Ecological Restoration

Ecological Restoration

One of the essential goals of our Permaculture master planning, design and education, is the ecological restoration of degraded landscapes, including the built environment, gardening and farming, the waste stream, use of energy, and all aspects of the site.

The design process is an all-inclusive creative endeavor for all stakeholders involved in the development of a site. The key to Permaculture design is for the stakeholders to be completely immersed in all phases from assessment to design to implementation, management and maintenance. We are not landscape architects. We are facilitators. We tap into the creative genius and educate all stakeholders in the principles and methodologies of whole systems design and the Permaculture approach of patterning the world. In Permaculture circles we say, as originally stated by Bill Mollison, “The only limitations in planning and the development of a high yielding and energy efficient land base is the limitation of the imagination of the designers”. Our modern educational system does not support this kind of creativity. The development and implementation of a site is an ongoing and thorough educational process, a regenerative, restorative process in all areas of life: mineral, plant, animal, and especially, human.

Permaculture is about whole systems, not about separate components. Because each element in a landscape or the built environment affects every other element at a site, a complete, comprehensive assessment is tantamount to develop healthy, productive, energy efficient relationships between elements for the benefit of everyone and everything involved in day-to-day management and life. By paying attention to all details: topography, climate, water, wind, sun, activity nodes and corridors, buildings, machinery and tools, the waste stream, plants and animals, it enables us to make best use of what is already on the ground, and what we intend to put there. With a dynamic interaction of elements in process, and an assessment of both spatial and temporal attributes, organized around sound ecological principles, we maximize yields and balance the landscape.

A section of the areas of proficiency addressed in site planning include:

  • Practical homesteading skills
  • Renewable energy (wind, solar, water, fire) systems
  • Eco-building construction and home retrofit
  • Biological waste management systems and waste detoxification
  • Water collection systems
  • Storage, cycling and distribution of fresh water
  • Air and water purification
  • Cooling, heating and climate regulation
  • Land restoration
  • Utility plant landscapes and food forests
  • Nutrient storage
  • Community gardens
  • Aquaculture
  • Animals
  • Peaceful sanctuary
  • Biological diversity
  • Recreation
  • Recycling
  • Noise abatement
  • Budgeting
  • Maintenance
  • Management

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