Ecozoic
Pine Ridge scout trip to Slim Buttes
In which two of our intrepid graduates from Pine Ridge take on Detroit. Suffering from severe unemployment and economic meltdown, Detroit is a city made for permaculture. Full of abandoned buildings and lots, it is a playground waiting to be transformed into a sustainable, self-sufficient forest garden/green retrofitted build environment. You can buy a house there for hundreds of dollars, not thousands. Or maybe just move in, and homestead. The authorities might be grateful that you did, instead of evicting you. Especially if you’re fixing the place up and planting stuff in the yard 
Here’s an interview from Alan Scheurmann, talking about the organization he and fellow Pine Ridge graduate Ryan Hertz run in the area. Last I heard, they are creating water catchment and food systems in a yard in Detroit. Alan is going to Mexico to assist with an indigenous project there soon. Stay tuned for more news from these guys, they are going to go places ….
Can you talk about EcoZoic, the organization you started with Ryan Hertz?
AS: The word EcoZoic comes from an ecospiritualist author named Thomas Berry in which he refers to the story of the universe and the earth through the lens of the major eras of history. The EcoZoic era is where humans really must get to in order to avoid extinction. It is a period in which humans must co-create mutually enhancing relationships with the larger community of life. So our organization, which is incorporated as an L3C (low profit limited liability company), serves the mission to co-create an EcoZoic reality, starting with our hometown of Detroit. We do ecological consultations, sustainability assessments, and Permaculture Design, as well as community organizing to empower families and individuals to realize self-sufficiency. We are both musicians and are working on figuring out the details of how to incorporate our musical backgrounds into our efforts. We want to see an EcoZoic Detroit and we are taking action every day, along with many others, to help realize this vision.
DL!: What are some of the big picture projects you are doign with ecozoic that you feel will have a greater effect on Detroit’s re-invention and transformation?
AS: We’d like to find enough land in the city to do a real permaculture project with a 200 year vision that would serve the surrounding community by showing that self sufficiency is possible and that the solution to every problem can be found in nature. That being said, our landscape, like our people, requires quite of bit of healing. That does not mean that healing cannot happen, however. We’d also like to align ourselves with other visionaries, artists, musicians, and individuals to support and promote efforts that share our ethics and principles.
ecozoicdetroit.net
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=119976007188
Miami PDC earns college credits from FIU
FIU is offering 3 college credits for the Urban Design Course being delivered at Earth N Us urban farm in Jan/Feb 2010. Check with FIU for more info on how to enroll – these credits can be transferred to any Florida college or university.
The mainstream needs permaculture, so we’ve made it a practice to work with universities whenever it is feasible. Permaculture integrates the sciences with the humanities, and brings sciences together in a way that enriches them. Where else can you study climatology, biology, physics, microbiology, urban planning, cultural studies, economics, anthropology, archeology, and much more, in one two week course and find it accessible, enriching, entertaining, and enjoyable?
Miami Earth ‘n Us
Florida Earth Ship PDC
Pine Ridge and Permaculture Research Institute
We have registered with Permaculture Research Institute as an outreach program that meets their criteria for support. More info at the following link:
http://www.permacultureusa.org/2009/11/23/permaculture-takes-off-at-pine-ridge-lakota-reservation-south-dakota/
Apprenticeship opportunities at Pine Ridge, Summer 2010
We will be completing several permaculture projects at Pine Ridge this summer and we are accepting apprentices and volunteers to assist.
These projects are part of the Oglala-Lakota Cultural and Economic Revitilization Initiative on an 8000 acre cattle ranch on the reservation. The ranch is the home of a school of sustainability and will become a model for regenerative permaculture practices with indigenous and cultural elements. We would like to complete a number of key projects this summer which will contribute to economic revitilization of the reservation as well as sustainable self-sufficiency.
The projects we seek assistance for are as follows:
Kitchen Garden: We have created a kitchen garden for the ranch this year and need help expanding and maintaining it over the summer.
Food Forest: We will be planting at least one food forest on the ranch this summer – if we get enough volunteers we will also plant one in the canyons of the Tribal Lands which will become a community/tribal food forest.
Agroforestry and holistic range management: Apprentices will have an opportunity to be exposed to these practices as they are implemented from an indigenous perspective on the ranch. This is part of a beginning farmer/rancher program on the rez that includes microlending of cattle from OLCERI, and the formation of a cooperative to ensure the cows can be sold at the most advantageous prices and that the farmer/ranchers will be successful.
Returning from herding cattle
Student learns to use a bobcat
Wind Power: We will be completing installation of wind turbine/battery system to put the ranch fully off the grid electrically. OLCERI has helped create wind power for the tribal radio station and plans to export this know how to others on the rez.
Keyline design: The ranch includes a 3000 acre watershed that lends itself very well to capturing water high on the land and thereby recharging the ground water supply and regenerating the landscape. We hope to do broadscale work this summer to start this process, which will lead to a program of large scale land regeneration across the reservation.
Straw bale building: We will be building a straw bale workshop/classroom on the ranch which will allow us to expand our educational programs and also create new economic opportunities. Housing is a major issue on the rez – every year people die because of weather exposure in substandard housing, and we want to create a well built demonstration straw bale building so that this know-how can be exported.
There are many other smaller projects on the ranch. Apprentices will have an opportunity to experience the workings of a cattle ranch and also interact with the Lakota way of life via this active extended family. There will be opportunities to participate in local workshops on indigenous crafts and skills such as bow making, leatherwork, etc.
Grant writing: We are seeking grant writers who can assist us to create grants that can fund materials, equipment, etc, for future projects.
Marketing: We are seeking assistance to market our courses outside the rez. We pay a 10% share on any students registered as a result of your efforts. Course fees are a major way we fund the expansion of our programs into the rez, so please help! We do not have the time we would like to thoroughly market these courses because we are very busy focused on the logistics of pulling as much energy as we can toward the rez programs out of these classes. Please let others know about what we are doing, ok?
Camera person and sound person: We would like to document the activities of this project this summer and are looking for people who can help us do so with quality video. This is historic, and should make a quite interesting story.
There is no charge for apprenticing or camping, but you will need to cover your own food expenses. Those who already have skill sets related to the needs of these projects will be considered first, but all are encouraged to apply.
Please send inquiries to cory@permacultureguild.us. Include your skills and resources, and why you are interested in apprenticing at OLCERI ranch.
Bagging dirt for root cellar freezer insulation