August 2007 Events & Calendar.
Special Invitation:
Saturday, August 11, 2007,
5:30-10pm
312 E. Sola Street, in the
Courtyard
Brazil, Brazil, we loved Brazil..
Please join Santa Barbara
Permaculture Network for a mini-Brazilian
celebration
as we talk about our recent month long trip to Brazil and
the 8th International Permaculture Conference
(www.ipc8.org).
Food & Potluck, Music, Slide Show, and plenty of space at the
early meeting for all those who just completed Permaculture Design
Courses in our area to talk about their experiences and plans for local
organizing, so much enthusiasm in our region! (more info in events
calendar below)
There
will be
prizes for those coming in Carmen Miranda attire!
(Calendar of Events listed at
bottom)
Since this is probably our last
newsletter, a bit of storytelling & reflection...
Hi Everyone,
It's our 10 year Anniversary!
In 1997 we took a Permaculture Design
Course with Bill Mollison in Ojai California, coming back to do
grassroots community organizing in our region. How appropriate that
exactly ten years ago this summer, we found ourselves
in Brazil
for the the
8th International Permaculture Conference
(www.ipc8.org
).
Whew!
what an amazing journey. In this ten year period, we participated
in two parallel endeavors in our efforts at community organizing.
With other communities we helped form the
South Coast Permaculture
Guild, a
membership based, informal affiliation of
people,
groups, and organizations in our region
of Santa Barbara, Ojai, and Ventura. This included anyone interested in
doing Permaculture activities in any shape or organization form they
chose. Locally we formed the Santa
Barbara Chapter of South Coast
Permaculture Guild, holding monthly meetings, roadtrips,
Eco-Film Nights, and other activities that
all
could be a part of.
We were new at community organizing, but Wes Roe in his usual "seize the day" style, started things off with a Ferro Cement workshop just a couple of weeks after our big design course (we had over 100 in our class), knowing the value of linking people together before the good energy dissipates. For that weekend workshop approximately 60-70 people showed up, and a ferro cement water tank was built with only a small instruction book and lot's of enthusiasm. Our monthly meetings started soon after with anywhere from 5-60 participants, but big or small, we committed to always holding them, knowing over the long term momentum would build.
In time we also felt it would be valuable to form an educational non-profit, so Wes and I did that in 2000, to specifically bring a wide array of educational programs and teachers to our area, with a mission of permeating and saturating our community with all things relating to permaculture and sustainability, until no one could say they didn't know what the word "permaculture" meant. And thus, Santa Barbara Permaculture Network was born. ( www.sbpermaculture.org). The two organizations existed side by side, one with plenty of room for others to come in and experiment with many formats, the other remaining true to a specific educational mission.
Our beginning years included many collaborators (bless all collaborators, for indeed, they make the world go round). Oscar Carmona working at the Community Environmental Council (CEC) as Director of Gardens made space for us, we worked together as co-sponsors of many programs we dreamed up, holding them at the old CEC Gildea Resource Center and Gardens, which we still miss to this day. We did many innovative programs those first few years, including our first, a series called "Visions of Gardens & Communities, Learn the Wisdom of Sustainable Living", with Fairview Gardens director Michael Ableman, Biodynamics expert Steve Moore, John Jeavons with a Biointensive Mini-Farm workshop, and permaculture designer & teacher Larry Santoyo. Soon after we held a two day Harvest Festival with music, exhibits and demonstrations, that among others included Lorenz Schaller of KUSA Seeds teaching us it is still possible to grow ancient seed grains, even in Santa Barbara. Without Oscar, this ambitious endeavor that launched us into the community would not have happened, and set the tone for everything that followed. Thank you Oscar.
Larry Santoyo came down from the San Luis Obispo area and did some of the most innovative programs ever, starting with a two day pattern course called Visioning a Permaculture Site that included five different locations for participants to observe and make attempts at design as we learned about pattern literacy, in locations urban and rural, and even a juvenile detention center in the mix. Penny Livingston arrived to teach a four day introduction to permaculture workshop. Remember, in those days we were still in the Intro mode, permaculture for the most part new to the local vocabulary. Bill Roley did a Permaculture & Healthy Watersheds workshop that brought a whole new group into our permaculture world, those from government agencies, held at the South Coast Watershed Resource Center, another great collaboration. We explored topics from Holistic Range Management to Permaculture Credit Unions, and never missed an Earthday, LiveOak Music Fest, Organic Festival, or any other public venue where our exhibits could be shown and we could talk Permaculture. We developed very successful book tours for authors of permaculture, sustainability and natural building, many self-published, to travel minstrel style up and down the coast and sometimes even to other states, sharing their expertise. We developed great skill sharing methods to help empower communities to do their own organizing around events. These authors never failed to leave behind a tremendous wake of interest.
We began to include Natural Builders, like Gary Duncan, Robert Bolman, Catherine Wanek, Joseph Kennedy, Robert LaPorte and Ianto Evans, explaining to those of us who were still new to the subject, that Green Building and Natural Building might be two different things. Strawbale, Cob, and Superadobe became part of our vocabulary. Lots to learn.
Getting the word out to the community on what we were up to was greatly enhanced by a wonderful association with Bob Banner, publisher of Hopedance Magazine (www.hopedance.org) Creative meteorite energy that he is, he blazed a trail with his publication around sustainability issues, and allowed us to be a part of that by coming in as contributors and local editors for several years, and even let us do one issue devoted entirely to Permaculture. It's can still be viewed on our website, (www.sbpermaculture.org, go to related articles). More recently, Jill Cloutier, with Sustainable World Radio (www.kcsb.org), has given space and exposure to many of the Permaculture programs and teachers we have brought to Santa Barbara.
