Permaculture Design & Education Workshop

The Permaculture Design & Education Workshop, sponsored by The University of Texas Pan American's Office for Sustainability opened this morning with a talk by Mr. Wayne Weiseman, an international leader in permaculture design. Weiseman noted that observation of one's surroundings is key to a successful project. "Sit back an watch, use all the senses."  He recommended that when undertaking a project one "take one year of protracted observation" for a comprehensive vision to become a complete lifestyle.

Weiseman's general introduction covered ethics; Care of Earth - the primary ethic, the earth is the primary client; Care of People (Care of Ourselves) - if we can provide for our own basic needs, then we can care for the earth; Return of Surplus - contribute time, money and energy to achieve these ethics along with setting limits to population and consumption. You reinvest surplus into the first two ethics and limit consumption.

"Make the least change for the greatest effect," said Weiseman.   In challenging the forty attendees to take their first step into permaculture, Weiseman tried to ease people's caution by saying that "mistakes are tools for learning." 

Weiseman spoke about the "father of permaculture", Bill Mollison, and recommended we study his work by reading: Permaculture: A Designer's Manual and Introduction to Permaculture. 

Weiseman also spoke about David Holmgren, an Australian environmental designer, ecological educator and writer and a co-originator of the permaculture concept with Mollison.

Weiseman noted that Holmgren's Permaculture Principles include:  1. observe and interact 2. catch and store energy 3. soil & trees are living sources of energy 4. obtain a yield 5. apply self-regulation and accept feedback 6. use & value reusable resources and services 7. produce no waste 8. sustainable yield  9. integrate better than segregate. 10. use small and slow solutions 11. use and value diversity 12. use edges and value the marginal  13. creatively use and respond to change

The Permaculture Process:

• Pattern Observation
• Site Analysis
• Design
• Implementation
• Feedback

The Permaculture Scale of Permanence:

• Climate
• Land form
• Water (in general)
• Access and Circulation
• Micro-climate
• Vegetation and Wildlife
• Buildings and Infrastructure
• Zones of use
• Soil 
• Aesthetics

Weiseman's website, www.permacultureproject.com, lists the following as the Principles of Permaculture.

The Permaculture Design System is based upon certain principles and methodologies that govern design work. These principles are witnessed in the behavior of natural systems and therefore constitute a base for human activity that mirror nature and act within the laws that govern its behavior.

Principles of Permaculture

• Ethics:  The only ethical decision is to take responsibility for our own existence and that of our children. Cooperation, not competition, is the very basis of future survival and of existing life systems.
• Care of the Earth: includes all living and non-living things, plants, animals, land, water, air
• Care of People: promotes self-reliance and community responsibility and mutual access to resources necessary for existence
• Setting Limits to Population and Consumption: in keeping with the current human capacity to benevolently distribute goods and resources
• System yield: the sum total of surplus energy produced by, stored, conserved, reused, or converted by the design. Energy is in surplus once the system itself has available all its needs for growth, reproduction and maintenance. Unused surplus results in pollution and more work.
• Relative Location: Components placed in a system are viewed relatively, not in isolation.
• Everything is connected to everything else: Recognize functional relationships between elements.
• Every function is supported by many elements (redundancy): Good design ensures that all important functions can withstand the failure of one or more element.
• Every element is supported by many functions: Each element we include is a system, chosen and placed so that it performs as many functions as possible.
• Local Focus: “Think globally-act locally”. Grow your own food, cooperate with neighbors. Community efficiency, not self-sufficiency.
• Diversity: As a general rule, as sustainable systems mature they become increasingly diverse in both space and time. What is important is the complexity of the functional relationships that exist between elements, not the number of elements.
• Biological Resources: We know living things reproduce and build up their availability over time, assisted by their interaction with other compatible elements. Use and reserve biological intelligence.
• One calorie in/one calorie out: Do not consume or export more biomass than carbon fixed by the solar budget.
• Stocking: Finding the balance of various elements to keep one from overpowering another over time. How much of an element needs to be produced in order to fulfill the needs of the whole system?
• Stacking: Multi-level functions for single element. Multi-level garden design, i.e., trellising, forest garden, vines, ground covers, etc.
• Succession: Recognize that certain elements prepare the way for the system to support other elements in the future, i.e., succession planting.
• Use onsite resources: Determine what resources are available and entering the system on their own. Maximize their use.
• Edge effect: Ecotones are the most diverse and fertile area in a system. Two ecosystems come together to form a third which has more diversity than either of the other two, i.e., edges of ponds, forests, meadows, currents, etc.
• Energy recycling: Yields form a system designed to supply onsite needs and/or needs of local region.
• Small scale: Intensive systems start small and create a system that is manageable and produces a high yield.
• Make least change for the greatest effect: The less change that is generated, the less embedded energy is used to endow the system.
• Planting strategy: 1^st-natives, 2^nd-proven exotics, 3^rd-unproven exotics- carefully on small scale with lots of observation.
• Work within nature: Aiding the natural cycles results in higher yield and less work. A little support goes a long way. Appropriate technology: The same principles apply to cooking, lighting, transportation, heating, sewage treatment, water and other utilities.
• Law of return: Whatever we take, we must return. Every object must responsibly provide for its replacement.
• Stress and harmony: Stress here may be defined as either prevention of natural function, or of forced function. Harmony may be defined as the integration of chosen and natural functions, and the easy supply of essential needs.
• The problem is the solution: We are the problem, we are the solution. Turn constraints into resources.
• Mistakes are tools for learning: Do not view mistakes as negative
• The yield of a system is theoretically unlimited: The only limit on the number of uses of a resource possible is the limit of information and imagination of the designer.
• Dispersal of yield over time: Principle of seven generations. We can use energy to construct systems providing that in their lifetime they store or conserve more energy than we use to construct them or to maintain them.
• A policy of responsibility (to relinquish power): The role of successful design is to create a self-managed system.
• Principle of disorder: Order and harmony produce energy for other uses. Disorder consumes energy to no useful end. Tidiness is maintained disorder.
• Chaos has form but is not predictable. The amplification of small fluctuations.
• Entropy: In complex systems disorder is an increasing result. Entropy and life-force is a stable pair that maintains the universe to infinity.
• Metastability: For a complex system to remain stable there must be small pockets of disorder.
• Entelechy: Principle of genetic intelligence, i.e., the rose has thorns to protect itself.
• Observation: Protracted and thoughtful observation rather than protracted and thoughtless labor.
• We are surrounded by insurmountable opportunities.
• Wait one year.
• Hold water and fertility as high (in elevation) on the landscape as possible.

While Weiseman covered a lot of material, it gave those new to the movement a quick overview of what they have to look forward to.