Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands
Turning Water Scarcity into Water Abundance

Slide Show & Booksigning with
Brad Lancaster

Thursday, April 20, 2006,7:30 pm
Santa Barbara Public Library, Faulkner Gallery


Although rainwater harvesting has been accomplished by humans in virtually every drought vulnerable region of the world for millennia, our society seems to have collective amnesia about the utility, efficiency, sustainability and beauty of these time-tried practices.

In his newly published book, Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands, Volume 1, Brad Lancaster encourages us to turn water scarcity into water abundance by welcoming rain into our lives, landscape, and soil. Sharing techniques and strategies from around the world, some ancient, some new---including the inspiring story of Mr.Phiri, water farmer from Zimbabwe---readers are empowered to create their own integrated water-sustainable landscape plans.

Rainwater harvesting is the process of capturing rain and making the most of it as close as possible to where it falls. By harvesting rainwater on the land within the soil and vegetation, or in cisterns that will later irrigate the land, we can control erosion, reduce flooding, and minimize water pollution. Living in a world with a finite supply of fresh water that is increasingly polluted this practice becomes especially valuable.

Living on an eighth of an acre in downtown Tucson, Arizona, where annual rainfall is less than 12 inches, Brad practices what he preaches by harvesting over 100,000 gallons of rainwater a year. Brad and his brother Rodd have created an oasis in the desert by directing this harvested rainwater not off their property and into storm drains, but instead incorporate it into living air conditioners of food-bearing shade trees, abundant gardens, and a thriving landscape that includes habitat for wildlife.

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 Barbara Public Library, Faulkner Gallery, 40 East Anapamu St, in downtown Santa Barbara, on Thursday, April 20, 7:30-9pm. No reservations are required and admission is free. A free all day workshop will also be held on April 22, at the SB City College Campus. The Santa Barbara Permaculture Network and Santa Barbara Ecological Education Coalition/SBCC Adult Education Series sponsor the events. For more information, please call (805) 962-2571, www.HarvestingRainwater.com, or www.sbpermaculture.org

***April 22, 10 AM-2 PM. Workshop in Santa Barbara:
Turning Water Scarcity into Water Abundance
Rain harvesting guru Brad Lancaster joins local ecological systems designer Art Ludwig to show how to actualize the potential of your landscape and neighborhood for rain and greywater harvesting. Simple site assessment tools for the home, plus multiple-use water-harvesting earthworks, will be constructed in this hands-on event. Art and Brad will also sign copies of their new books Rainwater Harvesting for Dry lands, Volume 1, Water Storage, and “Branched Drain Greywater Systems.”

Santa Barbara City College Earth and Biological Science Building, Room ESB 309, Sat, April 22, 10 AM-2 PM. Wear work clothes. Free admission, no reservations required. Lunch available for purchase.


                        
        
BOOK SIGNING TOUR& SLIDE SHOW Brad Lancaster author Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands, Volume 1 Guiding Principles to Welcome Rain Into Your Life www.harvestingrainwater.com/
Turn Water Scarcity into Water Abundance! Welcome Rain Into Your Life and Landscape. Join Brad Lancaster as he explains tools & techniques for implementing sustainable water systems for your home, landscape, and community, using onsite resources. Brad is a teacher, designer, and consultant on the sustainable design system of permaculture & integrated rainwater harvesting systems since 1993.

Brad will also be on hand to sell and sign copies of his new book Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands, Volume 1 – Guiding Principles to Welcome Rain Into Your Life and Landscape.

Tour organizers in California Santa Barbara Permaculture Network www.sbpermaculture.org 805-962-2571 ,another great cooperative effort of sharing skills, connections and resources also visit Brad's Website for updates on other Book Signing Locations during the year www.harvestingrainwater.com/


TOUR DATES 2006 Southern CA, Apr 17 -Apr 30 2006


CALIFORNIA DATES (Donations $5-$10 each location)

Monday April 17 San Diego, 7pm New School Of Architecture & Design (619-235-4100) 1249 F St
San Diego, CA 92101 
Contact Brennan Hubbell 619-702-1604  tresmilusos@yahoo.com and sdecc@igc.org (619) 298-8879

Tues April 18 Laguna Beach, 7 pm Wells Fargo Bank 260 Ocean Av Laguna Beach CA 92651
Bill Roley drroley@cox.net 949-413-2524 cell

