Goals

  1. Conduct research on the application of Permaculture design Principles on the regional scale.
  2. Create an intergenerational effort by understanding and embracing the history of central Vermont while educating the next generation on Permaculture and ecological designers. 
  3. Produce media that adjusts the cultural narrative, educates, and encourages our communities to participate in local economies and engage in place-based solutions.

What is Permaculture?

Picturewww.permacultureprinciples.com/flower

 Permaculture, coined in the 1970s by its Australian co-founders, Bill Mollison and David Holmgren, stems from the marriage of the words "permanent" and "culture".  It is a design process, based upon careful observation and systems thinking, that guides us in creating sustainable, equitable, and deeply integrated human habitats that mimic natural relationships and patterns. These patterns are meant to not only inspire human-crafted systems that are physically embedded in nature, such as agriculturally productive landscapes, but also those that guide social relationships, economic models, and governing decision-making processes.   Since its origins, permaculture has cultivated an impressive international network of practitioners, students, and activists that continue to utilize its methods to establish more socially just, harmonious, and regenerative livelihoods.
 
As a design science, permaculture is a discipline that is rooted in a set of ethics that are inspired from the innate balance and patterns found in nature:

1.) Care of Earth
  • The moral imperative for stewardship of natural resources 
  • ​Care and management for living soils
  • Honoring the intrinsic value of naturally-occurring biodiversity and all living things
2.) Care of people
  • Begins with care for oneself, which radiates into spheres that include families, neighbors, and communities both near and far
  • Enhancing self-reliance and responsibility for one's unique situation
  • Understanding the pitfalls of materialism and consumerism on our well-being while relearning to value what matters most
3.) Return of surplus (Future Care)
  • Acknowledging the innate limitations that occur within nature as a guide for setting limits to consumption of natural resources, material goods, etc.
  • Allowing experiences of abundance encourage us to redistribute surplus to help those, including the Earth, beyond ourselves, our communities, and even our generation

These ethics help to guide in the application of the universal permaculture design principles that help determine site-specific strategies and methods for creating integrated and productive systems that meet our needs.  While interpretations may vary from practitioner to practitioner, our regionally-focused work is largely informed by David Holmgren's understanding of the following  permaculture principles:

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1.) Observe and interact
2.) Catch and store energy
3.) Obtain a yield
4.) Apply self-regulation and accept feedback
5.) Use and value renewable resources and services
6.) Produce no waste
7.) Design from patterns to details
8.) Integrate rather than segregate
9.) Use small and slow solutions
10.) Use and value diversity
11.) Use edges and value the marginal
12.) Creatively use and respond to change




​These principles are not mutually exclusive, nor are they meant to be understood as a linear "user's guide" to permaculture.  In actuality the principles are continually building upon and reinforcing one another- just as the elements of a functioning ecosystem do.  Together, these grounding ethics and principle direct the application of design methods and techniques that are deeply site-specific and place-based.  For additional resources on permaculture design principles, visit David Holmgren's site.

Permaculture & Regional Design

Over the past 50 years, Permaculture has inspired an impressive collection of very successful projects and site designs throughout the globe, with some of the most well-known including David Holmgren's "Melliodora" and Zaytuna Farm managed by Geoff Lawton.  While many iterations of Permaculture traditionally tend to be manifested in such site-specific landscapes on either the homestead or farm scales, we propose that the foundational ethics and design principles of Permaculture can be effectively applied to larger scale systems, from watersheds to entire regions.

Perhaps one of the most universally useful aspects of Permaculture is its ability to be applied on various scales in various scenarios.  By utilizing the Permaculture principles as a guiding framework, we can begin to understand a given site as a living system that is influenced by energy flows, feedback loops, and the intricate relationships between its many elements.  This exact framework is informing our understanding on a regional scale here in Central Vermont as we explore not only the emergent synergies and relationships within the region, but also its place within the wider context of Vermont as a whole.  For example, we are gathering information on how current and historical land use patterns in Central Vermont are impacting water quality in Vermont's largest water source, Lake Champlain, and how informed management practices upstream can generate positive outcomes at the source.  

This ability to vacillate in scale will be critical as we move towards new resilient systems, which is why our educational programs will place emphasis on teaching and implementing scale-appropriate strategies.  We need leaders that are able to design from backyard techniques to farm-scale, to regional foodshed, and back again.  
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PDC student presents final design