72 Hour Permaculture Course
72 Hour Permaculture Course - Hancock, New York
RISING ENERGY COSTS • CLIMATE CHANGE • UNSTABLE
OIL SUPPLY• FOOD AND WATER INSECURITY
Learn how to obtain energy, food and shelter by following nature’s patterns. Soft energy alternatives, grow food, harvest water, turn waste into profit, become part of the world-wide permaculture
community.
OFFICIAL 72 HOUR PERMACULTURE DESIGN CERTIFICATE COURSE.
First weekends of month: February-June; August-December.
Register now!
Hancock Permaculture Center, Hancock NY.
www.hancockpermaculture.org
917-771-9382
World climate is changing. Recent monsoon-like rain throughout the Catskills and other extreme weather events will become more frequent. The rising price of oil, energy, fresh water, and the decreasing nutritional quality of our food are all issues we face today.
Our entire society is designed on the premise of cheap and abundant energy produced by fossil fuels like oil and coal. But oil is running out and burning coal to produce electricity is changing the climate. There are alternatives applicable on all scales – large and small. There are many examples worldwide.
The Hancock Permaculture Center will be running a series of weekend, monthly workshops to discuss these issues in the context of permaculture. How do we equip ourselves for energy descent as individuals and as a community?
Permaculture is a method of using land and resources in ways that sustain the environment while providing economic and lifestyle benefits to individuals and communities. Permaculture (“permanent-culture”) is one of the fastest growing environmental movements on the planet.
The permaculture course and workshops cover the application of permaculture principles to home design and construction, energy generation and conservation, flood mitigation and water harvesting, aquaculture, landscape design, gardening and food production, as well as alternative economic structures and legal strategies supporting permaculture solutions.
Credit for the 72-hour course is accepted by a growing number of universities in the U.S. and abroad.
If you would like to participate in this workshop series as a complimentary day visitor please contact Hancock Permaculture Center. We are also inviting paid participation as students for the complete 72 hour permaculture certificate course to be held on five weekend. Field trips, real-life design exercise.
Details: Andrew Leslie Phillips
www.hancockpermaculture.org
917-771-9382
DAILY SCHEDULE.
8.30-10.30am
tea/coffee break
11-1pm
lunch
2-3.30
tea/coffee break
4-5.30pm
Dinner
7.00-8.30pm (Saturdays)
This curriculum is based on Bill Mollison’s, Permaculture: A Designer’s Manual, combined with David Holmgren’s recent writings on permaculture.
It provides a more gradual immersion into the basic text which is an encyclopedic reference manual. This 72 hour course follows Bill Mollison’s recommended course outline leading to permaculture certification. Permaculture certification gives you the legal right to use the word permaculture in your modus operandi. Bill Mollison holds the copyright listed in the Oxford dictionary. You may apply to the Permaculture Research Institute (Australia) for a Permaculture Diploma, after two years field work based on wide ranging criteria and submission of a permaculture design. The permaculture diploma is recognized by a growing number of universities and institutions around the world.
There are now many thousands of students working on projects world wide and as students become teachers the network grows in preparation for energy descent.
The establishment of permaculture nodes linked throughout communities and bio-regions will help soften the blow and provide learning spaces and a soft place to land for those seeking an ecologically harmonious abundant way of life as conventional systems collapse.
The role of the internet for expanding permaculture is significant. It has created virtual communities of great diversity and resilience which bypass conventional media.
The first two course modules provide broad concepts that become more focused and are applied in the remaining three modules. There are hands-on activities outside of class and visits to local projects.
Students are expected to participate in site specific design projects and present them in the final class for group evaluation.
All Permaculture classes end with a fiesta where we sing, dance and make merry.
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MODULE 1.
CONTEXT, EVIDENCE AND DESIGN THEORY.
The Unholy Trinity – Peak oil, climate change, soil depletion.
Paths of energy descent, civic/economic disruption, soft descent.
History of Permaculture
The rise of permaculture parallels the rise in environmentalism going back to Rachel Carson in the late 1950’s . In the 1960’s, Bill Mollison saw the destruction of his environment in his beloved Tasmania. After attending demonstrations and protests, he reflected for some years and emerged with the idea of “permaculture”, a more positive approach to social change focused on creating permanency in agriculture and sustainable culture. “Permaculture” is the contraction of this idea.
Concepts and themes of design. p. 10
Permaculture is a design system based on ethics and natural patterns in nature. We introduce the ethical basis for permaculture and the fundamental principles and directives including the basic law of thermodynamics, yield, surplus and abundance.
Prime Directives of Permaculture.
Principles of Cooperation.
The Ethical Basis of Permaculture.
Rules of Natural Resources.
Live Intervention Principle/Chaos theory.
Law of Return.
Directive of Return.
Set of Ethics on Natural Systems.
The Basic Law of Thermodynamics.
Birch’s Six Principles of Natural Systems.
Practical Design Considerations.
Mollisionian Permaculture Principles.
Yields and cycles.
Niches.
Principles of disorder, stress, harmony and stability.
Information as a resource.
MODULE 2.
PATTERN UNDERSTANDING, DESIGN APPLICATIONS, TREES AND ENERGY. P.35
Pattern Understanding. (Ch. 4). P.70
There are patterns in the landscape, there is meaning in the stars, nature’s repeating patterns teach us how to live. An investigation of patterns from mythology, tribal cultures, nature and the human body.
Methods of Design (Ch. 3).p.35
Design and scale overview.
Edge thinking.
Orders of magnitude.
Tribal use of patterning.
Approaching permaculture design, components and assembly, organizing principles for landscape, homestead and bioregion. Applying harmonious design, soft energy systems, basic water management.
