Permaculture - Medicinal Herbs & Seeds - Farming | Friends of the Trees Society

is a small, grassroots non-profit which has been operating continually since 1978— thirty-seven years of service to the trees and to tree-lovers worldwide. Our work has touched over 100,000 people so far.

2016

View a more readable version of the PDC poster HERE
Get a printer-ready, high-quality version HERE to put up in your neighborhood.
Watch for updates as they become available.

2015

2015 Schedule of Workshops, Courses and Events

Michael Pilarski’s North Cascadia Workshop Tour, April 2015

Wildcrafting Native and Non-Native Plants
1000 Crops for Northwest Growers /
The Emerging Alliance between Humans and Nature Spirits

Two-week, residential intensive Permaculture Design Course at the Heartsong Retreat Center, Tumtum, WA, May into June

EARTH REPAIR INSTITUTE

A prospectus. Version #1, January 2, 2015
Prepared by Michael Pilarski, Friends of the Trees Society

[Note that everywhere the words ‘earth repair’ are used here, the words ‘ecological restoration’ could be substituted.]

1) Produce a website that brings information together from around the world on how to do earth restoration and who is doing it, news, reviews, and useful information. This will be an interactive website.

2) Produce an in-print and on-line book which addresses the current state of the art, the current state of the worldwide movement and best models, completed and ongoing.

3) Set up a training center to teach earth repair techniques (such as tree planting, erosion control, etc) as well as permaculture, wildcrafting, and wild seed collection.

4) The center would include offices, library, greenhouses, and production of seeds and nursery stock and food for the staff and students. There would be lots of hands on components.

***

Starting in June I'll be teaching a two-week, residential intensive Permaculture Design Course at the Heartsong Retreat Center, Tumtum, WA

2015 Permaculture Design Course

Permaculture design can be applied to any property large or small … urban or rural.

Learn permaculture design from the region’s most experienced permaculture teacher.

The course fee covers instruction, meals, permaculture design certificate and curriculum materials.

2014

New!
Permaculture Directory for the Maritime Pacific Northwest
by Michael Pilarski

The Permaculture Directory for the Maritime Pacific Northwest is the tip of the iceberg, but it is a start. For the time being this directory focuses on Washington and Oregon west of the Cascade crest. There is some information for western British Columbia as well and a bit in northern California. While northern California and coastal BC are part of the Cascadia bioregion, they have other permaculture organizations serving them and I am not as familiar with the permaculture situation there. Ideally, someone from those areas will put together a list for their regions. The long-term goal is to have credible directories for all regions of North America. I made a first edition of a nationwide list to take to NAPC. This first edition of the maritime PNW is another baby step forward. Let us inspire each other.

I have already done a Permaculture Directory for the Inland Northwest (Columbiana bioregion). Montana, Idaho and Washington and Oregon east of the Cascade Crest. It can be found at:

It is not a list of permaculture design course graduates, which would be many times larger. It is a listing of people and entities who are publicly promoting permaculture. It is based on my personal knowledge (albeit incomplete memory) and some internet searching. I hope not too many people get mad at me for forgetting them in this first edition or for adding them to this list or misspelling names or getting numbers wrong. I did the best I could this first round and it can only get better.

To see the Permaculture Directory for the Maritime Pacific Northwest, please go HERE (the website for the Northwest Permaculture Convergence).

The next step is to install input forms on the NWPC website, so that people can add themselves, modify their listings, and add a photo if they wish. The Directory will become an expanding, crowd-sourced, public project.

On-line Permaculture Design Courses - A list compiled by Michael Pilarski

The number of on-line permaculture design courses are proliferating rapidly and there is a wide range of quality. I have compiled a list of a few I know about. I've given some comments where I know something about them. Additional info can be sent to me at: [email protected]

I used to scoff at on-line pdcs, but I now see that there is a place for them. They are particularly good at the introductory phase. I doubt any skilled permaculturist would want to sit through an on-line course. They are also useful for people who live in places where on-site pdcs aren’t offered and who have a hard time leaving to go to a venue.

Michael Pilarski’s 2014 Schedule

2013

Okanogan Valley, north-central Washington. An opportunity to take a pdc with the Inland Northwest’s leading permaculture teacher.

Early-bird price of $1,000 extended until July 7.

View the poster

Probably no better investment at today’s point in history. Learn how to grow food in climate extremes. Learn how to work with nature to create bio-diverse, fully functioning ecosystems that are biologically and economically productive. Permaculture has solutions!

Plant walks, design teams, field trips, hands-on, and internet resources are all part of the agenda for the course.

Lots to see at the course venue. Including a 6-year old permaculture forest garden that Michael Pilarski installed in 2008.

