I just received word that Bill Mollison died today. Bill’s body may be dead but his spirit lives on in the (by now) vast permaculture movement that he left behind.

Bill was a friend from the first time we met in 1982, when he guest taught at the first permaculture design course I graduated from (led by Andrew Jeeves). In 1986 I helped arrange (and took) Mollison’s first Dryland Permaculture Design Course (in the upper Kittitas valley in eastern Washington). Bill was in his prime then. A very charismatic person, brilliant thinker and one of the top people on how to live sustainably in the dryer parts of the globe. Not everyone liked Bill. He liked to stir the pot, particularly with feminists, vegetarians and western liberals and he became more of a curmudgeon in his latter years. In his heyday, Bill traveled the world widely teaching permaculture wherever he went. His brilliance and charisma are the reason that permaculture became the global movement it is today. Of course Bill was just the spark that ignited the larger fire that is composed of the tens of thousands of permaculture teachers and groups that exist today. We must also give great credit to David Holmgren for the big role he continues to play in permaculture. One last kudo to Bill is that he was a big hit with indigenous people wherever he went. His humor, openness, iconoclastic attitude and opposition to the powers-that-be gave him a place in their hearts. Not everyone may miss Bill Mollison, but many of us will.

--Michael Pilarski, September 25, 2016.

Here is a longer eulogy by Australian Graham Bell,

Bruce Charles 'Bill' Mollison 1928-2016

By Graham Bell
Sunday, 25th September 2016
Graham Bell's moving tribute to Bill Mollison, who died today, a true pioneer who gave up a promising academic career to challenge the status quo and establish the global Permaculture movement.

Bruce Charles 'Bill' Mollison (born 1928 in Stanley, Tasmania, Australia and died today, 24 September 2016 in Sisters Beach, Tasmania).

A few people are born who are world class heroes to those who know them and unkown to the great majority, until one day their inescapable influence floats to the surface and is generally recognised for the cream it is. In hindsight such leaders go on to become household names.

Such a man was Bill Mollison: backwoodsman, academic, storyteller, lady’s man and to many just ‘Uncle Bill’, but doing all these things par excellence. In consequence he has left a worldwide movement of remarkable resilience. He has left much useful information and not a few words of guidance and encouragement for those who will miss him most.

Growing up in Stanley, Tasmania, he left school at fifteen to help run the family bakery and before 26 went through the occupations of shark fisherman and seaman (bringing vessels from post-war disposals to southern ports), forester, mill-worker, trapper, snarer, tractor driver and naturalist.

His lack of formal education gave him many learning opportunities in how the real world works.

Bill joined the CSIRO (Wildlife Survey Section) in 1954 and gained extensive research knowledge. His time in the Tasmanian rainforests gave him the founding structure for what became his life’s passion - Permaculture. The idea that we could consciously design sustainable systems which enabled human beings to live within their means and for all wild life to flourish with us.

A spell at the Tasmanian Museum in curatorial duties, a return to field work with the Inland Fisheries Commission took him back to college in 1966 living on his wits running cattle, security bouncing at dances, shark fishing, and teaching part-time at an exclusive girls' school. Upon receiving his degree in bio-geography, he was appointed to the University of Tasmania where he later developed the unit of Environmental Psychology. During his university period (which lasted for 10 years), Bill independently researched and published a three-volume treatise on the history and genealogies of the descendants of the Tasmanian aborigines.

In 1974, with David Holmgren, Bill developed the beginning of the permaculture concept, leading to the publication of Permaculture One. He became fixated on proving and promulgating what he saw as a world renewing concept. Leaving the University in 1978, abandoning a secure academic tenure at the age of fifty (an unheard of move) Bill devoted all his energies to furthering the system of permaculture and spreading the idea and principles worldwide. He has taught thousands of students, and has contributed many articles, curricula, reports, and recommendations for farm projects, urban clusters and local government bodies.

In 1981, Bill Mollison received the Right Livelihood Award (sometimes called the "Alternative Nobel Prize") for his work in environmental design. In recent years, he has established a 'Trust in Aid' fund to enable permaculture teachers to reach groups in need, particularly in the poorer parts of the world, with the aim of leaving a core of teachers locally to continue appropriate educational work.

We are helped in remembering Bill by his 1996 autobiography Travels in Dreams. Typically he laughs at himself: “This book is a work of fiction: most if not all of it is lies. Even the lies are imprecise reports of old lies overheard.” He wasn’t universally liked. One ason being he was committed to disrupt the status quo of misguided unfeeling management. “First feel fear, then get angry. Then go with your life into the fight.” He was eloquent about the need for peaceful ‘warriors’ as he called them to challenge the stupidity of ill-governance on a global scale. His own fears about being ineffectual were misguided: “Nobody takes any notice of me and even my friends continually criticise me.” In reality he engendered a massive global respect which will endure and grow as others develop his foundation thinking.

The pinnacle of his career to his students was the publication in 1988 of The Permaculture Designers Manual, honoured to this day by devotees as 'The Bible of Permaculture'. If devotees suggests falsely some religious connotation it’s really that Bill pioneered a deep respect for the planet and for more sensible approaches for how we could live on it: “We are true time scouts finding places now for what will be needed then.”

