Permaculture at the 2016 Bioneers Conference
Join us for talks and workshops with some of the leading permaculture designers and experts at the upcoming 2016 Bioneers Conference in San Rafael, California on October 21-23, 2016.
If you’re interested in regenerating people and planet, be sure to mark your calendar for these must-see sessions at #Bioneers16:
Erik Ohlsen, a Permaculture designer and teacher, founder of Permaculture Artisans and Executive Director of the Permaculture Skill Center, is a specialist in water harvesting systems, food forest design, community organizing, and vocational education. He will explain how he is successfully using Permaculture as a framework to generate green jobs by creating ecologically regenerative, socially just, and economically viable businesses. Come discover how Permaculture design skills can be directly applied in building, landscaping, urban planning, land use, agriculture, forestry and many other enterprises. Hosted by Arty Mangan, Bioneers Director of Restorative Food Systems.
Restorative Agriculture with Permaculture and Biomimicry
Mark Shepard, author of Restorative Agriculture: Real World Permaculture for Farmers, runs New Forest Farm, a rare example of a large-scale farm implementing Permaculture and Biomimicry principles. Mark will explain how he is “redesigning agriculture in nature’s image” by using Keyline design, earthworks, water management, silvopasture, alley cropping, and perennial polyculture agro-forestry to hydrate the land, build soil fertility, sequester carbon, and restore the vitality of the ecosystems in his care. Hosted by Arty Mangan, Bioneers Director of Restorative Food Systems.
Women in the Permaculture movement are in the forefront of developing “Social Permaculture”—the application of ecological principles and systems thinking to social dynamics—to structure healthy groups, create meaningful diversity, resolve conflicts and design empowering environments. This interactive session will use exercises and discussions to give us a taste of how these visionary women are highlighting “people care” in regenerative design. With: Starhawk, Earth Activist Training; Pandora Thomas, Earthseed Consulting, Black Permaculture Network; Wanda Stewart, Program Director for the Victory Garden Foundation; Delia Carroll, founding member of the 13 Moon CoLab.
RDI Permaculture: An Experiential Permaculture Practicum with Penny Livingston-Stark
Come join one of the nation’s most renowned Permaculture practitioners and teachers, Penny Livingston-Stark, as she first offers us an overview of the principles and ethics of Permaculture design, and then shares a range of techniques to help us tune into the land, understand the patterns of a landscape, and develop a true sense of place, so that all our interactions with a given piece of land are harmonious and ideally suited to its specific requirements.
Wiser Together Café: Permaculture Meetup: Cross Pollination, Collaboration and Integration
California has one of the world’s most active permaculture communities. Come connect with permies and projects, continue the conversation from permaculture sessions at the conference and learn exciting news from the National and CA Permaculture Convergence last month. With: David Shaw, Santa Cruz Permaculture & UCSC Common Ground Center; Dana Pearlman, The Lotus; Amy Lenzo, weDialogue; & Special Guests TBA.
Fire and Water: Land and Watershed Management in the Age of Climate Change
As climate change destabilizes our already stressed ecosystems, droughts and wildfires have become far more challenging. We need to rethink and reshape our relationship to the land by combining time-tested Indigenous approaches, aka TEK (Traditional Ecological Knowledge), with the most sophisticated, holistic modern scientific methods. Hosted by Jason Mark, Editor in Chief of Sierra Magazine, former Editor of Earth Island Journal. With: Frank Kanawha Lake, Ph.D. (of Karuk, Seneca, Cherokee, and Mexican ancestry), Research Ecologist, USDA Forest Service, fire management specialist and expert in bridging TEK practices and modern scientific techniques; Brock Dolman, Co-Director of the Occidental Arts and Ecology Center’s WATER Institute and its Permaculture Design and Wildlands programs; others TBA.
What Would a Biomimetic Food System Look Like?
Carbon farming, regenerative agriculture, permaculture – these are practices that follow nature’s design strategies for keeping nutrients in the soil. With food systems responsible for one-third of humanity’s global carbon and emissions footprint, redesigning the way we eat is crucial. We’ll examine existing practices and solutions that can support our growing population without damaging our planet, and what we need to do to replicate and scale up their successes. Hosted by John Lanier, Executive Director, Ray Anderson Foundation. With: Tim Crews of the Land Institute; Torri Estrada, Managing Director and Director of Policy at the Carbon Cycle Institute; Miguel Altieri, professor at U.C. Berkeley, one of the world’s leading experts in agroecology.