Check out the youtubes of Michael Pilarski at the course venue.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-o2kVOyE5Ww

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JBmTe9oZNFc

I have spent most of my life in the Pacific Northwest and am very familiar with both the wet maritime and the semi-arid interior Northwest bioregions. Right now I am trying to fill my August 3-16 course in the Okanogan valley of North-central Washington. This is an opportunity to take a pdc from an instructor with deep knowledge of the Northwest biomes and land at a site where there are lots of permaculture plantings to look at and work in. The 200-acre site has been under development since 1972 and I started putting in plantings there six years ago. You can taste the productivity during the course. And the course is a reasonable fee of $1,000. Most pdcs are more expensive.

We are keeping the early bird price of $1,000 until July 7 (the poster says June 1). Please help us fill this course. Are you interested? Who do you know who may be interested? Please email friends, list-serves or like the event on Facebook.

PS. Joseph is looking for an intern at the Okanogan permaculture farm where the course is being held. Would anyone be interested in taking the course and staying on as an intern?

PERMACULTURE DESIGN COURSES

The Balance Between Universality and Uniqueness

Some thoughts by Michael Pilarski

There are many similarities between pdcs and most all of them tout that they are delivering the Bill Mollison curriculum. The ones that offer certification in particular take pains to keep a lot of the original curriculum. In truth, every single permaculture design course in unique, even by the same instructor because the students change. The majority of pdcs are structured to focus on the climate zone and culture in which the course is held. For instance, when I teach a course in Missoula, Montana, the course has a focus on the inland northwest climates, landforms, soils and biomes and Montanan society. We also look specifically at the ethnobotany and life ways of the interior Salish and other tribes from the region. I have taught four courses in the Hawaiian Islands and they focus on subtropical climates, soils, landforms and the biomes of Hawaii and Hawaiian ethnobotany.

PDCs cater to the climate and culture that the participants are from. That said, a permaculture course worth its salt will be useful for people working in any climate or culture on earth. In other words, pdcs were set up to have universality. The plants may change, the soils might be different, each culture is different but the permaculture ethics, principles and methodology are universal in their application. That is what a pdc teaches first and foremost.

The curriculum developed early on by Bill Mollison has remained the standard for pdcs today. The first pdc was held in 1980 in Australia. When I took my first course in 1982 (with Bill Mollison and Andrew Jeeves) the standard pdc curriculum was already developed and has changed little over the years. The standard course curriculum addresses all the major climate zones and parts of the world. Tropical, subtropical, warm temperate and cold temperate. Strategies, plants, animals, housing styles, and techniques for each major climate zone. This is impressive. Some pdcs still aim to do this, particularly international pdcs.

That said, it is a difficult thing to deliver and few teachers can really do it justice like Bill Mollison could. Most pdcs include a few sessions on other climate zones, but for the most part pdcs world round focus on the climate zone and the culture(s) the participants come from. This is a good thing. Permaculture is very much about diversity, decentralization and localization.

You can view the standard course curriculum online at Scott Pittman’s Permaculture Institute USA website. Go to http://www.permaculture.org/nm/index.php/site/professional_practise_pages and click on Permaculture Design Certificate Course Handbook. I adapt the standard curriculum for my course curriculum to make it place-based, but I always consult the standard curriculum to make sure I don’t leave any topics out.

I recommend that people do some research before deciding where to take their first pdc and with what instructor(s). Most likely you will want to take a pdc in the climate zone you live in, locally adapted so to speak. Closer is better than farther in most cases, but some people travel quite a distance to take a pdc with a particular instructor(s). For some people cost is a factor in their choice. For people who have the time and the money, I would recommend taking a number of pdcs with different teachers and even in different climates. I have now gone through 36 full pdcs and sat in (or guest taught at) many more, mostly in the US and Canada. Nepal, Belize and the Hawaiian Islands have been my subtropical pdcs. I learn lots at each new pdc and I am always learning and evolving between pdcs. This means my courses evolve as well. This will be a certified pdc, certified by the respected Cascadia Permaculture Institute.

HELP NEEDED AT MICHAEL PILARSKI’S FARM

I have just returned home from teaching a very successful permaculture design course in Dayton, Montana. This took me away from the farm for three weeks and as a result I am really behind on the growing season and could use some help to get back on track.

Anyone have time to come out to Tonasket and give me a hand?

A weekend… a week… short term or long term job…??

In the next month we will be planting thousands of plants – trees, shrubs, berries, herbs and vegetables. Lots to do and lots to learn.

Give me a call if interested.

Michael Skeeter Pilarski

509-486-4056

[email protected]

Northwest Herbal Fair News

Employment, Unemployment, and Misemployment in the United States
Building a new economic system based on useful jobs.

North American Permaculture Convergence:
An idea whose time has come?

History of the Permaculture Movement
in North America
A book proposal by Michael Pilarski

2011

Pine Nuts for Food and Edible Oil
- A brief commentary
Article March, 2011

The Northwest Herbal Fair
Rides Again
August 19 - 21, 2011

The 2011 Northwest Herbal Fair
is looking for team players!

2010

Paradigm Shifts Happening Now
Article Christmas Eve 2010

A Proposal for a Green Tea Party:
Putting Together a Winning 3rd Party Coalition

Russia's Anastasia and Permaculture
Dec 19 2010