ana; and John Irvine, MBA and Sustainability Consultant.
Innovative technologies to be presented include: Eva Smart Shower, Ciralight, Plant-e, and Mirrors Around the Globe.
Date: Thursday, May 14, 2015
Times: 9 am – 5 pm (conference) and 5–7 pm (happy hour)
Location:
Eureka Building
1621 Alton Parkway
Irvine, CA 92606
Click here for more info and to register.

Homegrown Food Summit, featuring Mike Adams, Toby Hemenway, Brad Lancaster, Joel Salatin, and others: April 6–12, 2015 — online
2015-04-06 - 2015-04-12
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The Homegrown Food Summit is a free online series that goes beyond the usual offerings, with presentations on topics like:
Aquaponics,
Chickens,
Communicating with Plants,
Deer Hunting,
Eating Insects,
Food Forests,
Food Preservation,
Gardening, & Foraging,
Homesteading,
Living without Refrigeration,
Seed Saving,
Water Harvesting,
and more.
The summit runs from April 6 through April 12, hosted by self-reliance specialist Marjory Wildcraft.
Learn more about the topics that will be covered, and register here for free.

CANCELLED: Brad Lancaster: Guided Home and Neighborhood Tour Showcasing Integrated Harvests of Water, Sun, Wind, Shade, Fertility, Carbon, and Community, April 4, 2015 — Tucson AZ
2015-04-04 09:30 - 12:00
THIS TOUR DIDN’T REACH THE MINIMUM REGISTRATIONS TO MAKE IT A GO—SORRY!
PLEASE KEEP AN EYE OUT FOR THE NEXT TOUR AFTER COOLER WEATHER RETURNS.
Brad Lancaster, author of the award-winning, best-selling book series, Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands and Beyond, will lead this 2.5-hour tour of his home property (this is the only home property that will be on the tour) and sites within the public rights-of-ways of the Dunbar/Spring neighborhood.
A portion of the proceeds from the tour will help fund ongoing integrated water-harvesting, native food-tree planting, traffic-calming, and education efforts within the public realm of the neighborhood.
Some of the many features to be included in the tour:

Low-tech, low-cost, gravity-fed (no pumps) potable rainwater-harvesting system providing for household water needs (including drinking water)

Rainwater-harvesting tanks doubling as summer sun- and winter shade-harvesting systems, privacy/property fences, fire breaks, and more

Passive, gravity-fed greywater-harvesting systems that reuse all household drainwater for safe irrigation of food plants that also help passively shade/cool buildings in summer while retaining the sun’s heat and light gain in winter.

Flood-controlling, heat-island abating, and carbon-sequestering public gardens and orchards irrigated ONLY with on-site rainwater

A tiny-house one-car-garage-to-cottage conversion resulting in a passively heated and cooled garottage

Numerous strategies on how to maximize the harvest of winter sun AND summer shade in a way that reduces your water consumption, carbon emissions, and costs—these strategies work in ALL seasons, rather than working in only one season at the expense of others

Sculpture that celebrates the seasonally changing path of the sun and the design of homes and gardens that make the most of the winter sun and summer shade

Solar cooking, power, hot water, heating, lighting, and clothes drying

Low-tech, low-cost, legal site-built compost toilet

Self-regenerating living mulch machines that naturally bioremediate pollutants from street runoff

Novel urban-wildlife habitat such as pollinator fences and shade screens

Neighborhood-history sign project

Neighborhood-scale water harvesting, native food-tree planting, traffic calming, and art—all celebrating and enhancing the story and potential of Place

For visual previews of some of these features: Click to enlarge the images below, check out these sun- and shade-harvesting and water-harvesting & cistern set-up videos, &/or read this enhanced stormwater-harvesting blog post.

Also available for sale at the tour will be signed copies of Brad’s books (including the newly revised and expanded second edition of Volume 1), as well as Rainwater Harvesting and Desert Harvesters t-shirts.
**The Fine Print**

For the tour to have been held as planned would have required a minimum of 15 tickets sold by 7 pm MST on Thursday, April 2—which we did not reach. All ticket-holders will receive an email (at their PaypPal-related address) by 12 noon on Friday, April 3, either to confirm the tour or to announce its cancellation. If the tour is cancelled, all ticket-holders will receive a full refund. If the tour will be held as expected, the email will include details and logistics of the tour, including the address.
If you wish to cancel your ticket(s) you must email us at admin@Harvesting Rainwater.com with your cancellation request by 7 pm MST on Thursday, April 2, to receive a refund. After that time, your ticket purchase becomes a donation in the event you are not able to attend or sell/give away your ticket.
Tickets are transferable (you may give/sell your ticket to another person). When you arrive for the tour, simply provide the name of the original ticket-purchaser and we’ll check you in on our tour list.
After you complete your ticket purchase, you will receive an automated confirmation email from PayPal and be brought back to this page. When one of us humans sees your purchase, we’ll generate a second confirmation email via PayPal. Thanks for your interest and support!

Brad Lancaster & WMG Colleagues: Water Harvesting Design Certification Course: November 17–23, 2014 & March 16–22, 2015 — Tucson AZ
2015-03-16
The WMG Water Harvesting Design Certification program is a hands-on training course that provides certification in water-harvesting-system design and implementation. The WMG program provides a high-quality, in-depth training in integrative water harvesting. Detailed course information can be found here. A list of Certified Practictioners can be found here.

Tucson courses:
November 17-23, 2014
March 16–22, 2015 (register by January 16 for a discount)

The course teaches site assessment, design, and installation of:

Greywater systems
Rainwater-harvesting landscapes
Roof-top rainwater catchment (cisterns)

For more information about the Certification program or to register, please click here, email tech-trainings@watershedmg.org or call 520-396-3266.
Course participants conduct a site assessment.
Developing a water-harvesting site plan based on a site assessment.
Participants review hands-on steps following greywater install.

