Permaculture- How to Make Yards, Cities and Farms More Productive and Livable

Michael Pilarski is a farmer, wildcrafter, educator and author who has personally worked with over 1,000 species of plants. He is the founder of Friends of the Trees Society (1978) and is the author of books on forestry, agriculture, agroforestry and ethnobotany. He has lived and taught around the Inland Empire since 1972.  Michael has been involved in the permaculture movement since 1981 as a writer, teacher and networker. He has taught 23 full Permaculture Design Courses in the USA and abroad. www.friendsofthetrees.net

Morning Session:
9-9:15. Drinks, tea, coffee, light snacks

9:15 to 10:15. Introduction to permaculture ethics, principles and methodology. The word ‘Permaculture’ was originally coined in Australia in the 1970’s by Bill Mollison and David Holmgren. Over the last 30 years, permaculture has grown to become a global grassroots movement involving hundreds of thousands of people. Permaculture offers a huge storehouse of solutions, strategies and practical techniques gathered from around the globe and throughout history. If permaculture designs were implemented on a planetary scale in cities, farms and homes the world would become a Garden of Eden.

10:15 to 11:30.  Permaculture design applied at the home and yard level to produce food and resources, lower expenses, conserve energy and water, and make people’s yards and neighborhoods more livable and beautiful.

11:30 to 12:30. Break for potluck lunch

Afternoon Session:
12:30 to 2. A permaculture approach to plants in the landscape. The functional roles of plants such as windbreaks, screening, sound buffering, wildlife habitat, firebreaks, beauty, erosion control, water retention, etc. Plants in the yard, on the farm and in the landscape. How to increase native plants and reduce weeds.

2 to 2:30. Break

2:30-5:00. Useful plants and crops. We will look at a range of foods, medicinals and other useful plants which can be grown at the home scale, at the farm crop scale, for ecosystem restoration and for creating wildcrafting opportunities.  Native and non-native species. Spokane county could produce almost all of its own food needs. We will look at grains, edible oils, sugars, fruits, nuts, vegetables, spices, dairy, livestock etc as well as fiber and energy crops. There are around 200,000 plant species in the world. Over 2,000 species are native to the Interior Northwest. Spokane gardeners and farmers have over 5,000 useful plant species to choose from.

Evening Presentation: 7:00pm – 9:00pm.
Positive Visions for an Ecologically-Sound and Self-Reliant Spokane. Michael Pilarski will give a permaculture perspective on how Spokane could build local food production, local energy production, more livable neighborhoods, local economy, local governance and healthy, beautiful and productive environments. Economic collapse, peak oil, resource depletion and climate change are breathing down our necks. People will be forced to find alternatives to our current economic and production systems. Permaculture offers strategies to adapt and thrive in a more localized future. We need large-scale, cooperative efforts to build healthy, local economies based on local people, local resources and local consumption. Local food production is one of the most important components of this.