Home

Vision

Team Bios

Services

Project Gallery

Related Links

Contact

2008 Upcoming Events

Please check back often for more events and workshops. If you would like to schedule a presentation or workshop in your area, please Contact us to discuss your specific needs.

September 12 – September 14. Applied Permaculture – Participatory Process for Creating Sustainable Communities and Allied Business Opportunities. Solstice Grove, Nicasio, CA (Marin County).

Friday 7 – 9:30p, Sa/Sun 9-5pm

Facilitated by Robina McCurdy from New Zealand (See Description below for detailed information)

Cost is income-dependant sliding scale $20-$15 Friday; $250 -$175 Saturday/Sunday or $125 - $90/ day

September 26 2008. Introduction to Ecological Design. Solar Living Institute, Hopland, CA 9am –5pm

Facilitated by Jeffrey Adams. (See Description below; Visit www.solarliving.org/~workshops for registration information.)

Cost is $125, does not include lunch.

Past Events

February 6 2008. Holistic Goal Setting and Visioning in Permaculture Process. Campus Center for Appropriate Technology, Arcata, CA. 2-4pm

Facilitated by Jeffrey Adams.

March 15 and 16 2008. Permaculture: Designing for Self Reliance. La’ akea Community, Big Island, Hawaii. 9am – 5pm

Facilitated by Zach Mermel and Jeffrey Adams (See Description below; contact zam2 (at) humboldt (dot) edu or 808-987-1816 to register)

April 23, 2008. Natural Building Slideshow, Sustainable Fairfax, Fairfax, CA. 7-9pm.

Presented by Jeffrey Adams. (See Description below; Visit www.sustainablefairfax.org for more info). $5 – 10 sliding scale.

July 26, 2008 - Jumpstarting your Backyard Permaculture. Fairfax, CA. 10am – 5pm.

Facilitated by Jeffrey Adams. (See Description below)

Cost is $50 –75 sliding scale; please bring a bag lunch

August 9, 2008 – Smart and Conscientious Water systems, Fairfax, CA. 10am –5pm

Facilitated by Jeffrey Adams. (See Description below)

Cost is $50 –75 sliding scale; please bring a bag lunch

August 16 and 17, 2008 – Solfest at the Solar Living Institute

Jeff will be speaking on Practical Backyard Strategies for Satisfying Basic Needs. Saturday 2-3pm in the Food, Farming and Permaculture Tent. (See Description below. Visit www.solarliving.org for more details and ticket information.)

Workshop and Event Descriptions

Permaculture: Designing for Self Reliance

This weekend course will familiarize participants with the basics of permaculture— a whole-systems design methodology that emulates the patterns found in nature to create healthy, resilient human habitats that supply food, fiber, medicine, shelter, livelihood, and waste cycling. Topics will include: techniques for holistic design, indigenous land stewardship practices, patterning in design, building healthy soil, managing on-site water, plant propagation, and agroforestry. The course will culminate with participants collaborating on a mini design project.

This course is ideal for homeowners, farmers, engineers, landscapers, ranchers, city planners, and anyone else who is interested in developing their ability to design and manage resources in harmony with nature, realizing the huge potential for collaboration through integration.

This workshop weaves together a variety of techniques and themes to create an inspiring whole-person learning experience that includes informative lectures, slide presentation, experiential learning exercises and discussion.

Space is limited. Pre-Registration is strongly recommended as these courses are expected to fill up.

Return to Top

Natural Building slideshow

During this evening presentation, the potential for creating shelter that promotes a healthy integration of community, economy, and ecology will be explored. Natural building techniques and applications will be discussed in both an historic and present day context, aiming to increase the awareness that a range of possibilities exist. Given that nature functions in cycles, and many of our current practices are linear, examples will be given of how to begin regenerating and strengthening a positive, harmonious relationship between people and place. A question and answer period will follow the presentation to begin dialogue about local opportunities.

Return to Top

Introduction to Ecological Design

In this workshop, you will learn the basic tools to help you design your own sustainable dwelling. Course emphasis is on passive solar design features and includes discussion of site analysis, energy efficient design, day-lighting, cost-effective alternative construction methods, recycled and non-toxic materials, and an overview of renewable energy options.

Whether remodeling a home or starting from scratch, this workshop is perfect for homeowners, designers, developers, contractors and other building professionals who want a comprehensive introduction to the subject of ecological design techniques and materials.