Brad Lancaster: Guided Home and Neighborhood Tour Showcasing Integrated Harvests of Water, Sun, Wind, Shade, Fertility, Carbon, and Community, February 28, 2015 — Tucson AZ
2015-02-28 09:30 - 12:00
FEBRUARY 28 TOUR: SOLD OUT
Brad Lancaster, author of the award-winning, best-selling book series, Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands and Beyond, will lead this 2.5-hour tour of his home property and sites within the public rights-of-ways of the Dunbar/Spring neighborhood.
A portion of the proceeds from the tour will help fund ongoing integrated water-harvesting, native food-tree planting, traffic-calming, and education efforts within the public realm of the neighborhood.
Some of the many features to be included in the tour:

Low-tech, low-cost, gravity-fed (no pumps) potable rainwater-harvesting system providing for household water needs (including drinking water)

Rainwater-harvesting tanks doubling as summer sun- and winter shade-harvesting systems, privacy/property fences, fire breaks, and more

Passive, gravity-fed greywater-harvesting systems that reuse all household drainwater for safe irrigation of food plants that also help passively shade/cool buildings in summer while retaining the sun’s heat and light gain in winter.

Flood-controlling, heat-island abating, and carbon-sequestering public gardens and orchards irrigated ONLY with on-site rainwater

A tiny-house one-car-garage-to-cottage conversion resulting in a passively heated and cooled garottage

Numerous strategies on how to maximize the harvest of winter sun AND summer shade in a way that reduces your water consumption, carbon emissions, and costs—these strategies work in ALL seasons, rather than working in only one season at the expense of others

Sculpture that celebrates the seasonally changing path of the sun and the design of homes and gardens that make the most of the winter sun and summer shade

Solar cooking, power, hot water, heating, lighting, and clothes drying

Low-tech, low-cost, legal site-built compost toilet

Self-regenerating living mulch machines that naturally bioremediate pollutants from street runoff

Novel urban-wildlife habitat such as pollinator fences and shade screens

Neighborhood-history sign project

Neighborhood-scale water harvesting, native food-tree planting, traffic calming, and art—all celebrating and enhancing the story and potential of Place

For visual previews of some of these features: Click to enlarge the images below, check out these sun- and shade-harvesting and water-harvesting & cistern set-up videos, &/or read this enhanced stormwater-harvesting blog post.

Also available for sale at the tour will be signed copies of Brad’s books (including the newly revised and expanded second edition of Volume 1), as well as Rainwater Harvesting and Desert Harvesters t-shirts.
**The Fine Print**

The morning tour has been confirmed as planned. An email has been sent to all ticket-buyers (at the address provided through PayPal) with the site address and other logistical details. Please send us an email if you signed up & paid but did not receive the email with tour details.
Tickets are transferable (you may give/sell your ticket to another person) but at this point are not refundable. Your ticket purchase will become a donation in the event you are not able to attend or sell/give away your ticket. When you arrive for the tour, simply provide the name of the original ticket-purchaser and we’ll check you in on our tour list.
After you complete your ticket purchase, you will receive an automated confirmation email from PayPal and be brought back to this page.

Brad Lancaster: Keynote Speaker at Tucson Audubon's Annual Gala, February 10, 2015 — Tucson AZ
2015-02-10 18:00 - 21:30
Date: February 10, 2015
Time: 6–9:30 pm
Venue: Hilton El Conquistador Resort
Address: 10000 N Oracle Rd, Tucson, AZ 85704 [SEE MAP]
Be a Part of an Elegant Tradition at Tucson Audubon’s Seventh Annual Gala
An Evening for the Birds | Bringing Nature Home
We invite you to come together for a magical evening at Tucson Audubon Society’s Seventh Annual Gala! Featuring a Silent Auction, Live Birds and Culinary Delights. Our keynote speaker is Brad Lancaster, one of the nation’s foremost experts on rainwater harvesting and author of the Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands and Beyond series. His presentation for the evening is titled “Oasis Tucson: Transforming Mirage to Reality.”
Registration and sponsorship opportunities now available. See tucsonaudubon.org/gala for more information.

Sonoran Permaculture Guild: 20th Annual Permaculture Design Course, February & March 2015 — Tucson AZ
2015-02-07

Brad Lancaster: Water-Harvesting Talk at New England Grows, February 5, 2015 — Boston MA
2015-02-05 14:00 - 15:00
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Date: Thursday, February 5, 2015
Time: 2–3 pm (Brad’s session)
Venue: Boston Convention & Exhibition Center
Address: 415 Summer Street, Boston, MA

Both volumes of Brad’s book series, Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands & Beyond, will be available for sale & signing
Brad’s talk:

Rainwater Harvesting & Other Water-Conservation Strategies
As a horticulture professional it is incumbent upon you to partner with your community and natural surroundings to actively preserve and enhance water. Local resources you regularly encounter: rain-, grey-, and stormwaters; sun, wind, and shade; and soil fertility can generate far more potential than the sum of their parts. Scarcity is re-visioned into abundance simply through creative cycling and utilization of what is already at hand. You’ll learn simple ways you can influence your customers to conserve and enhance water. You’ll gain inspiration through examples of earth-friendly and beautiful landscape projects that integrate water conservation strategies. In other words, you’ll take away a treasure trove of ways to make a positive difference.
About New England Grows (from their website):
Held every February, New England Grows is renowned for its world-class education offerings and innovative trend spotting. Founded in 1993 by green industry professionals for green industry professionals, the educational conference and exposition gives participants unique access to targeted, industry-specific products, information, education and connections. The New England Nursery Association, Massachusetts Arborists Association, Massachusetts Association of Landscape Professionals and Massachusetts Nursery & Landscape Association are the organization’s founding partners.
Proceeds from New England Grows go directly back to the industry to support the work of these and other green industry organizations, including yearly research grants to the region’s Cooperative Extension programs. Funds from the show also support related community-based programs, such as the Boston Schoolyard Initiative. The show’s format and educational content is continually updated to meet current industry needs and bring inspirational thinking to participants.
Click to view the full conference guide
Click here to register—early-bird rates expire January 15, 2015.