Bill asked: “Are we the public or the private person?” The truth of the matter is that for all seasons we are both. Perceived as challenging, a huge harvester of great ideas from around the world (and not always crediting their sources) Bill was also a sensitive man, eloquent raconteur, poet and appreciative of the poetry of others. He knew how to provoke others to action, but also when to withdraw and let others carry on the work. He paraphrased Lao Tzu: “True change is to so change things that it seems natural to everybody but no-one knows who thought of it.” And: “Our best will not be our children’s best.”

Though often outwardly gruff and challenging there was real heart to everything he did.

Bill Mollison founded the first and original Permaculture Institute, which was established in 1979 to teach the practical design of sustainable soil, water, plant, and legal and economic systems to students worldwide. Bill’s legacy is that hundreds of thousands of past students have created a world-wide network to take his concept forward. This is a world in which we are acutely aware of our environment, its capacity and its limitations, and we design systems to meet human needs which respect that.

Bill spent his final years in Sisters Beach, Tasmania. The final words must go to him in true classical tone:

“If you hear that I am dead tell them they lie.“

Graham Bell is the author of The Permacultiure Way and The Permaculture Garden and has been teaching permaculture internationally for over two and a half decades. He has one of the oldest forest gardens in the Borders of Scotland.

Cross-posted from grahambell.org with our thanks.

Help spread the permaculture word…

I paid my first visit to the lower Clearwater canyon on September 5-7, 2016.  I was so excited by what I saw I am writing this report the day of departure.

The lower Clearwater canyon (the bit that I saw) is one of the best examples of a wild food forest that I have ever seen. One of the North American counterparts to the wild fruit and nut forests of Kyrgyzstan.

David Holmgren describes recombinant ecosystems as a mix of non-native and native species co-existing on the edges of human settlements.  The Clearwater food forests are good examples of this concept.  Here are some of the main fruit and nut species involved.

Of the non-native component, apples figure prominently as the old homestead trees have been raided often by bears and their seeds distributed across the landscape. Plum thickets are also common.  The same goes for pears, and sundry other fruit to a much lesser extent.  Himalayan-type blackberries are common.  Naturalized, domestic cherry trees are more abundant here than anywhere I’ve seen. I notice Lycium barbarum in some places, which is close relative of the goji berry.  The only nut tree obviously naturalizing (that I saw) was the black walnut.  I did not notice English walnut trees, but suspect there would be some of that happening.  The walnuts and cherries are mostly spread by birds. 

The strong, native fruit component includes serviceberry (Amelanchier alnifolia), blue elderberry, hawthorn, chokecherry, currants, gooseberries, cascara (Rhamnus purshiana), sumac and hackberry (Celtis occidentalis).  This wild food component was no doubt managed by the Nez Perce population prior to white settlement and the addition of the naturalized fruit/nut component. 

The result of the intermingling is a large fruit production in the environment.  This feeds wild animals and birds, the chain of life and to a small extent, wildcrafting humans.  Some people wildcraft to a small extent for family use, but the sustainable production of this resource is barely being touched.

The object of my visit was to teach a wildcrafting workshop at Vedrica community, which is located along Lolo Creek.  In 2015 one of the big, wildfires in the Clearwater burned through the property and torched most of the buildings and forests. The whole property was blackened and many trees died.  In 2016 the ground is covered by a profusion of native and weedy non-native ground covers.  The resident recombinant fruit forest I which was particularly strong at this property) was partially killed but many of the trees are recovering. Blue elderberry is resprouting heavily and there is plethora of new seedlings which have sprung up in the wake of the fire.  The elderberry harvest is going to be huge in the years ahead.  The community has openings for new members if anyone is inspired to be part of a land-based community inspired by Anastasia of the Ringing Cedars of Russia book series. If interested contact me for details.

The lower Clearwater canyon is just one of many recombinant fruit forests I have seen in my travels around the Interior Pacific Northwest.

Some other examples of recombinant food forests are:

The Columbia River valley in Stevens County (northeast Washington).

The Colockum Creek drainage outside of Wenatchee Washington has a strong component of black walnut in the riparian stream corridor.

One section along Lake Chelan had an old nut orchard and the vicinity has strong groves of English and black walnut.

The Loomis/Palmer Lake area of northwest Okanogan County (north-central Washington) has many naturalized apricot and mulberry trees.

Part of the Omak grade coming down from Loup Loup pass has English and Black walnut as part of a mixed recombinant forest. 

All of these Washington examples have strong native fruit components of the aforementioned species.

All of these examples and the Clearwater canyon are set in semi-arid, mountainous, landscapes with many similarities to the habitats and species of the fruit and nut forests in Central Asia.

Here are some references to the wild fruit and nut forests of Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan (which I first read about over 30 years ago). 

The Fruit Forests of Kyrgyzstan: Introduction

https://foggyridgecider.com/elizainkyrgyzstan/

Gary Paul Nabhan’s visit to Kazakhstan,

https://orionmagazine.org/article/the-fatherland-of-apples/

Saving Ancient Walnut Forests In the Valleys of Central Asia

https://e360.yale.edu/feature/saving_ancient_walnut_forests_in_the_valleys_of_central_asia/2440/

Bibliography on the walnut-fruit forests of southern Kyrgyzstan

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/258763164_Bibliography_on_the_walnut-fruit_forests_of_southern_Kyrgyzstan

Reclamation and development of walnut and fruit forests in southern Kirghizia. (Vosstanovlenie i razvitie orekhovo-plodovykh...

1968, by A. F. Zarubin - out of print.