Permaculture Design Certification
in New York City
with Andrew Faust and Guests

11 Sessions - July to October 2009

Presented by The Center for Bioregional Living and Andrew Faust

This course will cover the core 72 hour Permaculture Design curriculum, including additional hours of in class and out of class activities to adapt this course to our region and to contemporary ecological issues in the United States. You will learn how to apply Permaculture principles to a diversity of settings and issues with an emphasis on urban and temperate environments.

This Permaculture design course provides a positive and empowering vision for social and ecological transformation. Come be inspired by the possibilities of today and not by the fear of tomorrow!

Permaculture

• is an ecological design science that provides insights and practical techniques for living a fruitful and abundant life.
• is addressing the major issues of our day from a whole systems perspective.
• is a worldwide movement that is helping to regenerate local ecologies and economies.
• is a solution oriented ecological approach to retrofitting our societies.

This course is perfect for a diversity of individuals who wish to use Permaculture in Urban environments as well as a diversity of other environments.

Lectures, extensive and diverse handouts, field trips and hands-on activities will explore: Methods for regenerating local economies and regional self reliance, the economics of globalization, providing individuals with practical tools for creating positive social change, inner-city gardening techniques, indoor and apartment gardening, making fermented foods, whole foods, Living Machines and natural wastewater treatment, biogas generators, ecological niche market and value added business ideas, passive integrated water systems, rain gardens that alleviate flooding while addressing sewage treatment plant overflows and clean water, living roofs, rooftop gardens and regional energy systems.

Other topics include:

The evolution of agriculture, Biodynamics, natural history of Eastern woodlands, passive solar and natural building techniques, Biodynamic orchards, fruit and berry production, watershed health, the integration of animals into cultivated ecosystems, indoor mushroom cultivation and solar oven and portable rocket stove construction.

2 girls 1 cup

To receive a certificate students must attend all 11 classes and present a final Permaculture site design. Students will be given the option to present their final design individually which is a different approach than most PDCs. In our experience, and from what our growing number of students say, this contributes to a more practical, professional and intellectually stimulating learning experience. As a result a number of our students final presentations have gone from paper (or Powerpoint Presentations) to actualized, real-world designs.

View Syllabus

All classes are on either Saturday or Sunday, from 9am to 5pm, and will be held in two locations:

July 25th and August 8th sessions will be held at:

Curious Pictures
440 Lafayette St. 6th floor
Manhattan

The remaining days:

August 1st, 15th, 16th, 29th
October 3rd, 4th, 17th, 25th, 31st

Will be at:

Sixth Street Community Center
Lower East Side Manhattan
638 E. 6th Street between Ave B and C

Andrew Faust is one of the premier Permaculture teachers and designers in North America with 17 years of Permaculture experience, 10 years as a certified alternative school teacher (Upattinas-Glenmoore, PA) and 8 years living off-the–grid in rural West Virginia. Living in Brooklyn since August 2007 he has been applying his knowledge to urban needs and working on the development of The Center for Bioregional Living in Ellenville, NY, a pilot campus for his New York City students and clients. Andrew has taught the PDC course over 13 times at Yestermorrow Design/Build school in Warren,VT. This will be his fourth PDC course in New York City.

Guest speakers will include:

Keith Morris is an organic farmer, builder, and environmental educator. For the past five years, he has been designing and establishing an edible forest garden and ecological homestead in Johnson, Vermont along the Lamoille River. Prospect Rock Permaculture combines reforestation, wildlife refuge, and ecological restoration with food production and community building, while educating about and experimenting with sustainable techniques and ways of building.

Lisa DePiano is a certified Permaculture designer and co-founder of the Montview Neighborhood Farm, a human-powered farm and edible forest garden in the Connecticut River Valley. She has a Master’s degree in Regional Planning from the University of Massachusetts and likes to ride with the worker owned Pedal People in Northampton, MA.

Rafter Sass of Liberation Ecology has facilitated workshops on social project design, Permaculture design, the economics of globalization, mycology, and wild foods and medicines. In his own words, “I do this work because I want to be in conversation with people who are hungry for change, and the tools for making it.”

Bill Young of Young Environmental LLC is a recognized leader in the environmental field with more than 25 years of experience as a project manager, designer, and wetland specialist. His expertise includes habitat restoration on disturbed lands, wetlands monitoring and construction, botanical inventory, wildlife assessment, streambank restoration; and erosion and sediment control.

Lars Chellberg of CENYC and Water Resources Group builds and maintains low cost Rain Water Harvesting systems across the five boroughs and leads educational workshops on sustainable water practices. He will be leading a tour of one of the systems he designed for a community garden in the Lower East Side.

Paula Hewitt Amram is the founder of Open Road Park and will be talking to us about the transformation of a former bus depot/brownfield into the thriving community garden it is today.

Adriana Magaña a certified Permaculture Designer and Horticulturist will be leading the hands-on workshops. She is working with Andrew Faust to create The Center for Bioregional Living upstate on their 14 acres of property in Ellenville, NY.

Together this teaching team brings a wealth of wisdom and a diversity of experience ranging from city to country, from forests to deserts and beyond. Come and learn from the premier practitioners of ecological design in the Northeast and be a part of the growing community of cutting edge designers and community leaders!

Before July 10th $1000
After July 10th $1200
$100 paid in advance to reserve your spot
Register early for discount!