Brad Lancaster: Integrated Local Harvests (public talk), January 8, 2015 — Encinitas CA
2015-01-08 18:00 - 20:00
Date: Thursday, January 8, 2015
Time: 6–8 pm
Venue: Leichtag Foundation Ranch
Address: 441 Saxony Road, Encinitas CA 92024
Cost: Free & open to the public
RSVP here—space is limited!
Light refreshments will be provided
Talk will be followed by Q&A and book sales & signing
Both volumes of Brad’s book series, Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands & Beyond, will be available for sale & signing
Talk description:
Integrated Local Harvests:
Simple and Effective Ways to Enhance the Natural Abundance of Your Home, Community, and the Larger World
This dynamic presentation shares patterns and strategies to harvest, integrate, and enliven free local resources—such as rain-, grey-, and stormwaters; sun, wind, and shade; along with soil fertility, wild foods, and community fun—in a way that generates far more potential than the sum of their parts. Scarcity is re-visioned into abundance simply through creative cycling and utilization of what is already at hand. Costly and consuming habits and infrastructure, disconnected from their surroundings, are reoriented and reconnected to maximize enriching opportunities.
You’ll see many examples of such transformation, including how once-dying wetlands and creek flows are being regenerated with simple hand-built structures made of on-site materials; how ancient sun- and shade-harvesting sites are informing passively heated, cooled, and powered modern homes and retrofits; and how once-blighted, overheated neighborhood streets are being rejuvenated into thriving greenbelts of water, people, wildlife, art, food, and celebration by planting once-drained stormwater, seed, and yard prunings.
This talk is both an invitation for you to engage and partner with your natural surroundings and community, and a treasure map showing you the way—by planting the rain, dancing with the sun, growing fertile shade, and more to live as one of your community’s inspirational sparks!
Presented by: Leichtag Foundation

Brad Lancaster: Guided Home and Neighborhood Tour Showcasing Integrated Harvests of Water, Sun, Wind, Shade, Fertility, Carbon, and Community, December 20, 2014 — Tucson AZ
2014-12-20 09:30 - 11:30
Brad Lancaster, author of the award-winning, best-selling book series, Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands and Beyond, will lead this 2-hour tour of his home property and sites within the public rights-of-ways of the Dunbar/Spring neighborhood.
A portion of the proceeds from the tour will help fund ongoing integrated water-harvesting, native food-tree planting, traffic-calming, and education efforts within the public realm of the neighborhood. Tickets for this tour have sold out. Thanks, all! Please send an email to admin@www.harvestingrainwater.com if you’d like to be on the waitlist for this tour &/or notified in advance of future tours!
Some of the many features to be included in the tour:

Low-tech, low-cost, gravity-fed (no pumps) potable rainwater-harvesting system providing for household water needs (including drinking water)

Rainwater-harvesting tanks doubling as summer sun- and winter shade-harvesting systems, privacy/property fences, fire breaks, and more

Passive, gravity-fed greywater-harvesting systems that reuse all household drainwater for safe irrigation of food plants that also help passively shade/cool buildings in summer while retaining the sun’s heat and light gain in winter.

Flood-controlling, heat-island abating, and carbon-sequestering public gardens and orchards irrigated ONLY with on-site rainwater

A tiny-house one-car-garage to cottage conversion resulting in a passively heated and cooled garottage

Numerous strategies on how to maximize the harvest of winter sun AND summer shade in a way that reduces your water consumption, carbon emissions, and costs—these strategies work in ALL seasons, rather than working in only one season at the expense of others

Sculpture that celebrates the seasonally changing path of the sun and the design of homes and gardens that make the most of the winter sun and summer shade

Solar cooking, power, hot water, heating, lighting, and clothes drying

Low-tech, low-cost, legal site-built compost toilet

Self-regenerating living mulch machines that naturally bioremediate pollutants from street runoff

Novel urban-wildlife habitat such as pollinator fences and shade screens

Neighborhood-history sign project

Neighborhood-scale water harvesting, native food-tree planting, traffic calming, and art—all celebrating and enhancing the story and potential of Place

For visual previews of some of these features: click to enlarge the images below, check out these sun- and shade-harvesting and water-harvesting & cistern set-up videos, &/or read this enhanced stormwater-harvesting blog post.

Also available at the tour will be signed copies of Brad’s books (including the newly revised and expanded second edition of Volume 1), as well as Rainwater Harvesting and Desert Harvesters t-shirts—all at holiday sale prices.
**The Fine Print**

For the tour to be held as planned will require a minimum of 15 tickets sold by 7 pm MST on Thursday, December 18. All ticket-holders will receive an email by 12 noon on Friday, December 19, either to confirm the tour or to announce its cancellation. If the tour is cancelled, all ticket-holders will receive a full refund.
Anyone wishing to cancel his/her ticket(s) must email us their cancellation request by 7 pm MST on Thursday, December 18, to receive a refund. After that time, your ticket purchase becomes a donation in the event you are not able to attend or sell/give away your ticket.
Tickets are transferable (you may give/sell your ticket to another person). When you arrive for the tour, simply provide the name of the original ticket-purchaser and we’ll check you in on our tour list.
After you complete your ticket purchase, you will receive a confirmation email from PayPal and be brought back to this page. Thanks for your interest and support!

19th Annual Dunbar/Spring Neighborhood Rain, Tree, & Carbon Planting, November 22, 2014 — Tucson, AZ
2014-11-22 07:30 - 12:00

Brad Lancaster of Desert Harvesters: Water-Harvesting & Native-Tree Workshop at Food Conspiracy Co-op, November 1, 2014 — Tucson AZ
2014-11-01 08:00 - 12:00
Plants’ water needs and tolerance determine the ideal Rain-Garden Zone. See plant lists in appendix 4 for more.
Do you want to grow native trees in your yard without turning on the hose? Desert Harvesters’ Brad Lancaster will show you how to harvest rainwater, air-conditioning condensate, and stormwater to irrigate native perennial food plants. Learn how to use simple water levels (called bunyips) in your yard or neighborhood and make earthworks—landscaping features that direct and capture the flow of water—for water harvesting. You’ll also learn where to place trees to maximize summer shade and winter sun. After you’re done learning, you’ll get to put your newly acquired knowledge to work installing earthworks and planting trees in the Conspiracy Gardens.
Bring pointed shovels and hard rakes, along with hats and work clothes.
Date: Saturday, November 1, 2014
Time: 8 a.m.–noon
Location: Conspiracy Gardens, behind the Food Conspiracy Co-op, 412 North 4th Ave, Tucson
Cost: Free
Register by emailing Kelly Watters at outreach@foodconspiracy.coop or calling (520) 624-4821

