Join Warren Brush for a 5 Day Course in Methods of Earthworks, Appropriate Technology and more...
Focusing on Land Restoration, Water Harvesting and Biological Stability
When: December 3-7, 2014
Where: Casitas Valley Farm, Carpinteria, California
Cost: $750 includes instruction, camping (if needed), and a catered lunch each day
Worldwide, topsoil erosion averages 30 to 40 tons per hectare (2.5 acres) a year or 30- to 40-times faster than the replacement rate of topsoil. The need for people with hands-on skills in landscape restoration and drought-proofing is growing daily around the world. Whether you are working on your own landscape or as a consultant, this course will grow your skills in the appropriate design and construction of structures that will reduce erosion, increase biological productivity, harvest & store water, and create resiliency in the ecologies that sustain us.
Join international teacher and broad acre consultant, Warren Brush of Quail Springs Permaculture and Casitas Valley Farm, for this intensive five-day learning journey where you will get the opportunity to experience broad acre water harvesting surveying, design, and construction of well proven Earth-Working Technologies for land restoration, drought-proofing, and regenerative systems establishment.
The program offers an overview of:
o Ethics and principles of permaculture as applied to land restoration and regenerative design
o Land component identification, natural patterning classification
o Water harvesting & drought-proofing methods, systems and
applications
o Earthworks & soil renovation techniques and machinery applications
The following systems will be explained and participants will be able to assist in
surveying, mapping and construction of:
o Swales
o Dams
o Hugelkultur
o Keyline plow
o Gabion systems
A major component of this course will be hands-on skill development in the following where we will develop on-site earthworks with professional large earthmoving equipment operators and their machines:
o Landform discovery and mapping
o Use of survey equipment
o Soil testing
o Construction flagging
o Appropriate earthworks system application
o Working appropriately with equipment operators
o Equipment overview and application
o Large swale development and systems linking
o Hugelkultur and swale integration
o Dam development and partial construction
o Keyline plowing for broad acre application
o System planting and commissioning
Casitas Valley Farm, developed with the founders of QUAIL SPRINGS PERMACULTURE, is located just six miles from the Pacific Ocean near the small town of Carpentaria, 8 miles south of Santa Barbara, California. On this fifty acre working
farm, we are working to be a regenerative example of land stewardship combined with an economically viable broad acre farm that is deeply involved in the local food movement and in the international permaculture movement. Our farm has a multitude of enterprises including all organic: 1600 avocado trees, 160 apple trees, 300 persimmon trees, a heritage pig operation, free ranging chickens, and many other plantings, an organic cheese creamery, a roadside farmstand, event venue and we host permaculture and related programs year round.