[Sdpg] Rhizome Collective, Austin Texas, Permaculture, Grove Brownfield Cleanup and Park Creation

[Wesley Roe and Marjorie Lakin Erickson]

Rhizome Collective
www.rhizomecollective.org/

An expanding underground root system, sending up above ground shoots to 
form a vast network. Difficult to uproot.

The Rhizome Collective is a non-profit organization based out of a 
warehouse on the East Side of Austin, Texas. We operate an Educational 
Center for Urban Sustainability and a Center for Community Organizing. We 
are a consensus-run organization.

We are working to build the world we want to live in. In our worldview, the 
dominant values of competition, greed and exploitation would be replaced 
with cooperation, autonomy and egalitarianism. We believe that all 
struggles against oppression and for self-determination are connected, and 
that it is important to construct viable alternatives while simultaneously 
fighting for social justice.

Community participation is necessary and central to this challenge. We 
invite your involvement! Click here to take virtual tour!

RHIZOSPHERE EDUCATIONAL CENTER
Features include:
Rainwater harvesting
Closed loop waste processing
constructed wetlands, composting, vermicomposting
Urban food production
organic gardening, micro-livestock, mushroom culture
Autonomous energy
windmills, passive and active solar, biogas and biofuels, and bikes!
Bioremediation of contaminated soils
phyto, myco and phyco remediation, compost teas.
Earth materials construction
strawbale, slipstraw, aliz, salvaged materials
Aquatic polyculture
edible water plants, algae culture, green manures, fish, floating islands

The Rhizosphere focuses on the design and display of functioning ecological 
tools and technologies. Our goal is to create environmentally sustainable 
systems that provide for people's basic needs: food, water, waste 
management, energy, and shelter. By having these systems on display, we 
hope to educate and inspire others to continue the work of building 
sustainable infrastructures.

Our design criteria include: affordability, simplicity, space efficiency, 
beauty, and the utilization of recycled and low energy materials. Special 
attention is given to forming a closed loop system, where the yields of one 
system provide for the needs of another. The systems of the Rhizosphere are 
based on the design principles of permaculture.

We encourage the development of systems which are decentralized and locally 
based, that empower individuals, villages and communities with greater 
self-reliance. When our needs are provided for in a small, intensively 
cultivated space, we reduce the impact we have on the environment at large, 
as well as our reliance upon systems of oppression.

These techniques can be applied in the global north or south, and while our 
design focus is on urban environments, they can easily be adapted to rural 
spaces.

Grove Brownfield Cleanup and Park Creation


A project of the Rhizosphere Educational Center

The Rhizome Collective is pleased to announce our newest project, an 
exciting extension of the Rhizosphere Educational Center. We have been 
donated a 9.8 acre brownfield in the Montopolis neighborhood in East 
Austin, and were selected to receive a Brownfield Cleanup Grant from the 
EPA. We look forward to completing the cleanup using innovative, 
ecologically conscious methods. Afterward, we hope to turn this neglected 
land into an Environmental Educational Park. As always, we invite community 
involvement- please contact us if you are interested!

The prevalence of abandoned lots filled with garbage, or land contaminated 
by dumped chemicals, polluting industries, etc., in poorer neighborhoods, 
especially where people of color live, is appalling. We believe everyone 
deserves to live in healthy, clean neighborhoods. It is our hope that this 
land will be used to strengthen the local neighborhood, rather than as a 
tool for development and gentrification.
Environmental Park Ideas

After cleanup, we will create an environmental educational park to 
complement the adjacent 360 acre Colorado River Park. The land will be 
tended according to ecological and permaculture principals, with the goal 
of creating a place for appreciating and learning about nature, as well as 
sustainability and the environmental justice movement. Native grasses, 
wildflowers and trees will be planted to create a wildlife habitat for 
native and endangered species. We will also plant a demonstration model of 
a food forest fruit and nut trees and other perennial plants that provide 
food with little annual human input. The food forest will further enhance 
the wildlife habitat.

A bicycle/walking trail that links the Montopolis neighborhood to the River 
Park will be created and opened to the public. Along the trail, educational 
outdoor kiosks made from earth filled tires recovered from the site will be 
built. They will highlight and explain information on the environment and 
sustainable stewardship.
Topics will include:
Before photos of the brownfield, to highlight the possibilities inherent in 
any degraded piece of land;
How each of the various forms of debris were recycled or re-used
Information on natural building techniques
How diesel engines run on vegetable oil and other biofuels.
Native plant identification and uses
Wildlife, and creating wildlife habitat: planting trees, grasses, 
wildflowers, butterfly gardens, bird and bat houses, etc.
The importance of wetlands and how they act as natures filter
Soil building and composting
Environmental racism and the history of East Austin
Long-term goals for the educational park include hands-on demonstrations of:
Greenbuilding techniques: cob, rammed earth, slip-straw, adobe, earthbag 
and strawbale
Innovative bio-integrated closed loop systems, where wastes from one system 
supply the needs for another - involves worm composting, methane 
production, algae harvesting for food and oil, mushroom growing, 
micro-livestock and small scale aquatic polycultures
Pilot bioremediation plots to break down landfill contaminants into 
harmless elements, employing techniques such as compost tea application as 
well as phyto and mycoremediation
Use of Constructed wetlands and floating hydroponic restoration cells for 
wastewater treatment and storm water mitigation, as well as rainwater 
harvesting
Mid-scale composting of local business food wastes employing biofuels 
tractors, for the purpose of creating a sellable, soil building product, 
and a working example of industrial ecology.
Cleanup Plan

5000 cubic yards of illegally dumped debris need to be cleaned. We plan to 
recycle and re-use as much of the debris as possible. Tires, along with 
metal and wood, will be used to create structures made from waste 
materials. Tires will be filled with rammed earth and used as giant bricks 
to form information kiosks. Non-pressure treated wood will be chipped and 
used to mulch trails. Asphalt shingles will be brought to the only place in 
Texas that recycles them into roadbase. Any hazardous materials uncovered 
in the clean-up process would be safely disposed of at the City of Austin 
Hazardous Waste disposal facility.

To prevent future dumping, we will post signs and erect a fence at the top 
of the ridge. We hope to use equipment and vehicles with diesel engines 
that have been converted to run off vegetable oil whenever possible.

The Rhizome Collective
300 Allen Street, Austin, Texas 78702
(south of 5th between Pleasant Valley and Springdale)
rhizomecollective at earthlink.net
(512) 385-3695

Radical Urban Sustainability Training
March 25-26. An intensive seminar presented by the Rhizome Collective, 
exploring the convergence of permaculture and social activism in building 
sustainable communities. Find out about city chickens and micro livestock, 
gray water processing using constructed wetlands, soil repair and asphalt 
removal, passive solar and windmills, humanure and worm composting, DIY air 
purification, food forests, struggles for land and gentrification, and much 
more. A free class taught at Rhizome's Center for Urban Sustainability, 300 
Allen in southeast Austin. See www.rhizomecollective.org/