Brad Lancaster: Work In Beauty's Conversations on Local Agriculture, October 18, 2014 — Gallup NM
2014-10-18 11:00 - 16:00
2014 CONVERSATIONS ON LOCAL AGRICULTURE
Hosted by Work in Beauty, a local Gallup 501(c)3 organization
Date: Saturday, October 18, 2014
Time: 11 am – 4 pm
Venue: UNM-Gallup Student Services Building, Room 200
Cost: Free
PROGRAM TO INCLUDE THE FOLLOWING:
Click to view/download event poster
**Brad’s presentation on Harnessing Free Water from Streets, Dirt Roads, and Driveways to Grow Abundance:
Local Harvests and Enhancements in Our Community Commons
In populated environments, streetscapes are part of our public land, our commons. They are abundant—one-third of a typical city’s footprint is pavement for motor vehicles. These streetscapes are usually designed as drains, rapidly ridding a community of such perceived “problems” as rainwater, stormwater, organic matter, fertility, and obstructions to traffic flow. This design often leads to ever-increasing costs for importation of water, flood control, pollution control, heat-island abatement, climate-change mitigation, and health problems.
But a simple shift in perception and design can enable us to see and utilize rainwater, stormwater, organic matter, fertility, and even some obstructions to traffic flow as free, local resources, which can be passively harvested to enhance local water supplies, control flooding, filter pollutants, grow cool-islands, mitigate the effects of climate change, and improve health—while generating more resources and more life.
The key is to see and enhance the free abundance that we already have in a way that transforms more of our built systems into living systems that can regenerate themselves and our communities.
Numerous successful examples will be featured.
**Walking tour of campus with Brad to learn to see through a lens of possibility
**Three Sisters Potluck Lunch with Presentation of Awards to winning Demonstration Projects
**Brad’s presentation on Water Harvesting for Food Production:
Food is virtual water—originating from the source of irrigation. Local, sustainable food is all the rage, but we can take it further by growing that food with local, sustainable water. This talk covers the growing of food using rainwater, stormwater, and greywater for irrigation. Case studies include rain-fed greenhouses, dryfarming, backyard market gardens, granada greywater groves, and climate-appropriate traditional and appropriate plantings.
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Click photo above to read a brief piece on Brad in the Gallup Journey
>>Attendees are encouraged to check out the following resources before the Conversations:
Let the Water Do the Work, by Bill Zeedyk & Van Clothier (available for purchase)
Water Harvesting from Low-Standard Rural Roads, by Bill Zeedyk (available as free download)

Brad Lancaster: Free Mini Hands-On Water-Harvesting Earthworks Workshop, October 9, 2014 — Tucson AZ
2014-10-09 08:00 - 10:00
Free Mini Hands-On Water-Harvesting Earthworks Workshop
Brad’s nephew Vaughan playing in the rain, the runoff from which is passively directed to our street-side food-bearing, native shade trees.
Date: Thursday, October 9, 2014
Time: 8–10 am
Location: Dunbar/Spring Neighborhood – just north of downtown, Tucson, AZ
The workshop is on rain or shine
FREE with RSVP
Space is limited to six people
– You’ll be given exact address once you RSVP…
– To RSVP, send us an email at admin@HarvestingRainwater.com, being sure to include your name, email & phone number (preferably cell)
Come wield a shovel to help plant the rain! In so doing, you’ll be creating a street-side raingarden which will freely irrigate native food-bearing shade trees, mitigate downstream flooding, re-forest and re-fauna the urban core, and more. Plus you’ll be helping to spread these concepts and practices near and far, as this workshop will be filmed by a French documentary team for inclusion in a project on water and enhancing global conditions with local efforts.
Included in the workshop:
– Hands-on creation of a street-side rainwater-harvesting basin
– Use of simple bunyip water level and the 3 Key Elevation Relationships of a rain garden
– How to use free, existing driveway “curb cuts”
– Touring thriving water-harvesting earthworks/rain gardens
– How to assess best placement opportunities
– How to improve existing earthworks
– Enhancing the sponge of living soil with free on-site materials
What to bring:
– Sun hat, water bottle, gloves, and work clothes
– A get-after-it attitude and physical readiness to work–this is a hands-on workshop
– A willingness to be filmed–a French documentary team will be filming all participants
– Pointed shovel and/or hard rake
– Rain gear if it looks like rain
Brad will have signed copies of his award-winning books Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands and Beyond on hand for those wishing to buy them.

Brad Lancaster: Hands-on Water-Harvesting Earthworkshop, September 21, 2014 — Marfa TX
2014-09-21 08:30 - 15:30
Date: Sunday, September 21, 2014
Times: 8:30 am – 3:30 pm
Location: Marfa International School
Address: 800 East Galveston | Marfa, TX 79843
RSVP &/or FMI: Contact Chris Hillen at hillen.christopher@gmail.com. Space is limited.
How to Plant the Rain (and Other On-site Waters) to Grow Sustainable Abundance
In order to better see the whole and our place within the hydrologic cycle, each earthworkshop begins with participants learning the Water-Harvesting Principles; basic watergy facts; integration of sun, water, and community; oasis zones; how to think like a plant; and various earthworks strategies. We then assess the site, identifying water resources and watersheds, asking and answering relevant site-specific questions, and testing our observations with simple tools. Equipped with a deeper understanding of the site and its water, we then place and create water-harvesting earthworks, guided by the Principles, key integration techniques, and the goal of living within the site’s sustainable water budget. Depending on the site, typical earthworks created in an workshop can include infiltration basins/rain gardens, one-rock check dams, contour berm ‘n basins/swales or boomerang berm ‘n basins, and terracing. Time and resources permitting, we will plant guilds of vegetation within/beside the earthworks and view a presentation of earthworks from around the world. This duration of this workshop is typically 6–7 hours.
Note: There will be another hands-on earthworkshop in Alpine on Saturday, September 20.

Brad Lancaster: Public Talk: "Integrated Local Harvests," September 20, 2014 — Marfa TX
2014-09-20 19:00 - 21:00
Both volumes of Brad’s book series, Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands & Beyond, Volumes 1 & 2, will be available for sale & signing
Date: Saturday, September 20, 2014
Time: 7–9 pm
Venue: Crowley Theater
Address: 98 S Austin St | Marfa, Texas 79843
Cost: Free & open to the public
Talk will be followed by Q&A and book sales & signing
Sunday there will be a free hands-on water-harvesting workshop at Marfa International School
Saturday’s talk description:
Integrated Local Harvests:
Simple and Effective Ways to Enhance the Natural Abundance of Your Home, Community, and the Larger World
This dynamic presentation shares patterns and strategies to harvest, integrate, and enliven free local resources—such as rain-, grey-, and stormwaters; sun, wind, and shade; along with soil fertility, wild foods, and community fun—in a way that generates far more potential than the sum of their parts. Scarcity is re-visioned into abundance simply through creative cycling and utilization of what is already at hand. Costly and consuming habits and infrastructure, disconnected from their surroundings, are reoriented and reconnected to maximize enriching opportunities.
Click to view the full-size poster with details on Brad’s 2 public talks and 2 free workshops the weekend of Sept 19-21 in Alpine and Marfa.
You’ll see many examples of such transformation, including how once-dying wetlands and creek flows are being regenerated with simple hand-built structures made of on-site materials; how ancient sun- and shade-harvesting sites are informing passively heated, cooled, and powered modern homes and retrofits; and how once-blighted, overheated neighborhood streets are being rejuvenated into thriving greenbelts of water, people, wildlife, art, food, and celebration by planting once-drained stormwater, seed, and yard prunings.
This talk is both an invitation for you to engage and partner with your natural surroundings and community, and a treasure map showing you the way—by planting the rain, dancing with the sun, growing fertile shade, and more to live as one of your community’s inspirational sparks!
Presented by: The Highland Soil & Water Conservation District

