[Sdpg] Permaculture and Education by Dave White of Ojai Permaculture

[sdpg-admin at arashi.com]

hi everyone
         here is an article that Dave White wrote for Hopedance Issue 
Permaculture "A Quiet Revolution" Nov/Dec 2001 www.hopedance.org  And 
follow up message Dave sent about a grant he got to aid his Permaculture 
Work at Happy Valley School in Ojai Ca
                 wes
Great news!
The Happy Valley Foundation has been awarded a $6,000 grant for 
environmental projects by the Star Fund of the Tides Foundation, on the 
recommendation of Angela and Anthony Ocone. These funds will provide 
support for the school's Permaculture program and help its outreach to 
other educational centers through July 2002.
Permaculture at Happy Valley continues to thrive!
David R White PhD
Environmental Coordinator
Happy Valley School
PO Box 850
Ojai, CA 93024
(805) 646 4343
http:www.hvalley.org



Permaculture and Education.  David R White PhD.  October 10th, 2001
         Teaching our children about the environment can become a listing 
of dire scenarios. Global warming, ozone depletion, pollution, topsoil 
loss, diversity loss and overpopulation provide a daunting 
curriculum.  Permaculture design is an all encompassing, positive approach 
to the environment that students can easily understand and relate to.  I 
have spent the last 5 years teaching a Permaculture curriculum for high 
school students at the Happy Valley School in the Upper Ojai Valley, 
Ventura County.  This curriculum is land based, hands-on and does not stop 
at the school's gates; rather it  reaches into the local community through 
adult education on the land, seminars and slide shows.  In the essay I will 
detail some of the teaching strategies I use.
         One of my first lesson plans of the year for my environmental 
science class is a visit to an undisturbed native climax community, in our 
case a hillside of coast live oaks. These provide a wealth of information 
to the observant.  Perhaps most importantly they providing the student with 
a clear understanding of natural soil production.  Building soils by 
mimicking natural soil production through mulching  provides a key hands-on 
component of this class throughout the year.
         Another early lesson is to achieve an overview of the campus, 
from  surrounding vantage points and maps, to distinguish on-site from 
off-site resources.  The clear connection between fossil-fueled 
transportation for off-site resources, with all its attendant, 
multi-faceted problems, can be made at this point .  Emphasizing and 
utilizing on-site resources is a key theme of this Permaculture 
class.  Students design and build methods for using the on-site resources 
of sun, rain and food.  Making A-frame levels and cutting swales or ditches 
on contour can be a fun and effective lesson theme, although extensive 
earth moving has to be coordinated with other land management interests, 
most importantly weed abatement in our semi-rural location.  No point in 
building swales which are disced over in the spring.  An important aspect 
of  Permaculture education is the coordination of land 
management.  Teaching our grounds crew to disc and mow on contour, and by 
providing low growing drought tolerant ground cover for them to mow helps 
increase rain water percolation and reduce erosion at our site.
         Producing food on site is an aspect of Permaculture design that 
many schools have embraced at least symbolically.  Strawberries along a 
pathway make a walk a treat.  However, initial enthusiasm for garden 
construction can dwindle, especially if the garden is built far from paths 
well traveled.  Small gardens would probably do best to focus on flower 
production with occasional food plants intermingled.  Bunches of flowers on 
the administrators desk are a sure way to garner support.  Perennial 
plantings are emphasized.  The reality of producing the daily food 
needs  for a school is overwhelming for most, although successful programs 
exist at Midland, Pacific High, Oak Grove and Happy Valley schools.  We 
have been most successful by leasing land adjacent to the school to an 
organic farmer.  This interface has proven to be a fertile edge at Happy 
Valley, with students gaining from the farmer's input and vice versa.
         Tree planting has long been recognized as a celebratory marking of 
our lives on earth.   Planting and caring for trees is a central focus of 
Happy Valley's Permaculture program.  This private high school now has 
approximately 100  diverse fruit trees planted by students around its 
campus.  This focus on perennial food production requires that appropriate 
trees are chosen and planted in places where they will thrive.  This 
includes choosing trees that fruit during the school year.  We have had 
success with apples, pears, nectarines, mulberries, walnuts, Asian 
persimmons and citrus.  Our avocados are an experiment in micro-climates, 
planted on our south facing, frost draining hillsides. Burgeoning crops of 
apricots in August have little teaching impact on students during summer 
vacation, although the presence of a commercial kitchen could allow for 
value to be added to this food production through canning, drying or 
otherwise preserving.
         Composting is another hands on tool integrated into the Happy 
Valley Permaculture curriculum.  It mimics the natural pattern of turning 
waste into food.  For the science teacher, the compost pile provides many 
lesson plans, such as classification of soil biota.  Composting completes 
the cycle between the kitchen and the land.  Straw bales provide an easily 
maneuverable carbon source to balance the high nitrogen waste.  Composting 
clean kitchen scraps is less messy than processing slops, although this 
could be done with appropriate space and management, perhaps in the form of 
a worm composting facility.  As landfill space continues to become more 
expensive, the dumping of slops into trash should become a thing of the 
past and we should see more support for innovative green waste 
composting.  An overview of green waste disposal becomes the purview of a 
Permaculture coordinator.  The grounds crew cut brush and mow, but what 
