Hi Sierra Permies,

This fall, the Regenerative Design Institute in Bolinas, CA, is excited to present a unique opportunity to study with some of the world's leading instructors in soil, permaculture, holistic management and local sustainability! These pioneering instructors - who speak and teach to eager crowds all over the globe - are converging at Commonweal Garden for this series of courses that will bring a whole new perspective to the importance and value of permaculture in managing parks, ranches, farms and other large tracks of land. Commonweal Garden is a working permaculture farm and education center on the coast one hour north of San Francisco. Grab a car-full and drive up for one or more of the courses!

Darren Doherty- Kirk Gadzia - Terry Gompert -Elaine Ingham - Paul Taylor - Brad Lancaster - Brock Dolman - Penny Livingston Stark - Joel Salatin

This course series is the nation's first holistic curriculum for carbon negative agriculture. You can choose to attend the entire course series or pick individual courses and/or combined selections based on your specific interests.

Carbon Farming Series 

Holistic Management:  September 23 - October 1
Instructors: Kirk Gadzia and Terry Gompert

Contrary to popular belief, ranching does not have to be damaging to grasslands - in fact, grasslands have co-evolved with grazing animals, and grasses and cattle need each other to thrive. The course is taught by Kirk Gadzia, consultant and educator with two decades of experience teaching the concepts of Holistic Management worldwide. Holistic Management is the system developed by Allen Savory, who pioneered the idea more than 40 years ago to offer land stewards a way to make grazing, land management and financial decisions that positively impact land health and productivity.

Soil Food Web Analysis:  October 3 - 7
Instructors: Elaine Ingham and Paul Taylor

There is a whole world under the soil - and no one knows this cast of characters better than Elaine Ingham! Elaine is one of the world's leading soil microbiologists, with 30 years of experience researching and teaching and an easy and enthusiastic style that brings the soil food web to life. Elaine literally wrote the book on compost teas: The Compost Tea Brewing Manual.

Broadacre Permaculture:  October 9 - 21
Instructors: Darren Doherty, Brad Lancaster, Brock Dolman, Penny Livingston-Stark

Taught by a phenomenal crew of experienced instructors including our own Penny Livingston Stark, Brock Dolman from Occidental Arts and Ecology, Brad Lancaster (author of Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands and Beyond) and Darren Doherty - an Australian permaculture farmer and designer who has taught with permaculture founders David Holmgren and Bill Mollison - this course will teach permaculture principles that can be used in both urban and rural environments to conserve water, regenerate degraded soils rapidly, and incorporate the use of grazing animals beneficially. You'll learn about earth dams and ponds, contour strip forests, and a special cultivation technique using the Keyline plow, to infiltrate water into the soil efficiently and hold it on the land as long as possible.

To be announced: Oct 23 - 25

Pathways to Relocalization:  October 27 - 29
Instructor: Joel Salatin

In this course, you'll meet Joel Salatin, one of the world's leading experts and advocates of agrarian relocalization - and a featured farmer in Michael Pollan's Omnivore's Dilemma. Aself-proclaimed "grass farmer," Joel's speaking and writing reflect dirt-under-the-fingernails experience punctuated with mischievous humor. He will challenge you to design the pathways to relocalization based on his own very successful model at Polyface Farm in Swoope, Virginia.

Regenerative Design Institute 
P.O. Box 923 | Bolinas, California, 94924
415-868 9681