Developing design:
Zone and Sector Analysis.
Guilds in Nature and Design.
Succession: Evolution of systems.
Procedures in Property Design.
Creating harmonious systems.
Integrating functionality.
Relationships in design.
Reading the landscape: applying harmonious design.
Swales and land harmonics.
Habitat, flood and fire mitigation, food, shelter and transportation.
Energy conservation/auditing, sustainability.
Capitalizing on the Sun/Solar energy, passive and PV.
Analysis – site characteristics, observation, deductions from nature, options and decisions, methods of design: data overlay, map overlay, random assembly, flow charts.
Trees and their Energy Transactions. (Ch. 6). p. 137
Trees are the backbone of our eco system. Without trees we are gone. Trees help build soil and hold moisture, mitigate erosion and flooding and can provide enormous quantities of food. Timber will become a very valuable resource in energy descent.
Forest farming for food security.
Food forest gardens.
Reforestation.
Trees in flood mitigation
MODULE 3.
WATER, SOIL, EARTHWORKS.
(Ch. 5). Climate Factors. The Hydrological Cycle. p.106
We live in a time of climate change. To understand how to adapt and mitigate the impact of climate change we need to understand how climate works and its impact on landscape and settlement patterns.
Weather systems, the hydrological cycle, precipitation,
Radiation, color, heat transfer, hot cold and dry climates
Characteristic and landscape effects.
Wind.
Water (Ch. 7). p.152
Water is the driving force of nature. The amount of fresh water on the planet is finite. Half of the world’s fish live in fresh water. Wars will be fought over water. Water is life.
Overview of water. Orographic and Forest effects. Water harvesting, swales, ponds, dams and earthworks. Recycling and waste management. Compost toilets, humanure, reed beds and aquaculture.
Soils. (Ch. 8). p.182
Soil is the hidden monster that’s creeping up on all of us. We have lost two-thirds of our topsoil and agricultural production is dropping as we burn more forests to create more soil for monoculture. We can build soil, enrich our lives, and create oil-free agriculture.
An introduction to composting, soil creation and bio-dynamics
Structure and pH.
Vermiculture.
Biological indicators.
Erosion and rehabilitation.
Compost.
No- till and sheet mulching
Earthworking and Earth Resources. (Ch. 9) p.227
Permaculture works on all natural scales and heavy equipment can greatly accelerate positive effects on the landscape. Property land-forming, dams, ponds and introduction to aquaculture, water-shed management.
Planning. Levels and contours.
Keylines, dams and swales.
Equipment. Earth resources.
Planting and reforestation. I
infrastructure placement and protection.
MODULE 4.
CLIMATE ZONES AND DESIGN STRATEGIES.
The Equator and five circles of latitude, longitude and time zones, equinox and solstice
The Humid Tropics. (Ch. 10). p.250
Soil is least available in the tropics where most biomass is above ground in the forest. We can create dense food forests and water harvesting systems while protecting our home from natural elements like storm surge, hurricanes, fire and flood. Natural cooling systems and habitat design.
Wet tropics, wet-dry tropics, monsoon tropics. Tropical soils. Earth shaping in the tropics. House design. Tropical home garden. Polycultures. Sea level rise.
Dryland Strategies. (Ch.11). p.308
More of the world is becoming desert as forests are destroyed, rain patterns change and animals scour the ground for food. Soon nothing is left. We can apply simple principles to make the desert bloom again.
Precipitation. Temperature. Soils. Landscape features in deserts. Water harvesting. The desert house. Earth homes. Desert garden and irrigation. Animal systems. Desertification and Salination.
(Ch. 12). Humid Cool and Cold Climates. P.411
Home heating and energy consumption are big issues in these climate zones. Understanding some simple constants like the sun always shines from the equator, will save you a lot of money in home heating.
Habitat design, food supply, water and soft energy principles including attached greenhouse, passive solar hot water systems and co generating woodstoves are explored.
Characterists. Soils. Landforms. Water. Settlement and House design. Home garden. Food Forests. Livestock. The lawn . Grasslands. Soil compaction. Rangelands. Cold climates, snow and ice. Fire protection. Alternative energy systems for heat and cold. Solar. Diversity and stability. Alternative building models and techniques. Wood stoves and wood lots. Co-generation and heat transfer. Mass ovens, clay and stone. Working with stone. Greenhouse construction. Straw bale construction. Greenhouse gardening for food and warmth and shelter.
MODULE 5.
AQUACULTURE, INVISIBLE STRUCTURES.
Aquaculture. (Ch. 13). P.458
Water provides more than 20 times protein per acre than land. Fish is a great unused resource and waste water gray water systems relieve the burden on sewage systems and provide nutritious water for gardens and aquaculture.
Dams, ponds, Chinampas. Yield beyond the pond. Gray water and reed beds. Polycultures.
Strategies for an Alternative Nation. (Ch. 14). P.506
In this time of energy descent we will need to travel less and live in closer commune with those around us. Food supplies will need to be local as will all our basic services. How can we design robust systems that integrate permaculture principles into the bio region and beyond?
Ethical basis. United Nations. Local government. Bioregionalism and community. Extended families. Invisible structures. Trusts and legal strategies. Eco villages. Currency and barter. Land access. Ethical investment. Catastrophe preparedness and prevention.
Food and water security.
Rising price of oil and energy.
Farming for food security/market gardening.
Food storage strategies.
Aspects of eco-village design.
Community.
Invisible structures.
Where do we go From Here? (Ch.15).
Planning for the future.
Networking
Media and outreach
Community education.
Community communications.
Low power FM radio, shortwave ham radio.
Local government and feedback.
Course feedback.
