The document summarizes a permaculture design course that will take place in October 2009. It discusses the key concepts and principles of permaculture, including observing natural patterns, functional relationships between elements, renewable resources, and producing no waste. The curriculum will cover conceptual overviews, observation and understanding patterns, climate, soils, water, earthworks, trees and plants, design methods, and strategies for different climates and implementation.

1. Permaculture Design Course October 2009 Natures Nest Farm Forest Agriculture Enterprises New Leaf Regenerative Design PRI Cold Climates Mark L Shepard - lead instructor

2. PERMA (permanent) CULTURE “ Permaculture is about relationships that we can create between minerals, plants animals and humans by the way we place them in the landscape. The aim is to create systems that are ecologically sound and economically viable, which provide for their own needs, do not exploit or pollute and are therefore sustainable in the long term.” (Bill Mollison) (Permanent- Latin: per- throughout + manere- to remain; Culture- Middle English: cultivation, tillage; from Old French; from Latin: cultura, from cultus- cultivation, from Germanic: skel- to cut)

3. Bill Mollison Permaculture Wrote the book: A Designers Manual

4. The Ethics of Permaculture Permaculture is unique among “alternative” farming systems (e.g. organic, sustainable, eco-agriculture, biodynamic) in that it works with a set of ethics that suggest we think and act responsibly in relation to each other and the earth. The ethics of Permaculture provide a sense of place in the larger scheme of things, and serve as a guidepost to right Livelihood in concert with the global community and the environment, rather than individualism and indifference. Care of the Earth … includes all living and non-living things- plants, animals, land, water, air. Care of People … promotes self-reliance and community responsibility- access to resources necessary for existence. Equitable Exchange of the ecologically produced surplus … gives away surplus- contribution of surplus time, labor, money, information, and energy to achieve the aims of earth and people care. Permaculture also acknowledges a basic life ethic, which recognizes the intrinsic worth of every living thing. A tree has value in itself. Even if it presents no commercial value to humans. That the tree is alive and functioning is worthwhile. It is doing its part in nature: recycling litter, producing oxygen, sequestering carbon dioxide, sheltering animals, building soils and so on.

5. What is Genuinely Possible to Create? Soil Plus Sun Plus Water Plus Permaculture Design Careful Thought – Designing for 7 th Generation Care of Earth – Care of People – No Waste/Pollution = Equals = Productivity – Security – Sustainability

6. The Principles of Permaculture Design Whereas permaculture ethics are more akin to broad moral values and codes of behavior, the principles of Permaculture provide a set of universally applicable guidelines which can be used in designing sustainable habitats. Distilled from multiple disciplines- ecology, energy conservation, landscape design, and environmental science- these principles are inherent in any Permaculture design, in any climate, and at any scale. Observe Observe Observe Observe and replicate natural patterns Obtain a YIELD Functional relationships between and among elements Renewable resources and services. Produce no waste. Integrate rather than segregate Natural plant succession and stacking Polycultures and functional diversity Increasing “edge” within a system Accept feedback Perennialism, build to last, prudent use of non-renewables … .AND MORE!

11. The Curriculum: -Conceptual overview -Patterns, observation and understanding -Weather and Climate: Macro and Micro -Trees, woody plants, and their energy transactions -Earthworks -Water -Soils -Methods of design -Strategies for different climates -Strategies for implementation

13. The Egg, the Rainbow Serpent, and the Tree of Life

20. Coal Mine Steelworks Manufacture Power Station Oil Drilling Oil Drilling Refinery Chemicals (3 rd world protein deficiency) Long range Fishery Plastics Fertilizer Biocides Fish Processing Hormones & Antibiotics Grain Crop Battery Chicken Factory Unnatural, stressful habitat leads to disease in chickens Contaminated Manures Soil & Nutrient Loss Pellet Mill

21. Power Steelworks

24. Elements of a Total Permaculture Design

38. -Methods of design -Strategies for different climates -Strategies for implementation -Hard Physical labor -Site tours -Intense discussion of divergent & expansive topics -book/resource sharing -talent show