Brad Lancaster: Hands-on Water-Harvesting Earthworkshop, September 20, 2014 — Alpine TX
2014-09-20 08:00 - 14:00
Date: Saturday, September 20, 2014
Times: 8 am – 2 pm (approximate—subject to slight adjustment)
Location: Alpine (TX) Public Libary
Address: 805 W. Avenue E | Alpine, Texas 79830
RSVP &/or FMI: Contact Will Juett at wjuett01@yahoo.com. Space is limited.
How to Plant the Rain (and Other On-site Waters) to Grow Sustainable Abundance
In order to better see the whole and our place within the hydrologic cycle, each earthworkshop begins with participants learning the Water-Harvesting Principles; basic watergy facts; integration of sun, water, and community; oasis zones; how to think like a plant; and various earthworks strategies. We then assess the site, identifying water resources and watersheds, asking and answering relevant site-specific questions, and testing our observations with simple tools. Equipped with a deeper understanding of the site and its water, we then place and create water-harvesting earthworks, guided by the Principles, key integration techniques, and the goal of living within the site’s sustainable water budget. Depending on the site, typical earthworks created in an workshop can include infiltration basins/rain gardens, one-rock check dams, contour berm ‘n basins/swales or boomerang berm ‘n basins, and terracing. Time and resources permitting, we will plant guilds of vegetation within/beside the earthworks and view a presentation of earthworks from around the world. This duration of this workshop is typically 6–7 hours.
Note: There will be another hands-on earthworkshop in Marfa on Sunday, September 21.

Brad Lancaster: Public Talk: "Integrated Local Harvests," September 19, 2014 — Alpine TX
2014-09-19 19:00 - 21:00
Date: Friday, September 19, 2014
Time: 7–9 pm
Venue: Granada Theatre
Address: 207 E Holland Ave | Alpine, Texas 79830
Cost: Free & open to the public
Talk will be followed by Q&A and book sales & signing
Saturday there will be a free hands-on water-harvesting workshop at the Alpine Public Library
Both volumes of Brad’s book series, Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands & Beyond, Volume 1 & 2, will be available for sale & signing
Friday’s talk description:
Integrated Local Harvests:
Simple and Effective Ways to Enhance the Natural Abundance of Your Home, Community, and the Larger World
This dynamic presentation shares patterns and strategies to harvest, integrate, and enliven free local resources—such as rain-, grey-, and stormwaters; sun, wind, and shade; along with soil fertility, wild foods, and community fun—in a way that generates far more potential than the sum of their parts. Scarcity is re-visioned into abundance simply through creative cycling and utilization of what is already at hand. Costly and consuming habits and infrastructure, disconnected from their surroundings, are reoriented and reconnected to maximize enriching opportunities.
Click to view the full-size poster with details on Brad’s 2 public talks and 2 free workshops the weekend of Sept 19-21 in Alpine and Marfa.
You’ll see many examples of such transformation, including how once-dying wetlands and creek flows are being regenerated with simple hand-built structures made of on-site materials; how ancient sun- and shade-harvesting sites are informing passively heated, cooled, and powered modern homes and retrofits; and how once-blighted, overheated neighborhood streets are being rejuvenated into thriving greenbelts of water, people, wildlife, art, food, and celebration by planting once-drained stormwater, seed, and yard prunings.
This talk is both an invitation for you to engage and partner with your natural surroundings and community, and a treasure map showing you the way—by planting the rain, dancing with the sun, growing fertile shade, and more to live as one of your community’s inspirational sparks!

Brad Lancaster: Live Interview on Marfa (TX) Public Radio's Talk at Ten, September 19, 2014 — 93.5 FM or marfapublicradio.org
2014-09-19 08:30 - 09:00
Friday, September 19, 2014
8:30 am AZ/PDT
9:30 am MDT
10:30 am CDT
Marfa Public Radio
KRTS 93.5 FM
Tune in or stream live!
MPR’s Tom Michael will speak with designer and consultant Brad Lancaster, author of the award-winning series, Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands and Beyond, which offers strategies on how to plan and implement effective water-harvesting systems.
Lancaster has lectured across the globe, from the Middle East to Australia, and has worked closely with the city of Tucson to improve its water-harvesting practices. His own home in Tucson features a system that can harvest up to 100,000 gallons of rainwater annually.
This weekend, Lancaster will speak at the Granada Theatre in Alpine on Friday night at 7 PM and at the Crowley Theatre in Marfa Saturday night at 7 PM. Admission is free.

Brad Lancaster: Panelist at Border Green Infrastructure Forum, September 18–19, 2014 — Ciudad Juárez CHH
2014-09-18
Border Environment Cooperation Commission (BECC) / Comisión de Cooperación Ecológica Fronteriza (COCEF) cordially invites you to attend:
Border Green Infrastructure Forum: Resilience and Competitiveness for Cities of the United States-Mexico Border
Dates: September 18–19, 2014
Times: Forum starts at 2 pm on September 18 and runs all day on September 19. Detailed agenda here. The panel in which Brad will be participating runs from 4:30–6:30 pm on Thursday, September 18.
Location: Cibeles Convention Center, Cd Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexico
OBJECTIVE: To train officials of municipal governments, consultants and professionals who are interested in learning about the strategies, technologies and approach to green infrastructure, in order to apply these concepts to public and private sector urban infrastructure projects.
THEMES:The event will feature nationally and internationally recognized speakers and panelists who will address topics such as:
-Green infrastructure and its benefits
-Impact of green infrastructure in public health and social welfare
-Green infrastructure and resilience to hydro-meteorological phenomena
-Green infrastructure and air quality
-Green infrastructure, financing, and economic development
THE EVENT: The forum will cover a day and a half and will feature two lectures and three panels highlighting 14 field experts. There will be opportunities for public participation, simultaneous interpretation, Webcast, and a welcome reception. The forum is free for registered participants.
TARGET AUDIENCE: Officials of state and local governments responsible for the development of urban infrastructure, city development and planning officials and technical personnel, members of professional industry organizations, developers of housing and urban areas, academics and students of architecture and urban development, general public interested in the subject.
REGISTRATION: Here on BECC’s website (in English) or here on COCEF’s website (en español)
FOR MORE INFORMATION: Please check BECC‘s or COCEF‘s website for updates or contact Mario E. Vázquez Valles at (656) 688-4600 or via email at mvazquez@cocef.org.