happens to the trimmings.  Are they trashed or burned?.!
  We have moved toward processing brush on site by arranging it in 
wind-rows and having a neighboring farmer come over and flail it for 
us.  This mulches some of our orchards and provides the carbon input for 
large scale composting, if the equipment (a front loader) and trained 
personnel are available.
         Most schools will have only limited funds available to support a 
Permaculture program.  To ensure that students are taught a proactive 
approach to the environment,  it is vital that all schools provide support 
for an effective environmental coordinator.  Realistically, a successful 
Permaculture program will require some creative funding.  Small grants are 
available for garden programs and other innovative teaching methods.  The 
Hansen trust in Ventura County funds school gardens.  Amgen provides 
educational mini grants. Check with your county library for grant 
information.  The Ventura County Community Foundation in Camarillo  and the 
Santa Barbara City Library have the Foundation Directory for searching for 
grant information.  Donations can be solicited from appropriate 
parties.  Be bold about asking for funding, this is important 
work.  Internship funding for key roles, such as composting or harvesting 
from the garden for the kitchen can encourage students to become more di!
rectly involved.   Happy Valley School has links to the Evergreen College 
in Washington and Oberlin College in Ohio, who send students to teach and 
learn.  This is particularly useful in January, when we prune our trees to 
prevent disease and damage from fruit overload.
                 A hands-on procedure which is both soil building and 
mulching and uses on-site resources is the planting of soil builder 
mix.  Growing nitrogen fixing legumes such as peas, beans and vetch and 
carbon fixing cereals such as oats, barley or triticale creates fertile 
soil, diverse habitat and provides mulch which students can cut with hand 
sickles and pile around their trees.  Mulch is grown where it is needed, 
producing fertility locally.  We also sow seeds of insectary plants such as 
calendula, and in a lesson on vegetative propagation we transplant mints, 
such as lemon balm, rosemary, lavender, spearmint and peppermint, which 
attract beneficial insects and act as ground cover. Students are 
responsible for creating mini- gardens around each tree.  On hillsides they 
sculpt and terrace the landscape around the tree to maximize water 
percolation.  Plans are based on staking out contours using bunyip, A-frame 
or builders bubble levels. Disturbed soil is seeded for soil building and 
beneficial insect habitat, with emphasis on cuttings and seed collection 
from surrounding plantings.  Earthworks are mulched where possible with 
cardboard, straw, wood chips and compost to augment the soil.  Moving 
wheelbarrows full of mulch is a good workout for all students.  Plantings 
are amended with mycorhizzae and the micro nutrients and minerals found in 
river sand, bone and blood meal. Students fertilize their trees with 
feather meal which is 14% protein.  Commercial growers aim for one pound of 
nitrogen per tree per year.
         A basic principle of Permaculture Design is that of multiple 
functions from a single element.  Using this template experiments on seed 
germination can use food plants, such as tomatoes, which can then be 
planted out in the garden. Companion planting and plant guild creation can 
also be experimented with.  Fast growing trees can be planted with vines, 
ground cover and root crops around them.  The shrub layer can include the 
beautiful native ceanothus which is a nitrogen fixer.  Plant guilds can 
also be setup in large containers. Students learn about the seven layers of 
forestry and try to fill as many niches as possible.  Ground covers of 
strawberry and mint with vines like kiwi, passion fruit or grape can be 
planted with a variety of different trees.  Use caution planting fast 
growing grapes; these will smother semi-dwarf fruit trees unless 
intensively managed on an annual basis.
         Happy Valley School also has a circular fifty-five foot diameter 
fenced garden which is currently laid out with 16 keyhole beds in a mandala 
pattern.  Each student in the biology class has a bed for 
experiments.  This years theme is carbon fixation.  Students participate in 
planting and harvesting in the neighboring organic farm, and their 
Permaculture curriculum also includes native regeneration in both upland 
and riparian areas.  Student progress is monitored through their journals 
in which they keep  a record of all that goes on in the class; their 
homework is their journal.  In the field we witness a wide array of natural 
phenomena.  Snakes, all manner of insects, tarantulas, toads, vultures, 
deer, swallows or frogs have been encountered.  Students are encouraged to 
research these natural surprises and present their findings to the class 
for extra-credit.  Many create beautiful journals filled with their own 
illustrations and photographs.  I use "Introduction to Permaculture" as a 
text.  I give a practical exam based on plant identification which requires 
that students know the roles of various plants in the environment (pioneer, 
invasive, insectary, nitrogen fixer, edible, etc.), and they answer essay 
questions on Permaculture design in a final exam.
         By teaching Permaculture design we are sharing a vision of 
ecotopia.  This template can be recreated effectively at any number of 
different centers of education. New synergies of information are being 
forged daily.  Educational supervisors need to hear more requests for 
proactive environmental education such as is provided by a Permaculture 
curriculum.  Permaculture constitutes a paradigm shift.    It truly 
represents a positive approach to our future.

David Robert White PhD   is a Permaculture Design Course Graduate in 1997 , 
the Environmental Coordinator at Happy Valley School in charge of 
Permaculture Education and maintenance of the site ,have asked him for more 
bio
artdetour at mac.com
PO Box 973, Ojai, CA 93024
(805) 646 9809
http://artdetour.com
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