The way this works, I plant trees and when they're 20 years old I rent them to you at 35 dollars per tree. It takes 20 trees to offset your daily co2 output. In money terms 700 dollars for 20 years and each tree is tagged with your name .The money is put back into planting more trees,and the cycle perpetuates it self. A registry keeps track of the accounting.
This system provides more oxygen for the earth and offsets co2 emissions while it provides income and incentives to plant more trees.
The way this works, I plant trees and when they're 20 years old I rent them to you at 35 dollars per tree. It takes 20 trees to offset your daily co2 output. In money terms 700 dollars for 20 years and each tree is tagged with your name .The money is put back into planting more trees,and the cycle perpetuates it self. A registry keeps track of the accounting. On March 30, we hosted a Hugelkulture workshop on Orcas. Hugelkultur is a composting method that uses large pieces of rotting wood as the centerpiece for long-term humus building decomposition. Photos from the event posted on Facebook Here are the resource links that we recommended to people who took the workshop: 1. "Restoration Forestry: An International Guide to Sustainable Forestry Practices" BY: Michael Pilarski, Editor. Kivaki Press, 1994.
This 528-page book includes articles by over 50 authors plus a resource guide to over 2,400 noteworthy forestry books, articles, organizations, periodicals and individuals. It offers the most comprehensive, international overview of sustainable forestry available. $26.95. http://www.friendsofthetrees.net/books.htm 2. Fungi Perfecti’s MycoGrow™ products are designed for everyone from the home gardener/landscaper to the professional forestry manager, promoting faster growth, speeding transplant recovery and reducing the need for fertilizers and other additives. A number of different formulations are available, for all methods of plant cultivation. Go to: http://www.fungi.com/product-detail/product/mycogrow-soluble-1-lb.html 3. EARTH MINERALS may be purchased through Tim Forbes at $54/lb. We'll be happy to give you a sample to test in your garden before you purchase our product. WHY ADD TRACE MINERALS? The difference between rich, fertile soil and poor, infertile soil is essentially this: the mineral composition of the soil. The flavor and nutrition in fruit, grains, and vegetables are based on the soil minerals available, not the amount or type of organic matter. If a needed mineral is missing, it is just that, missing, and no amount of organic matter will make up for it. No amount or combination of the air elements Carbon, Oxygen, and Hydrogen will add Zinc to your soil, and all plants and animals need Zinc. Plants also need Copper and Iron and Manganese, Calcium and Magnesium and Phosphorus, and at least seven other essential minerals (animals need at least fourteen more), and they need them in an available and balanced form. Rotting organic matter may release growth stimulants like Nitrogen and Potassium, but the other minerals are what create sweetness and flavor and nutrition in food. Without these other minerals you may achieve high production, but you will not achieve the highest quality. We are Organic, Biodynamic, and Sustainable gardeners, and we strongly support the idea of a living, energetic, biologically active soil. We have learned that the absolute best cannot be achieved without a full complement of minerals available and in balance. 4. BIODYNAMIC PREPARATIONS: The Bio-Dynamic Preparations (BD Preps) are based on the original indications given by Rudolf Steiner. A healthy agriculture requires balance, which can be achieved only by using all nine of the BD Preps (BD #500-508) in one form or another. The various Bio-Dynamic Sprays are most effective AFTER the soil has been first enriched by compost or manure treated with the BD Compost Preparations #502-507. Although immediate results from the use of the preparations are observed in some situations, a four-year transition is a more usual case. They can be purchased on this site: http://www.jpibiodynamics.org/catalog/8 5. An important video with Sepp Holzer (Hugelkultur Permaculturist) and how he transformed the landscape at Tamera: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4hF2QL0D5ww&playnext=1&list=PL8D50C5F3DCA5BDB8&feature=results_video Tim Forbes donated the $20K in time, timber, resources and labor to scribe-fit the posts to the granitic boulders. Here is another video expressing sacred geometry. “This we know: the earth does not belong to man, man belongs to the earth. All things are connected like the blood that unites us all. Man did not weave the web of life, he is merely a strand in it. Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself.”
-Chief Seattle_ The Institute For Responsible Technology is the leader in educating policy makers and the public about genetically modified (GM) foods and crops. They investigate and report their risks and impact on health, environment, the economy, and agriculture.