Wed April 19 Santa Monica, 7pm Global Green USA's Green Building Resource
Center 2218 Main St, Santa Monica
LA Permaculture Camille camicimino@yahoo.com & Monica
gbrc@globalgreen.org 310.452.7677

Thurs April 20 Santa Barbara 7:30 , SB Downtown  Library Faulkner Gallery (free) 40 East Anapumu st
margie@sbpermaculture.org 805-962-2571

Friday April 21 Los Olivos 7pm Grange Hall 2374 Alamo Pintado Avenue Los Olivos, CA 93441 Donation $5-$10
Betty Seaman cobbetty@gmail.com, 805-698-3840

Sat April 22 Workshop Santa ,Barbara Santa Barbara City College 10-2 with
Art Ludwig (free) see details below

Sat Apr 22 Ojai 7:30 Meiners Oak (near Ojai) Oak Grove School 220
W. Lomita Ave   contact (805) 646-8236

Mon April 24 San Luis Obispo 6:30 -8:30 pm SLO Public Library 995 Palm Street
Mikel Robertson gouldmund@hotmail.com 805 674 5534

Tues April 25 Ventura 7pm Art Barn 856 East  Thompson Blvd., Downtown Ventura (between Ash and Kalorama, behind Kids & Families Together) contact  lynne okun <lbokun@earthlink.net>

Wed April 26 Los Angeles 7:30 pm LA Ecovillage, 117 Bimini Place, Los Angeles 90004 (1 block east of Vermont just south of 1st St) LA Permaculture Guild  Camille camicimino@yahoo.com, >, Joan Stevens <joaniebird007@yahoo.com>

Friday April 28 San Juan Capistrano at 6:30 pm Dinner and Show
Center for Universal Truth 27121 Calle Arroyo Ste. 2200, San Juan Capistrano, CA 92675 www.centerfortruth.org
contact "Deanna Moore" <moodea@wildmail.com> (949) 981-8067

Sat April 29 Workshop, 10-2 pm,Pomona, Turning Water Scarcity into Water Abundance. Workshop
Center for Regenerative Studies at Cal Poly Pomona, 4105 West University Drive Pomona, CA 91768.
Wear work clothes. $25, no one turned away for lack of funds. Eric Humel <ehumel@gmail.com > (949) 632-7462

Sat April 29, 7 pm, slide show and book signing. Center for Regenerative Studies at Cal Poly Pomona, 4105 West University Drive Pomona, CA 91768. Eric Humel < ehumel@gmail.com> (949) 632-7462. (see details below)

Sun April 30 Idyllwild Scott Horton 951-659-5362.
<lasemillabesada@hotmail.com>


April 22, 10 AM-2 PM. Workshop Santa Barbara: Turning Water Scarcity into
Water Abundance
Rain harvesting guru Brad Lancaster will join local ecological systems
designer Art Ludwig (www.oasisdesign.net) to show how to actualize the potential of your
landscape and neighborhood for rain and greywater harvesting. Simple site
assessment tools for the home, plus multiple-use water-harvesting
earthworks, will be constructed in this hands-on event. Art and Brad will
also sign copies of their new books Rainwater Harvesting for Dry lands,
Volume 1, Water Storage, and "Branched Drain Greywater Systems." Santa
Barbara City College Earth and Biological Science Building, Room EAB 309,
Sat, April 22, 10 AM-2 PM. Wear work clothes. Free admission. Lunch
available for purchase.
Contact for complete tour info Santa Barbara Permaculture Network,
margie@sbpermaculture.org, or visit www.HarvestingRainwater.com &
www.sbpermaculture.org. 805-962-2571

Sat April 29 Workshop, 10-2 pm, Center for Regenerative Studies at Cal Poly
Pomona: Turning Water Scarcity into Water Abundance.
Rain harvesting guru Brad Lancaster will show how to actualize the potential of your
landscape and neighborhood for rain and greywater harvesting. Simple site
assessment tools for the home, plus multiple-use water-harvesting
earthworks, will be constructed in this hands-on event. Center for Regenerative Studies at Cal Poly Pomona, 4105 West University Drive
Pomona, CA 91768. Wear work clothes. $25, no one turned away for lack of funds. Eric Humel <ehumel@gmail.com > (949) 632-7462



The following presentation will be given at the preceding Arizona, New Mexico and California book tour stops:

Turning Water Scarcity into Water Abundance with Water Harvesting: Guiding Principles to Welcome Rain Into Your Life and Landscape

This is the inspiring story of how a poor dryland farmer and his family turned a wasteland into an oasis in the driest region of Zimbabwe by teaching themselves how to harvest the rain – and you can do the same where you live! Eight guiding principles of integrated water harvesting are demonstrated that can be replicated anywhere to help turn water scarcity into water abundance.

