skeeter :
Dear Hawai`i friends and associates,
I am excited to be coming back to the Hawaiian Islands in March 2009. My friend Cristal Harmony and a group of her friends on Kauai are organizing a 10-day Permaculture Desgin Course from March 21st - April 1st, 2009. I will be the main instructor along with Gary Seal, a Kauai permaculturist and organic farmer. We will have additional, local guest instructors and, as usual, will draw on the knowledge of all course participants.
Here is a brief history of my involvement with Hawai`i. This will be my 5th visit to the islands. My first trip was in February 1996 and included Hawai`i and Maui. It was ostensibly a vacation with my son, but I did a lot of networking and research to understand what was happening in the islands vis a vis permaculture, agriculture, forestry, native plant restoration , etc. On this first trip I gave several public talks on sustainable forestry practices , especially in regards to the controversial Eucalyptus plantations. I came home with so much information and enamored of Hawai`i that I proceeded to write and publish the “Agroforestry Guide to Hawai'i : A Directory to Restoration, Forestry, Agroforestry, Permaculture, and Sustainable Agriculture in the Hawaiian Islands” . Finished in November 1967, it is 187 pages and includes over 500 resources. At the time it was the most up-to-date and comprehensive directory available for the Hawaiian Islands on these topics. Alas, I have never taken the time to update it, so it is partly out of date. Still no one has attempted a directory of its scope since then, so it is still useful. Perhaps someone(s) would like to update and expand it . . . ? I self-published and subsequently did little marketing after the initial flurry of review copies and sales on my visits. Around 300 copies have been printed and distributed.
In 1997 I co-taught a two-week permaculture design course at Hui-Ho-Olana on Molokai with Douglas Bullock, Bruce Hill and John Valenzuela. I also visited Kauai , Maui and Hawai`i and gave workshops on agroforestry on those islands.
In February 28 to March 14, 1999 I co-taught a two-week permaculture design course on the north shore of Kauai with Douglas Bullock, Sam Bullock and John Valenzuela. I also organized a Kauai Healing Gathering focused on herbalism and natural healing which was held at Anini beach and brought together about 100 people from Kauai and other islands. Cristal Harmony was instrumental in helping organize this permaculture course and healing gathering. I also visited Maui and Hawai'i on this trip.
In 2004 I co-taught a two-week permaculture design course in the Hawi area of Hawai`i with Douglas Bullock, Bruce Hill and John Valenzuela. On this trip I also did a lot of promotion for expanding medicinal herb crop production in the Hawaiian Islands. I gave workshops on medicinal herb production on Hawai`i, Maui and Oahu.
During these four trips to the Hawaiian Islands I have had the great pleasure to meet and make friends with hundreds of people on Hawai`i, Maui, Kauai, Molokai and Oahu. I'd love to see all of you again.
Please help spread the word about my Kauai Permaculture Fundamentals course in March .
This will be a relatively inexpensive, grass-roots course.
Facilities will be simple, but the information will be outstanding.
Permaculture is more relevant and more important now then ever. We are faced with an unprecedented mix of crises at this time. The unfolding economic crisis, (which I believe will become very severe), peak oil and increasingly volatile weather extremes due to climate change . The US as global superpower is almost certainly to be significantly downsized in the coming years with a subsequent reduction in the flow of goods and resources to the US from other parts of the world. All these things are bound to have significant impacts on the Hawaiian Islands. Local self-reliance on food, energy and other goods will become imperative for people living in Hawai`i.
Permaculture is the world's premier system for designing productive local economies based on (mainly) local inputs which improve natural ecosystems at the same time.
It is my hope that this course will attract participants from all the main Hawaiian islands, so that they can take this crucial information back to their island communities.
*LIBRARY WISH LIST/PARTICIPANT RECOMENDED READING LIST:
Hello Kauai permaculture fans,
A great reading list....thanks to Skeeter!!, a.k.a. Michael Pilarski
HAWAIIANA
BOOKS ON SUBTROPICAL PLANTS
PERMACULTURE BOOKS
OTHERS
In preparation for this Kauai course I have started to do some homework.
I started by reading “ Ethnobotany of the Hawaiians ” by Beatrice H. Krauss. 1974, University of Hawaii Press . A good, concise overview.
I just read the climate and vegetation sections of the “Manual of the Flowering Plants of Hawai`i” and am now wading through the taxonomic treatment looking at key genera and species. This is the main, current flora for the Hawaiian Islands. A 2,000-page, two-volume tome.
I have just finished reading “Permacopia, Book I: Endemic, Indigenous & Polynesia Plant Species of Hawai'i: Including plants of the Ahupua`a”. This is book I of a three-volume series discussing the suitability (and unsuitability) of plants for permaculture systems in Hawai`i. Volume I is labeled The Core of Sustainability. Volume II is An Encyclopedia of Plants for a Sustainable Hawai`i (non-natives). Volume III is “ The Weeds : The Plant Species NOT Appropriate for Hawai`i”. These books by D. Hunter Beyer should be on the bookshelf of every permaculturist (or aspiring permaculturist) in Hawai`i. This is one of the best plant species lists (specifically for permaculture) ever put together anywhere in the world. Especially remarkable is Beyer's incredibly detailed information on weedy species in the Hawaiian Islands. Descriptions, where they have naturalized (gone weedy), habitats, climate adaptations, extent of their effects on the ecosystem, uses, and more. Volume III should be on the bookshelf of anyone associated with native plant restoration in Hawai`i or interested in Hawaii 's native plants in general.
The three volume set is available from the author:
D. Hunter Beyer, PO Box 374, Volcano, Hawai`i 96785
or at www.permacopia.com
I highly recommend that everyone check out David Holmgren 's permaculture website
David Holmgren is from Australia and is the co-founder of permaculture with Bill Mollison . This new website is some of the best thinking to date about permaculture's role in the big picture.
I can be reached at 509-486-2672 and Michael@friendsofthetrees.net
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Visit Michael Pilarski's website "Friends of the Trees" for more GREAT! info and links on permaculture and more... |
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"Feeding Everyone" written by Skeeter |