Brad Lancaster: Live Call-in Interview with Linda MacElwee on Ecology Hour, August 26, 2014 — KZYX Mendocino County CA
2014-08-26 19:00 - 20:00
Tuesday, August 26, 2014
Tune in from 7–8 pm PDT, via radio or online, for Brad’s live call-in interview with Linda MacElwee, host of KZYX’s Ecology Hour
KZYX frequencies are:
90.7 Philo
91.5 Willits & Ukiah
88.1 Fort Bragg
Please join us!

Brad Lancaster: "Plant the Rain" Earthworks Workshop at Earthship Biotecture, POSTPONED — Taos NM
2014-08-12 - 2014-08-17
Join Brad for an Earthworks Workshop:
“Plant The Rain” Permaculture Course
Hosted by 7ONE8 DESIGN in conjunction with Earthship Biotecture in Taos NM

*** POSTPONED *** NEW DATES TBA ***
As human beings we have an interdependent relationship with the entire planet. We also have a special and immediate dependency on the planet’s dwindling water resources. Permaculture, like an Earthship, is a sustainable design system that enables healing relationships between human beings and the living systems of our host planet.

The Earthship Academy presents a special hands-on permaculture workshop with rainwater-harvesting designer and practitioner Brad Lancaster. Brad is the author of Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands & Beyond, Volume I (2nd edition) and Volume II. In this preliminary site assessment and 5-day course, Earthship Biotecture’s radically sustainable green buildings will converge with whole-system permaculture-design earthworks!
• Learn to assess and build on a site’s existing potential.
• Achieve hands-on implementation of water harvesting earthworks led by Brad.
• Learn from the Earthship Community’s rainwater-harvesting systems by which roof runoff supplies all domestic water.
• Explore holistic homestead design that enhances and benefits from surrounding soil, water, and vegetation.
• Transform exposed, arid landscapes with free, onsite waters and sheltering vegetation that produces an abundance of
resources such as food, shade, medicine, wildlife habitat, wind breaks, and more.
• Co-design earthworks using key principles and ethics to maximize benefits for Earthships (as well as other types of
dwellings) and the landscape where they reside.
• Live in and interact with Earthships for the duration of the workshop (optional).
Location:
2 Earthship Way
Tres Piedras, NM
Dates:
Preliminary site assessment & donation-based evening public presentation: *** POSTPONED *** NEW DATES TBA ***
Earthworks course: *** POSTPONED *** NEW DATES TBA ***
Tuition:
Option 1, $600: Covers course and materials
Option 2, $725: Covers course, materials, housing, and participation in preliminary site assessment
What you will need to bring with you:
Sunscreen, sunhat, sunglasses, comfortable work clothes that you don’t mind getting dirty, water bottle, work gloves, and notebook
Suggested reading:
Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands and Beyond, Volume I (2nd edition) & Volume II
Registration:
*** POSTPONED *** NEW DATES TBA ***
earthshipstore.com/es-learning-opportunities/earthworks-workshop-2014

Brad Lancaster: Public Talk at Woodbine: Integrated Local Harvests, July 25, 2014 — Sedalia CO
2014-07-25 19:00 - 21:00
Date: Friday, July 25, 2014
Time: 7–9 pm
Venue: Woodbine Ecology Center
Address: 2584 N. State Hwy 67, Sedalia, CO 80135
Suggested donation: $5–$10
Both volumes of Brad’s book series, Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands & Beyond, will be available at the talk for sale & signing
Brad’s talk:
Integrated Local Harvests:
Simple and Effective Ways to Enhance the Natural Abundance of Your Home, Community, and the Larger World
This dynamic presentation shares patterns and strategies to harvest, integrate, and enliven free local resources—such as rain-, grey-, and stormwaters; sun, wind, and shade; along with soil fertility, wild foods, and community fun—in a way that generates far more potential than the sum of their parts. Scarcity is re-visioned into abundance simply through creative cycling and utilization of what is already at hand. Costly and consuming habits and infrastructure, disconnected from their surroundings, are reoriented and reconnected to maximize enriching opportunities.
You’ll see many examples of such transformation, including how once-dying wetlands and creek flows are being regenerated with simple hand-built structures made of on-site materials; how ancient sun- and shade-harvesting sites are informing passively heated, cooled, and powered modern homes and retrofits; and how once-blighted, overheated neighborhood streets are being rejuvenated into thriving greenbelts of water, people, wildlife, art, food, and celebration by planting once-drained stormwater, seed, and yard prunings.
This talk is both an invitation for you to engage and partner with your natural surroundings and community, and a treasure map showing you the way—by planting the rain, dancing with the sun, growing fertile shade, and more to live as one of your community’s inspirational sparks!
FMI: Visit www.woodbinecenter.org

Brad Lancaster & Eric Toensmeier: Integrated Ecological Design at Woodbine Ecology Center, July 25 – August 3, 2014 — Sedalia CO
2014-07-25 - 2014-08-03
.
Longevity. Abundance. Regeneration. Oases. Beauty. Bounty.
Plant the Rain. Garden Like a Forest. Design With Natural Patterns.
Integrated Ecological Design with Brad Lancaster and Eric Toensmeier

Dates: Friday evening, July 25 – Sunday afternoon, August 3, 2014

About the course:
Learn water-harvesting and earthworks techniques, and how to create edible forest gardens, for easier, more long-lasting, beautiful yields and resiliency. Through studying examples and hands-on work, this course will give participants an opportunity to delve into both basic and advanced permaculture techniques and develop a thorough understanding of ecological design to benefit one and all. This course will also focus on better preparing for climate change, carbon-farming techniques and indigenous management practices.
In this course, we will:

