SUSTAINABLE SANTA MONICA & THE WESTSIDE PERMACULTURE GATHERINGS
Presents:

         Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands

 Talk & Book Signing  with
Brad Lancaster

MONDAY, September 15, 2008, 6:30pm, 6pm potluck
Santa Monica Main Library, Multi-purpose Room, 2nd Floor

         Get out your shovels and dance in the rain! That is what Brad Lancaster's second volume in his trilogy on Rainwater Harvesting will make you want to do.

Join Brad Lancaster on Monday, September 15, at 6:30pm for a talk and book signing, as he shares his experiences traveling the world learning about harvesting rainwater---with simple landforms and earthworks---in places like India, Peru, Mexico, Africa and the  United States, where impoverished landscapes are turned into oases of life. 

Harvesting rainwater was once a worldwide technology, but was replaced by pipes, canals, and sprinklers---inefficient and wasteful strategies that are running dry. In his newly published book Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands and Beyond:Vol 2, Water-Harvesting Earthworks, Brad Lancaster shares techniques for designing landscapes that passively harvest water using brilliant, low-tech, regenerative systems to hydrate the land and maximize the benefit that water brings to plants, animals and people.

Water has been identified as a global crisis in the making. Southern California has one of the most piped landscapes ever designed, relying on water from far away that may not be available in the future.  Brad's book encourages individuals and government agencies to redesign landscapes to live sustainably in their watersheds.  Earthworks, using
shovels to large earth moving equipment, can be the foundation strategy for sustainable landscapes.

        Brad Lancaster is a permaculture teacher, designer, consultant and co-founder of Desert Harvesters (DesertHarvesters.org). Brad has taught programs for the ECOSA Institute, Columbia University, University of Arizona, Prescott College, Audubon Expeditions, and many others. He has helped design integrated water harvesting and permaculture systems for homeowners and gardeners, including the Tucson Audubon Simpson Farm restoration site, the Milagro and Stone Curves co-housing projects.

The evening lecture takes place at the Santa Monica Main Library, 601 Santa Monica Blvd,  in the Multipurpose Room, 2nd floor, on Monday, Sept 15, 6:30-8:30pm, and it is FREE (See Below)   No reservations are required. Please come out at 6pm for a potluck and community before the event.  Sustainable Santa Monica and the Westside Permaculture Gatherings sponsor the event.  For more information, email westsidepermies@gmail.com, www.HarvestingRainwater.com,

SPECIAL NOTE: Due to the fact that the library does not allow book sales or accept donations, we are asking everyone to buy a copy of Brad's book BEFORE the event and bring it with them.  Brad has been gracious enough to speak even though we could not offer book sales, the least we can do is really stoke him out and have us all show up with his book in hand.  You can buy the book at http://www.harvestingrainwater.com/books/orders/