We became a member of the Santa Barbara Ecological Education Coalition (SBEEC), a group of local environmental groups participating in the Santa Barbara City College Adult Education program, and a series called "Living Smart, Living Sustainably", exposing us to students young and old, reaching a very wide audience. We also collaborated on programs with a dynamic group of students from SB City College and their new organization, Santa Barbara City College Students for Sustainability Coalition. We formed a mutual admiration society with two wonderful people, Larry Saltzman & Linda Buzzell with their Santa Barbara Organic Club, sharing ideas and strategies for bringing good stuff to our town.
Others over the years have included Permaculture co-originator David Holmgren speaking about Energy Descent; Mark Lakeman of Portlands City Repair; Toby Hemenway & Gaia's Garden, Robina McCurdy from New Zealand with thoughts on Permaculture and Education; Brad Lancaster on Rainwater Harvesting, Declan Kennedy on EcoVillages around the globe, Geoff Lawton on Permaculture & Sustainable Aid; Starhawk on Earthbased Spirituality, and many, many more---exposing us to the amazing depth and width of this subject of Permaculture. Most recently Darren Doherty came from Australia with a six day intensive on Keyline Design, with implications for large scale agriculture and even strategies to address climate change.
So what does our future hold? After our recent trip to Brazil and the International Permaculture conference, we hope to concentrate on support for the next International conference in Africa in 2009. We would also like to host with others a regional convergence for the Southwest and Drylands regions. Our non-profit, Santa Barbara Permaculture Network will still bring educational programs to our area, but we are looking forward to handing over the local meetings and anything else they might think up, to the many enthusiastic graduates of recent Permaculture Design courses in our area. There is a new Sustainability Center on the horizon with Santa Barbara City College, and under the direction of Enviromental Studies coordinator Adam Green, permaculture and some of our programs will be a part of that.
So with GRATITUDE to all, we invite you to come be a part of a celebration on August 11, 2007, where we share our experiences of the International Conference and month in Brazil, and take time to reflect on the experiences of the last 10 years. Brazil held so many extraordinary experiences, it deserves a storytelling session all it's own, including time in the big city of Sao Paulo, an Eco-Village in the Cerrado (savahnna drylands), a boat ride on the Amazon, and the beautiful historic city of Salvador, Bahia.
Since we can no longer afford despair, let's try joy! (with a brazilian theme)
Hope to see you soon-
Margie Bushman
SB Permaculture Network
Upcoming Events:
August 11, 2007, Brazil Night
Location, 312 E. Sola St, in the Courtyard:
- 5:30-6:30
South Coast Permaculture Guild/SB Chpt Mtg
(bring your recent experiences to share and ideas for local organizing)
6:30pm -10pm SB Permaculture Network hosts a Brazilian Celebration:
6:30pm Food (provided, but potluck encouraged, take the challenge, have fun with Brazilian recipes)
7:30pm - Brazil Slide Show & Talk
8:30pm 10 pm Music, Dance, Joyful Brazilian stuff, bring your CD's, music makers, drummers welcome. (The Soho in downtown SB is also having a Brazilian music night August 11, after 10pm, those wanting to continue the fun can walk over. Entrance fee, $10).
<<<
October 13 - Permaculture Lecture with Darren Doherty, Ojai, Contact Quail Springs, info@quailsprings.org, www.quailsprings.org
October 15-27 - Permaculture Design Course - 12 day - Cuyama, CA, Contact "Quail Springs" <info@quailsprings.org>
November 2-4 - Keyline Design Course - 3 day - Marin, CA, Contact Penny Livingston-Stark,
info@regenerativedesign.org, www.regenerativedesign.org
Nov 8 7-9:30pm - Keyline Lecture, Santa Barbara City College, Contact Margie Bushman, margie@sbpermaculture.org
November 9-10 - Keyline Design Course - 2 day - Santa Margarita, CA,
Contact Larry Santoyo, santoyo@earthflow.com www.earththflow.com
November 12-13 - Keyline Design Course - 2 day - Goleta, CA, Contact Guner Tautrim,
gunerandheidi@yahoo.com
To find out more about Darren Doherty and Keyline Design: www.permaculture.biz
Upcoming Event, EcoNest workshops:
The beginning stages of the EcoNest will involve workshops in which builders, home owners, or other interested folks will work with the EcoNest team in a series of two workshops that give the participant a solid foundation in understanding this unique system of sustainable building. The Timberframe Workshop is scheduled for November 5-11. The Clay/Straw Building Training is November 12-17. Cost is TBA. If you would like to be on an initial interest contact list, please email info@quailsprings.org.
October 2007 through March 2008 5th Annual Los Angeles Permaculture Design Course 1st weekend of each month In and Around Los Angeles County, Contact Larry Santoyo, santoyo@earthflow.com www.earththflow.com
Jan- June 2008 Santa Barbara Permaculture Design Course, 2nd weekend of each month, in and around Santa Barbara County, Contact Larry Santoyo, santoyo@earthflow.com www.earththflow.com
-end-
Santa Barbara Permaculture Network
(805) 962-2571
P.O. Box 92156, Santa Barbara, CA 93190
margie@sbpermaculture.com
www.sbpermaculture.org
"We are like trees, we must create new leaves, in new directions, in order to grow." - Anonymous