Learn how to design more, work less
Create natural oases
Utilize “waste” water for delicious landscaping
Reduce our need for irrigation
Utilize and assess our resources
Create lower-maintenance longer-lived gardens
Use more native, climatically-adapted plants
Cultivate bigger harvests with less work
Work with local climate, soil, and and precipitation
Create perennial and sustainable systems, inspired by nature
Design for resilient and regenerative communities
Prepare for climate change and reduce our carbon footprint
Learn about Eco-cultural restoration and Indigenous management techniques
Develop a strong sense of place
Understand broad and transferable principles of ecological design
Earn an Advanced Design Certificate*

*The participant must have earned a Permaculture Design Certificate prior to the beginning of this class in order to be eligible for and Advanced Design Certificate. Participants without a PDC are also welcomed to attend and can earn a certificate of completion. This course has no prerequisites other than a strong desire to learn how to become an ecological designer.
About the instructors:
Since 1993, Brad has turned water scarcity into water abundance & run a successful permaculture consulting, design, and education business focused on integrated and sustainable approaches to landscape design, planning, and living. He is the author of the Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands and Beyond series.
Eric has spent much of his adult life exploring edible and useful plants of the world and their use in perennial agroecosystems. He is the author of Paradise Lot and Perennial Vegetables, and co-author of Edible Forest Gardens with Dave Jacke. He has written and taught about carbon sequestration through agroforestry and is developing a book on Indigenous Plant Management techniques for Woodbine.
Additional instructors: Woodbine staff and guests
Meals: Breakfast Saturday through lunch Sunday are included in the cost.
Lodging: Included. Dormitory style cabins, dorm rooms, and camping with your own equipment. Dormitory space is first come, first serve. Please bring your own sheets, pillow, sleeping bag, blankets and towels.
Cost:
Regular: $1575
Early Bird Rate: $1295 (by July 1st)
(Contact us for group discounts. Limited work-study and scholarship opportunities are available)
For registration information, visit www.woodbinecenter.org/program-registration.

Brad Lancaster et ali: How to Plant Sustainable Oases on the Cheap! July 12, 2014 — Tucson AZ
2014-07-12 08:00 - 12:00
Join me and other Dunbar/Spring Oases Planters to Learn
How to Plant Sustainable Oases on the Cheap!
Saturday, July 12, 2014
8am
Meet at 813 N. 9th Ave
Free for Dunbar/Spring residents
$5 for others
We’ll show you how to collect, scarify (for germination), and plant native food tree seed within simple rainwater-harvesting earthworks in the public right-of-way to sustainably grow shade and enhanced habitat for people and wildlife. We’ll also plant multi-color flowering cacti with delicious fruits – a different color on each block so you are encouraged to walk around the neighborhood to see every variety.
The idea is to help transform our public rights-of-way into enticing corridors of people, shade, food, water, wildlife, beauty, wonder, and joy.
What to bring:
Fingernail clippers; a hand tool – pointed shovel, hard rake, or pick; hat; water; snacks; and an eager willingness to plant and come back to help steward what we are trying to grow together. Bicycles are welcome for those wanting to get around further, faster.
This is an outdoor, hands-on participatory happening.

Oasis Group: “We Will Rock You” Work Party, June 1, 2014 — Madrid NM
2014-06-01 11:00 - 16:00
“We Will Rock You” Work Party – Sunday June 1, 2014
5 Opera House Road, Madrid, 11 am – 4 pm
Bring water, gloves, garden shoes, & sun protection.
The point of the project on Back Road is to effectively drain the dirt road of storm water, while creating a stable location to channel the water down a steep slope, preserving existing native vegetation, and harvest this storm water in a food growing backyard habitat. This will be a hands on project that will help restore a portion of a watercourse that traverses through the center of town and teach about an effective rock erosion control structure. This watershed restoration project will help meet goals of the Oasis Group.
Please RSVP Mark Bremer in person or at markdb_2001@yahoo.com

Laura Allen, Brock Dolman, & Brad Lancaster: Spring of Sustainability Telesummit Panel "For the Love of Water: Local Actions that Matter," May 23, 2014 — Online
2014-05-23 12:00 - 12:45
May 23, 2014
12 noon (PDT/MST)
Laura Allen, Brock Dolman, & Brad Lancaster in conversation with Renée Soule.
Register here for free.
For the Love of Water: Local Actions that Matter
Earth is a blue water-planet and each of us needs to be water-wise. Water is one area where people resist commodification and corporate control. Instinctively, we each understand that water is life. What more can we do to express and sustain our innate love of water? Join us to share radical, accessible, and hands-on solutions to earth’s water crises as an integral part of our daily lives. This interactive conversation will range from rainwater to bathwater, garden ditches to watersheds, and the viability of modern civilization to the health of your fruit trees. Consider your local water situation and bring questions to our three water experts—greywater activist Laura Allen, watershed permaculturalist Brock Dolman, and rainwater harvester Brad Lancaster. Learning to care for water is a crucial entry-point for creating a sustainable and sane way of life.
Details online at Spring of Sustainability.
We invite you to get acquainted with Brad’s colleagues with whom he’ll be speaking on the telesummit panel:
Laura Allen is a founding member of Greywater Action and has been exploring low-tech, urban, sustainable water solutions for the past 15 years. Laura leads classes and hands-on workshops on rainwater harvesting, greywater reuse, and composting toilets through Greywater Action. Laura is the lead author of the San Francisco Graywater Design Guidelines for Outdoor Irrigation, and authored the book The Water-Wise Home: How to Conserve and Reuse Water in Your Home and Landscape (forthcoming on Storey Press). Her work has been featured in Ask This Old House, the New York Times, Nightline, Mother Jones, and more. The Greywater Installer’s Training she developed and teaches has trained over 100 people from the US and Canada how to design and install greywater systems. Laura has presented widely on greywater reuse, including at the Water Smart Innovations Conference, Bioneers, California Environmental Health Association conference, the Water Conservation Showcase, and Green Festival. She also works on codes and policies to legalize and support simple, affordable, sustainable water systems. Laura holds a BA in environmental science from UC Berkeley, as well as a teaching credential, and a master’s degree in education.

