Kootenay Permaculture Institute
Schedule 2007

July 16 - 22: Fundamentals of Permaculture Design in Orangeville, Ontario

Backyard Permaculture Workshop

This is the basic permaculture design course covering the principles & techniques of permaculture design. The course includes lectures, discussions, hands-on, slide shows, field trips & design projects. 

This course is presented in cooperation with Selkirk College in Nelson, BC

Topics:

Instructor:

Grégoire Lamoureux:

Gregoire Lamoureux is the director of the Kootenay Permaculture Institute. He is a permaculture designer, consultant and teacher. He has worked with permaculture systems for over 15 years and taught courses in many parts of the country. Gregoire taught the permaculture design course as a Summer Session at the University of Manitoba in 2005. He has served on the Board of Directors of Slocan River Streamkeepers and on the Board of Directors of Seeds of Diversity Canada for seven years. He is a founding member of Kootenay Organic Growers Society and was on the Certifying Committee for three years.

Guest Speakers (to be confirmed): 

Don Gayton:

Don Gayton is an ecologist with a wide background in grassland and dry forest ecosystems.  He obtained his B.Sc. in Agronomy from Washington State University and an M.Sc. in Plant Ecology from the University of Saskatchewan.  Don has travelled and worked extensively in Western North America. He and his family live in Nelson, British Columbia, where he works as an Ecosystem Management Specialist for the Forest Research Extension Partnership (FORREX).

Gayton’s writing includes award-winning books of popular non-fiction (Kokanee, Landscapes of the Interior and The Wheatgrass Mechanism). His recent FORREX technical publications include Ground Work: Basic Concepts in Ecological Restoration, and British Columbia Grasslands: Monitoring Vegetation Change. Gayton has a decade of involvement with fire-maintained ecoystem restoration issues in British Columbia’s southern interior.

Shemmaho: 

"In 1970 I moved to the bush in the interior of Southern British Columbia.  I wanted to homestead and be as self-sufficient as possible.  My husband was a logger and lived in camps, so I spent weeks on end with my goats, dogs, and horse for company.  When we arrived the forest was an undifferentiated blur, and I began the engrossing task of learning the names and characteristics of the plants around me.  My neighbors were very willing to share what they knew about the uses of the herbs in our area, and I started drying herbs for teas along with drying vegetables for winter stews.  I spent many long days in the summer with no human contact, and soon noticed that the plant life around me was asking for my attention.  I entered the privileged realm of interspecies communication, and have been learning to understand messages delivered without language ever since."
     "Having a child brought me into a social context, and we moved into a village where I did carpentry work for cash.  By the end of the eighty’s I had carpel tunnel, sciatica, and fibral myalgia and needed another livelihood.  My knowledge and experience of herbs had continued over the years, so it was a natural thing for me to turn to herbalism as a business.  In 1990 I went to the Alpine Herbal College in Salmon Arm and became a certified herbalist.  I have developed a business based on the local herbs, some which I grow, some I wildcraft.  Along with creating herbal products, I give consultations to help people improve their health, and teach aspects of herbalism to classes and individuals."
 

Shanoon Bennett: 

Shanoon Bennett is an environmental educator and founder of Huckleberry Adventures (since 1989), which is a program  dedicated to instilling appreciation for the wonders found in the wilds of our backyards. This school program has literally warmed the hearts of thousands of youth throughout the Kootenays. This program includes adventure snowshoe treks into local forests and marshes, pond ecology, high alpine hikes, and extensive wild botanical studies. Along with 7 years of park naturalist experience in both Alberta and BC, she has a BSc in Earth Sciences from the University of Calgary as well as extensive wilderness First Aid training for Leaders.

She has a love of children and the great outdoors and her greatest passion is bringing the two together naturally. She is also an avid wildcrafter and loves to share her knowledge and experience of the botanical treasures found from valley bottom to mountain top.

Rabi'a:

Rabi'a has over 20 years of experience homesteading in Northwest BC. She also has 5 years of experience in permaculture design and implementation on 37 acres of land on Maui growing a diversity of tropical & subtropical fruits, veggies & other useful plants. This project was followed by a one-year stay on a farm in Australia where she was using permaculture principles to grow some commercial crops of organic medicinal Echinacea.

Rabi'a is now using permaculture principles in the Kootenays. She grows many fruits, berries, veggies and a diversity of trees, using mulching & composting methods to restore and reforest a 5 acre piece of land in the Slocan Valley. Rabi'a has also created some beautiful strawbale buildings on her land. She loves to integrate functional art in her small-scale permaculture. Her recent activities include sand sculpture & snow sculpture.

Phil Larstone: Phil has a wealth of knowledge and experience in many aspects of alternative energy. He lives in an off-the-grid home powered by solar energy where he makes flutes and plays & records music.

& other guests speakers will join us.

For more information please contact:

Kootenay Permaculture Institute
S12, C2
RR#1
Winlaw, British Columbia,
Canada
V0G 2J0
spiralfarm@yahoo.com

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A one-week course that covers the following topics while integrating basic design exercise and hands-on activities:

The participants can later take the Permaculture Design Practicum and obtain a certificate of completion of the Permaculture Design Course.

Instructor:

Gregoire Lamoureux:

Gregoire Lamoureux is the director of the Kootenay Permaculture Institute. He is a permaculture designer, consultant and teacher. He has worked with permaculture systems for over 15 years and taught courses in many parts of the country. Gregoire taught the permaculture design course as a Summer Session at the University of Manitoba in 2005. He has served on the Board of Directors of Slocan River Streamkeepers and on the Board of Directors of Seeds of Diversity Canada for seven years. He is a founding member of Kootenay Organic Growers Society and was on the Certifying Committee for three years.

Guest Speaker:

Richard Griffith has been active in the permaculture movement since 1993. He organized the first courses taught in Ontario and has been teaching since 1999. He has conducted many workshops at universities and conferences across the province. He is a committed environmental activist with much experience in community gardening, sustainable forestry and renewable energy issues. He lives in a straw bale home, partly off-grid, on a beautiful southern Ontario woodlot.

& other guests speakers to be confirmed.

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