Workshop cost is $125. Pre-registration required. Visit www.solarliving.org/~workshops for more details (this workshop is listed as NB 101)

Return to Top

Jumpstarting your Backyard Permaculture

As the costs of living continue to increase and climate change becomes more unpredictable, now is the best time to start transforming your backyard for producing more food and medicine, collecting rain water, and contributing to overall comfort and thrive ability. In this workshop we will explore how permaculture design methodology, principles, and ethics can be applied in our daily lives and backyards today. Practical strategies for getting started will be discussed, and many examples of local opportunities will be explored.

Return to Top

Smart and Conscientious Water Systems

Water is the element of life and there is a finite amount of fresh, potable water on the planet. Using this resource wisely is essential to creating health and buffering against climatic changes that are predicted to bring more floods, droughts, and associated challenges to society as weather events become more severe. The morning will be spent covering the basics of rainwater harvesting from roofs and other impervious surfaces and how to integrate these into your yard. The afternoon will explore how to design and install swales (ditches dug on contour) to help build healthy alive soil, recharge aquifers, and hold water in the soil where it is more readily available to plants. These same strategies that help lay the foundation for resilient and productive backyard systems also help mitigate negative impacts from floods and drought.

Return to Top

Practical Backyard Strategies for Satisfying Basic Needs

Weaving together the work of Chilean economist Manfred Max-Neef on Human Scale Development with permaculture design, this presentation explores practical backyard solutions everyone can engage in to help increase self-reliance, promote healthy communities, and strengthen local economies.

Return to Top

Applied Permaculture – Participatory Process for Creating Sustainable Communities and Allied Business Opportunities

Friday September 12 – Sunday September 14

Solstice Grove, Nicasio, CA (Marin County)

Join Robina McCurdy, founder-trustee of Tui Land Trust & Community and the Institute for Earthcare Education Aotearoa in New Zealand, for a special weekend of empowerment and participation in creating sustainable communities.

Costs: Workshops may be taken individually or as a package; price is income dependant sliding scale**

Friday 7-9:30p $20 - $15 sliding scale

Saturday and Sunday 9 – 5pm, $250-175 sliding-scale for weekend or

$125-90/day

Contact Jeffrey Adams at jma50@humboldt.edu or 774-392-4347

**Please select the amount you feel comfortable paying. Low/limited income folks and students should be at lower end, and business, corporate, and medium to high income folks should be towards the higher end.

Detailed Workshop Descriptions and Presenter Bio

Friday Evening: 7 – 9.30pm

“Our Time has Come! - Permaculture as a leader of Sustainable Solutions NOW!”

Robina will present four distinct scenarios (already being evidenced) of societies response to Peak Oil and Climate Change, then where and how Permaculture excels in providing viable and sustainable solutions within these contexts.

Following this, Robina will speak about the range of professional niches opening up for Permaculture designers and educators in New Zealand, Australia and globally, as citizens, businesses and local authorities grapple with the impacts of Peak Oil and Climate Change. For example, we are experiencing a huge demand for skills and strategies to provide for local food security, a significant increase in applications for off-grid ecological buildings, a resurgence of interest in land-based community living and active public demand for more efficient town-linked transport systems.

With reference to her own work, that of her colleagues, and the ‘Transition Towns’ approach, Robina will share various ways in which Permaculture design graduates can prepare and position themselves, individually and collectively, to work professionally in this rapidly emerging marketplace.

Saturday: 9am – 5pm

Creating Sustainable Community in Challenging Times – from wherever you are right Now!

This workshop is for people motivated to develop strategies for resilience, particularly in the face of Peak Oil and Climate Change, and especially people who want to do this work as professional community development facilitators and participatory-approach permaculture designers. It is also suitable for people working within any organization or community of common purpose – whether a service organization, business, community council, neighborhood group, school, ecovillage or intentional community, particularly:

* Permaculture designer/educators or community development workers

* Persons working with community groups of common purpose

* Members of local authorities, especially town planners

* Project managers of land development, business projects or organizations,

* Professional facilitators (for inclusion in your ‘toolkit’ of primary processes)

* People starting (or wanting to start) businesses working with Permaculture education and/or design services.

Following on Friday evening’s foundation presentation, in a hands-on interactive way, Robina will teach tools and techniques to facilitate people to think and act from a community perspective - whilst at the same time fulfilling their own personal needs.

This work is designed to inspire and change the way participants relate to their sense of community, and from there to build skills to generate social cohesion and sustainable community. Specifically, Robina will introduce the following tools: bioregional sustainability analysis and community stocktaking. With relevant data at our fingertips, plus participant knowledge and ingenuity, we will put a local town through the rudiments of these analysis and planning tools, with a focus on food and water security, and transport and energy efficiencies.