Brock Dolman is a co-founder of the Sowing Circle, LLC, Intentional Community & Occidental Arts and Ecology Center (www.oaec.org), where he co-directs the Permaculture Program, Wildlands Program and the WATER Institute (www.oaecwater.org) in Sonoma County, California. He is a wildlife biologist, permaculture designer, water educator and watershed ecologist. Brock has been the keynote presenter at numerous conferences and has taught Permaculture internationally in Costa Rica, Ecuador, U.S. Virgin Islands, Spain, Brazil, China, Canada, Zimbabwe, Democratic Republic of Congo, Cuba and Haiti & and widely in the U.S.A. He was one of the core co-facilitators for the International Permaculture Convergence 8 (IPC8) Design Course in Sao Paulo, Brazil and IPC11 in Pinar del Rio, Cuba, and has co-taught at least 70 Permaculture Design Certificate Courses since 1995. He has been featured in the award winning films: The 11th Hour by Leonardo DiCaprio; The Call of Life by Species Alliance; and Permaculture: A Quiet Revolution by Vanessa Shultz. In October 2012 he gave a City 2.0 TEDx talk. For over a decade he has served as an appointed commissioner on the Sonoma County Fish & Wildlife Commission. In 1992 he completed his BA, graduating with honors from the University of California Santa Cruz with the Biology Department and Environmental Studies Department.

Hosted by Renée G. Soule, PhD candidate in Psychology at Meridian University, who has been developing and teaching ecopsychology for over 25 years. She is Director of Virtual Learning at Sustainable World Coalition, adjunct faculty at the California Institute of Integral Studies and teaches Nonviolent Communication in San Quentin Prison.

Brad Lancaster: Fundraising Talk: Integrated Local Harvests, May 17, 2014 — Flagstaff AZ
2014-05-17 19:00 - 21:00
Willow Bend Environmental Education Center
presents
An Evening with Brad Lancaster
Author of the “Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands and Beyond” book series
Integrated Local Harvests: Simple and Effective Ways to Enhance the Natural Abundance of Your Home, Community, and the Larger World
Saturday, May 17 • 7–9 pm • Ponderosa High School
A fundraising event to support Willow Bend’s K-12 environmental education programs in Coconino County.
Tickets: $15–$20

In this dynamic presentation, Brad Lancaster will share patterns and strategies to harvest, integrate, and enliven free local resources — rainwater, graywater, stormwater; sun, wind, shade, soil fertility, wild foods, and community fun — in a way that generates far more potential than the sum of their parts. Scarcity is revisioned into abundance simply through creative cycling and using what is already at hand. Costly and consuming habits and infrastructure, currently disconnected from their surroundings, are reoriented and reconnected to maximize enriching opportunities. You’ll see many examples of such transformation:

How once-dying wetlands and creek flows are being regenerated with simple hand-built structures made of on-site materials
How ancient sun- and shade-harvesting sites are informing passively heated, cooled, and powered modern homes and retrofits
How once-blighted, overheated neighborhood streets are being rejuvenated into thriving greenbelts of water, people, wildlife, art, food, and celebration by planting once-drained stormwater, seed, and yard prunings

This talk is both an invitation to engage with your natural surroundings and community and a treasure map showing you the way — by planting the rain, dancing with the sun, growing fertile shade, and more to live as one of your community’s inspirational sparks!
FMI: www.willowbendcenter.org

Water L.A. & Brad Lancaster: Integrated Local Harvests, April 29, 2014 — Pasadena CA
2014-04-29 18:00 - 21:00
Thank you to La Loma Development & The Shed for making this event possible.
Date: Tuesday, April 29, 2014
Time: 6–9 pm
Venue: The Shed @ La Loma Development
Address: 1355 Lincoln Ave, Pasadena CA 91103
Requested contribution: $10 at the door
Brad will have his books on hand for sale & signing.
RSVP to info@theshedpasadena.com
Melanie Winter (6:30 pm):
Water L.A.: Urban Acupuncture for Climate Resiliency
For the past two years, The River Project has been piloting “Water LA” in the San Fernando Valley under a grant from the Coastal Conservancy. Working in collaboration with dozens of residents, sister non-profits, and half a dozen City agencies, they’ve developed consistent guidance for homeowners on how to Capture, Conserve and Reuse water on their own properties. From streamlining and reducing permit fees for greywater systems, to bringing the Tucson-style parkway retrofit to Los Angeles, the project aims to clear away numerous bureaucratic, financial, and social obstacles preventing us from making the meaningful adaptations that climate change requires.
Brad’s talk (7 pm):
Integrated Local Harvests:
Simple and Effective Ways to Enhance the Natural Abundance of Your Home, Community, and the Larger World
This dynamic presentation shares patterns and strategies to harvest, integrate, and enliven free local resources—such as rain-, grey-, and stormwaters; sun, wind, and shade; along with soil fertility, wild foods, and community fun—in a way that generates far more potential than the sum of their parts. Scarcity is re-visioned into abundance simply through creative cycling and utilization of what is already at hand. Costly and consuming habits and infrastructure, disconnected from their surroundings, are reoriented and reconnected to maximize enriching opportunities.
You’ll see many examples of such transformation, including how once-dying wetlands and creek flows are being regenerated with simple hand-built structures made of on-site materials; how ancient sun- and shade-harvesting sites are informing passively heated, cooled, and powered modern homes and retrofits; and how once-blighted, overheated neighborhood streets are being rejuvenated into thriving greenbelts of water, people, wildlife, art, food, and celebration by planting once-drained stormwater, seed, and yard prunings.
This talk is both an invitation for you to engage and partner with your natural surroundings and community, and a treasure map showing you the way—by planting the rain, dancing with the sun, growing fertile shade, and more to live as one of your community’s inspirational sparks!
See the event on Facebook.
Check out the event flyer (please share/post if you’re so inspired!).

Brad Lancaster: Water-Harvesting Talk at the Wild Wild West Fest, April 26, 2014 — Tucson AZ
2014-04-26 11:00 - 12:30
Brad will be a Sustainability Headliner at the 3-day Wild Wild West Fest at Terrasante on the western outskirts of Tucson.
The festival runs on Friday, April 25, through Sunday, April 27. Brad’s presentation will be from 11 am to 12:30 pm on Saturday, April 26.
As described by the festival’s creators, the thematic question that guides festival activities is “What would the American West be like, if the days of the Wild Wild West had not been ended by an industrial revolution?” All activities and events associated with the festival are interpretations of participants relative to this theme.
The festival will feature lots of live music, performing artists, sustainability presenters, and yoga. Tickets can be purchased as single-day passes or as a 3-day pass. Camping is allowed according to the specific rules outlined at the website below.
FMI: azwildwildwestfest.com