For more information go here or to register email andrew@homebiome.com
Andrew Faust
The Center For Bioregional Living
www.homebiome.com
Ellenville / Brookyn, NY

You may have read about us here back in January. ioby.org is now live.  Visit ioby (eye-OH-be), search for environmental projects in your borough, find one that is meaningful to you, click to make a tax-deductible donation to support it or volunteer to get involved.

ioby stands for “in our backyards” and the belief that environmental knowledge, innovation, action and service begin and thrive at the local level.  On ioby.org groups with environmental projects can quickly connect to the donors and volunteers they need to make positive, environmental change for New York City neighborhoods.

Visit ioby.org or call us if you have questions 212-228-6947.  Follow us on Twitter or join us on Facebook. Read about us on the American Museum of Natural History blog or listen to us on WNYC.

This from GBK contributor and resident permaculture expert, Andrew Faust:

Thurs. July 10, 7 pm
Permaculture Approaches to Growing Food in the City
a talk with Andrew Faust

15th Street Meeting House, Manhattan
(enter on 15th Street between 2nd & 3rd Avenues)

We can regenerate cities to be ecological, biodiverse and food providing. We can grow organic and biodynamic fruits, nuts and berries, extend growing seasons for vegetables and herbs, and cultivate mushrooms. We can create living roofs, rooftop gardens, aquaculture, and herb gardens. We can use tinctures, salves and extracts.

Andrew Faust (andrew@homebiome.com, www.homebiome.com) has studied and gardened extensively with some of the most productive biodynamic and organic farms and communities in the Northeast. He brings a wealth of experience to these workshops on how to grow a range of food, native and perennial plants in a cold climate.

More to come from Mr. Faust shortly, including another permaculture class and the third installment of his awesome series exclusive to GBK called ‘Urban Permaculture: An Ecological Design View of Brooklyn and New York City‘. See the first two parts here:

Part 1: Urban Permaculture: Waste = Food

Part 2: Urban Permaculture: Water and a Green Urban Landscape

Community Garden, Baltic St and 4th Avenue, Park Slope
(Larger Version)

This article is the first part of an on-going series called ‘Urban Permaculture: An Ecological Design View of Brooklyn and New York City‘ by permaculture design advocate, teacher, and entrepreneur Andrew Faust

How can New York City citizens — living in one of the highest-density, oldest industrial corridors — live in more ecologically intelligent ways?

In Permaculture Design we look to our history to inform our understanding. As we learn the history land use and the communities where we live we begin to see what are the relevant areas of work to
address our real needs. In permaculture we define real needs as: high-quality drinking water, clean air to breathe, a vibrant and diverse local economy in which to participate, healthy food grown on healthy soil, biodiverse mature ecosystems, and a caring human community with low stress levels.

These basic needs are in high contrast with the perceived needs of invisible cultural constructs, such as: the value of the U.S. currency, GNP, and the obsession with lawns. Our economy reflects the exploitation and destruction of of stable ecologies and cultures as growth. Growth for growths sake is how a cancer works. Permaculture asks, “What do we want to grow?” True health and wealth is in our forests, soils, and cultural diversity; not polluted landscapes and fragmented, unhealthy cultures.

Another perceived need is “status,” and with that comes the use of fossil-fueled and nuclear powered devices. The pursuit of these generally jeopardizes real needs by contaminating them.

This can especially be said about the quality of water in the city and around the country.

Read on for the rest of Mr. Faust’s piece as he discusses the urban permaculture perspective on water quality issues, the combined sewer overflow system, and green solutions to bring back a green urban cityscape………………..

I really meant to post this earlier, but even though the course was this morning, I think GBKers will still appreciate the course and keep it in mind for next time.

Creating Green and Edible Cityscapes

Friday, March 14th
9:30 am - 12:30 pm

* Suburban & Urban Permaculture
* Biodynamic Systems

Come and join us to learn about applying permaculture design to the infrastructure of New York City and the surrounding suburbs.

The cities and suburbs of today will be the food forests of tomorrow.

• Learn how to regenerate New York City neighborhoods to be ecological, biodiverse and food providing.
• Learn how to grow organic and biodynamic fruits nuts and berries.
• Learn to create organic raised vegetable beds, apartment gardening, gourmet mushroom cultivation.
• Living roofs and rooftop gardens, aquaculture, herb gardens, tinctures, salves and extracts, fermented foods, whole foods, sprouting grains, and beans.
• Rain garden designs to soak up, prevent flooding and clean water while creating a beautiful wetland garden.

This will be a crash course in increasing inner city biodiversity and organic fresh food production

Andrew Faust (B.A., Guilford College) has been a certified permaculture designer since 1996 and a certified alternative school teacher since 1993. He homesteaded off the grid in WV for six years where he created the Center for Bioregional Living (www.homebiome.com). With 17 years of experience in bioregional education, Andrew is presently thriving on permaculture design work, teaching, consulting, and gardening in New York City and the northeastern U.S. with nonprofits, businesses, schools, communities and homeowners.

Classes will be held at:

15th Street Meeting House
15 Rutherford Place (between 2nd and 3rd Avenues)
Room 1 Manhattan

Stay tuned for more on Urban Permaculture from Andrew Faust and the Center for Bioregional Living, including the second installment of the special multi-part series “Urban Permaculture: An Ecological Design View of Brooklyn and New York City.” See the first post Waste = Food.