We will move through the stages of building community, from gathering a group together, to collective vision to practical action, discovering what it takes to grow communities in a healthy way, sustaining them through their various phases of development, with the usual diversity of challenges from within and without. The main tools shared in this session will be Robina’s ‘Seasonal Calendar’ and ‘Wholistic Goalsetting Mandala’.

We will approach designing for resilience to meet current and future challenging times from a watershed/bioregional perspective. We will look more into the ‘Transition Town’ model and the application of Permaculture ethics, design principles and strategies to human settlements as a primary foundation for cultivating Transition Towns. Following this, Robina will outline the key principles of ecovillage, co-housing and community design, then share examples of different working models from around the world, as a guideline for the development of sustainable towns and their respective hinterlands. She will share some participatory methods of planning suburban retrofit for greater sustainability.

-

Sunday 9 – 4.30pm

This workshop day is for permaculture educators (any PDC graduates) who want to work professionally in urban/suburban areas, as well as people new to permaculture looking for an in-depth and practical overview. It will impart the ‘A to Z’ of Earthcare Education Aotearoa’s: “Design your own Organic Property’ weekend workshop approach, which builds neighborhood community at the same time as teaching how to design for household sustainability. This popular workshop has the potential to create an ongoing part-time livelihood if one lives in or near a city or is willing to travel.

Workshop participants learn to facilitate designs for people with town and small rural sized properties who want to work in harmony with nature to produce an abundance of food, in an environment of beauty.  We will learn how to teach people how to integrate the following into our home landscape:

• Productive organic vegetable gardens 

• Wildlife attractant areas 

• Fruit trees, herbs and flowers 

• Children’s play spaces

• Household recycling systems 

• Kitchen micro-gardens 

• Small animal systems 

• Use of microclimate 

• Special areas for quiet reflection and personal recharging 

This generally runs as a one or two day introduction to Permaculture workshop - with a difference – this fun, interactive, locally relevant, empowering fast-track method teaches participants to design within one day! The workshop takes place in the host’s lounge room, and as the method is applied to a host’s property in a hands-on way, participants become equipped with the skills and support to design their own properties based on their own household's needs, with consideration for the needs, limitations and opportunities presented by the environment they live in.  

Robina’s new manual of her facilitation tools: ‘GOUNDING VISION – EMPOWERING CULTURE: how to build & sustain community together - a Manual of Participatory Tools for Social Change Facilitators’ will be available for sale at the workshops. This valuable manual is not yet available any where else in the USA.

FACILITATOR/TUTOR’s BACKGROUND: Robina McCurdy:

Robina is a New Zealander who considers herself a Planetary Citizen. She is a born ‘sustainability catalyst’ and has been involved in community educational initiatives and establishing practical demonstration models of sustainable systems throughout her life. She has worked alongside hundreds of organizations, with many thousands of people, to bring about significant changes in individual lives, communities and the environment. Human capacity building is one of her special skills – inspiring, guiding and offering specific tools and techniques for people to access their gifts, develop their potential, build their resourcefulness, and live their dreams.

For three decades Robina has been engaged in broadscale community development, and for the past 20 years in permaculture (sustainable landuse) design and teaching, organic growing, the development of environmental education resources and the creation of participatory processes for decision making and collective action. She has taught and applied these powerful community-building methods with households, neighborhoods, schools, farms, ecovillages and bioregions, in Aotearoa/New Zealand, Australia, Southern Africa, Brazil, Ireland, Scotland, Britain, Canada and USA.

Robina is a founder-trustee of Tui Land Trust & Community and the Institute for Earthcare Education Aotearoa. She is also the pioneer-developer of the international programme, S.E.E.D. (Schools Environmental Education & Development), now a national programme within South Africa, and 'PLANET Organic’ – a vocational training in bioregional & community-scale sustainable landuse design, management & facilitation, which took place in her own bioregion of Golden Bay.

Some organisations which have partnered with and financed Robina’s projects are: the NZ High Commission and NZ Natural Heritage Foundation (New Zealand), DANIDA (Denmark), Fundacio Gaia NGO, Rio Grande du Sul and Santa Catarina Education Departments (Brazil), Global Ecovillage Network (Australia), Village Development, Novalis Institute and Abalimi Bezekhaya (South Africa), PELUM (Zimbabwe), Context Institute, NextAID, Antioch University (USA) and the British High Commission.

Robina has just published a much awaited manual of her facilitation tools: ‘GOUNDING VISION – EMPOWERING CULTURE: how to build & sustain community together - a Manual of Participatory Tools for Social Change Facilitators’.
For more on Robina’s background and work, visit: www.greenworld-earthcare.org

Return to Top