This story and its principles are presented in the context of how my community of Tucson, Arizona, like many across the globe, has taken the wasteful path of scarcity by rapidly depleting its water resources by dehydrating the landscapes of its watersheds. Yet, we can choose the stewardship path to abundance by rehydrating our landscapes through simple water harvesting. Mr. Zephaniah Phiri Maseko and his family – the Zimbabwean water harvesters – are our example and the principles are our guides.



Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands by Brad Lancaster
Guiding Principles to Welcome Rain Into Your Life and Landscape Volume 1
www.harvestingrainwater.com/
Now Available!
Turn water scarcity into water abundance! Rainwater Harvesting for
Drylands, Volume 1 is the core of the complete three-volume guide on how to
conceptualize, design, and implement sustainable water-harvesting systems
for your home, landscape, and community. This book enables you to access
your on-site resources (rainwater, greywater, topsoil, sun, plants, and
more), gives you a diverse array of strategies to maximize their potential,
and empowers you with guiding principles to create an integrated,
multi-functional, and water-sustainable water-harvesting landscape plan
specific to your site and needs.
Clearly written with more than 40 photos and 115 illustrations, this volume
helps bring your site to life, reduce your cost of living, endow yourself
and your community with skills of self-reliance and cooperation, and create
living air conditioners of vegetation growing beauty, food, and wildlife
habitat. Stories of people who are successfully welcoming rain into their
life and landscape will invite you to do the same!
Learn more about the book and see sample chapters.
Water harvesting and water cycling.
© 2005 Brad Lancaster and Joe Marshall

By using simple and inexpensive techniques the Lancaster household now harvests over 100,000 gallons of rainwater in an average year of rain (mostly in the soil and vegetation), while using less than 20,000 gallons of municipal water. Due to the low water use, Tucson Water has visited a number of times thinking the water meter was broken. All utility bills have dropped due to a landscape design incorporating passive winter heating and summer cooling to the point that the combined bills of gas, water, and electric do not exceed $35 per month. Turning scarcity into abundance then extends into the neighborhood with neighborhood-wide native, food-producing tree plantings and water-harvesting traffic calming strategies that double as flood control measures that beautify the neighborhood. It will all get you dancing when it rains and lessen the negative effects of drought!

Brad Lancaster’s bio
Brad Lancaster is the author of “Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands, Volume 1 Guiding Principles to Welcome Rain Into Your Life and Landscape” (www.HarvestingRainwater.com). In addition, he has been teaching the sustainable design system of permaculture and integrated rainwater harvesting systems, and running his own permaculture design, consultation, and education business since 1993. He has taught programs for the ECOSA Institute, Columbia University, University of Arizona, Prescott College, Audubon Expeditions, Berea College, Sonoran Permaculture Teaching Guild, Permaculture Drylands Institute, the Amphitheater School District, and others. He has designed water harvesting permaculture systems for Milagro Co-housing, Stone Curves Co-housing, Rio Development, Civano, and others. Brad and his brother have created, and live on, a thriving 1/8th of an acre urban permaculture site in downtown, Tucson Arizona. Within his neighborhood and beyond, Brad feeds his passion for community building and activism, resulting in the creation of the Dunbar/Spring Organic Community Garden, mini-nature park, BICAS (Bicycle Inter-Community Arts and Salvage), annual neighborhood native tree plantings, and the desert harvesters project (www.DesertHarvesters.org).

Sponsors Santa Barbara Permaculture Network, SBEEC/Santa Barbara City College Adult Educ/Spring Program
The Sustainability Project, the Sustainable Builders Council of SLO, LA Permaculture Guild,
Permaculture Institute of S.CA , San Diego Permaculture Center,Global Green USA's Green Building Resource Center.
Hopedance Media,San Diego Permaculture Center, Ojai Permaculture Guild, South Coast Permaculture Guild, Art Barn, LA Ecovillage