The list of what's wrong with GM food products is extraordinary. And, we most likely don't know how deep Genetically Modified products run in our daily lives. Here's a excerpt from the GMOs in Food page: Currently Commercialized GM Crops in the U.S.: Number in parentheses represents the estimated percentage that is genetically modified. Soy (91%) Cotton (71%) Canola (88%) Corn (85%) Sugar Beets (90%) Hawaiian papaya (more than 50%) Alfalfa (at Supreme Court) Zucchini and Yellow Squash (small amount) Tobacco (Quest® brand) Other Sources of GMOs: • Dairy products from cows injected with the GM hormone rbGH • Food additives, enzymes, flavorings, and processing agents, including the sweetener aspartame (NutraSweet®) and rennet used to make hard cheeses • Meat, eggs, and dairy products from animals that have eaten GM feed • Honey and bee pollen that may have GM sources of pollen • Contamination or pollination caused by GM seeds or pollen Some of the Foods That May Contain GM Ingredients: Infant formula Salad dressing Bread Cereal Hamburgers and hotdogs Margarine Mayonnaise Crackers Cookies Chocolate Candy Fried food Chips Veggie burgers Meat substitutes Ice cream Frozen yogurt Tofu Tamari(?) and Soy sauce Soy cheese Tomato sauce Protein powder Baking powder Any sugar not 100% Cane Confectioner's glaze Alcohol Vanilla (may contain corn syrup) Peanut butter Enriched flour Past Malt White vinegar Non-Food Items That May Contain GM Ingredients: Cosmetics Soaps Detergents Shampoo Bubble bath Learn more how you're you're being duped here. Its worth your time. We stumbled upon this community created resource - a bilingual site for the Integral Permaculture e-Book. Its filled with compelling topics, videos, thoughts, quotes, inspiration, etc.
It takes a refreshing look at life, choice and change through the permaculture view. Visit: http://www.permaculturescience.org/ Trackers offers immersion programs that recreate an exciting learning community and village connected to the land. Whether for a summer or one full-year, we train you in the arts of wilderness survival, primitive skills, wildlife tracking, edible and medicinal plants, homesteading and more. Trackers asks a simple and basic question: What is your relationship to the land you live. Is it a commodity you pay mortgage on? Is it a friend or a member of the family?
Trackers exists to help you remember your story. Who are you? Remind all of us of our connections to land, family and village. If both old and new ways call to you, then join the village and help remember the Wild. Learn more here: http://trackersearth.com/ Sunday April 17th, Tim Forbes will be leading the "Sacred Geometry, Sacred Structures" session at the M.A. Center in Castro Valley, CA as part of the Whole Systems Sustainability for Creating Human Habitats in Harmony with Nature courses.
Living Mandala is a growing collective of educators, organizers and designers committed to eco-social regeneration based on the organizing intelligence of nature exhibited through the emergence of life. Members of Living Mandala design, facilitate and produce courses, workshops and events as well as offer consultation services that implement ecologically and socially regenerative practices within a diverse set of fields. Join us in Malibu, CA for the 2011 Southern CA Permaculture Convergence, April 29th - May 1st.
This year's convergence is centered around the theme of Reconnect, Reskill, Regenerate. There will be hands-on workshops, lectures, group sessions, nature walks & beach treks, kids corner and delicious meals. Tim Forbes will be leading the "Sacred Geometry, Sacred Structures" session on Saturday 10:45 - 12:15. It will be an action packed weekend, with great people and lots of sharing. Register today for a part or the whole weekend. I moved to Orcas Island in 1974 after my sailboat’s 1936 single cylinder engine had blown up. I was headed back to my Alaska homestead, but this event changed my plans.
Almost 40 years later, I am still on Orcas but I have shifted to planting trees in order to cover my share of trees that I use in building projects. So far, I have planted 7,500 trees of all different varieties. I have planted trees for the purpose of growing food, and some for cash crops. In my early days I met 3 brothers, The Bullock Brothers, who advised me in what and how to plant using a technique that mimics Mother Nature called Permaculture. Since then, my partner and I have both become Certified Permaculture Designers by the Bullock Permaculture Homestead. We have done many things on our property to work towards being sustainable. For example, we applied bacterial sprays that helped dissolve rock which makes the nutrients readily available for plants to absorb the trace minerals, and re-established the root structure of mushrooms called mycelia. Mycelia is responsible for a tree’s ability to resist decay. It does this by creating a network of roots that balance a whole forest by transporting nutrients to the trees that are in need of that specific nutrient. The results of the bacterial inoculation sprays were remarkable. In one year, the grasses in my forest went from 1” to 4’. In that same year, a tent caterpillar infestation broke out. It sounded like a gentle rain as they ate the leaves of the trees that surrounded our property. The trees that were given the bacterial sprays were untouched by the tent caterpillars. There was no infestation on our property. We also use mycelia to clean up areas where my diesel tractor, generator, and truck drips oil or fuel. I set up settlement ponds that collect the run-off water where the drips collect on the ground and re-directed it to these ponds filled with wood chips inoculated with oyster mushrooms. Oyster mushrooms break petrol chemicals down to their basic nutritive components. The toxic qualities are broken down by the oyster mushroom, and we are able to use it as food. There is a benefit of being able to eat the mushrooms and returning the water back to the earth in a pure condition, which becomes a win-win situation. |
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