Embedded Files
9/12/23: Permaculture Ethics
9/12/23: Permaculture Ethics
Dr. Joline Blais, New Media & Permaculture
Suggested readings:
Embracing Four Ethics of Permaculture by Jesse Watson
Introduction to Permaculture: Terminology and the Ethical Triad by Dana O'Driscoll
Positive Impact activity
The group discussed the meaning of sustainability. We dove into the the 3 core core ethics of Permaculture: Earth Care, People Care, and Fair Share (be aware of limits & share surplus). We acknowledge that we must be aware of our impact on our environment and communities, and recognize that we have a choice to actually have a positive impact. We explored this through an activity in which we differentiated behaviors and strategies that have negative, neutral, or positive impacts.
9/26/23: Systems Thinking and the Polycrisis
9/26/23: Systems Thinking and the Polycrisis
Dr. Stephan Coghlan, associate professor of Freshwater Fisheries and Ecology at the University of Maine. His current research focuses on the adaptation and resilience of homesteaders to convergent crises of energy, economic, and climate shocks. He is also Maine Chapter President for the Center for the Advancement of the Steady State Economy (CASSE).
An activity where everyone chose one "symptom" of larger systemic failings, like overshoot and hubris.
We had a lively conversation about the complexities of the intersecting crises facing our world today. We discussed ways that we can change narratives and make systemic transformations.
10/3/23: Permaculture Principles
10/3/23: Permaculture Principles
Dr. Joline Blais, UMaine New Media & Permaculture
We went through the 12 principles, discussing how each of them can be applied in our lives in both the contexts of gardening and larger social systems. Permaculture is about learning from the way natural systems work.
Here is Joline's Permaculture Prezi with photos and examples of each principle.
10/24/23: Storied Wabanaki Landscapes
10/24/23: Storied Wabanaki Landscapes
A conversation about food and the future
Dr. Tony Sutton, Assistant Professor of Native American Studies & Food Systems
Suggested readings:
Maliseet Stewardship of Plants (13 minute video)
Decolonizing Permaculture by Jesse Watson
We started this discussion by breaking up into small groups to read various children's books about different aspects of Wabanaki life. We then came together as a group to discuss what Wabanaki lifeways look like. We talked about the importance of values in Wabanaki life. Values of balance, sharing abundance, and learning from the land. We also talked about the role of stories in passing knowledge and values through time.
11/7/23: Social Dimensions of Permaculture
11/7/23: Social Dimensions of Permaculture
Yadina Clark co-founded the Terrell House Permaculture Living & Learning Center, is a current member of the Permaculture Committee, the advising board for the house. Yadina is also an educator, researcher, and labyrinth artist.
Suggested readings:
"Social Permaculture" by Starhawk
"Ecological Culture Design" - The Permaculture Podcast with guest Dave Jacke
Social Dimensions of Permaculture YZC.pdf
We discussed what it means to be part of a community and the different forms that intentional or non-intentional communities can take. We did an activity in which we discussed the different types governing and decision-making processes.
11/28/23: Alternative Business Forms for Eco-Social Enterprises
11/28/23: Alternative Business Forms for Eco-Social Enterprises
Dr. Terry Porter is Associate Professor of Management Emerita at the University of Maine Business School. Her research focuses on business and sustainability, strategy processes, complex adaptive systems, and identity processes in strategic management. Dr. Porter is also a Licensed Clinical Mental Health Counselor (inactive), Fulbright Scholar, and U.S. Olympian. She loves the outdoors, gardening and woodworking.
Businesses have great potential for promoting eco/social welfare. Unfortunately, however, the legal framework in which they must operate often hamstrings such efforts. Legal infrastructures have up until recently institutionalized only the self-serving mandate for profit and growth. Today, fortunately, the landscape is changing. Several new legal forms for organizing a business have emerged in recent years, all aimed at prioritizing social-environmental causes over conventional capitalist accumulation. In this seminar we will examine each of these new forms, their pros and cons, and focus particularly on current exemplars in Maine.
Suggested reading:
Permaculture and Business.Porter.11.28.23.pptx
1/30/24: Recognizing and Applying Patterns in the Landscape
1/30/24: Recognizing and Applying Patterns in the Landscape
Jesse Watson is a professional landscape and homestead designer practicing the permaculture design process for clients since 2009. He has been active in the social aspect of the permaculture movement for much of that time, organizing events and building institutional capacity with PAN, The Resilience Hub and MOFGA. He helped organize the Northeast Permaculture Convergence, hosted in Maine in 2010 and 2014 with over 400 participants each time. He served on the board of PINE (The Permaculture Institute of the Northeast) and helped transition that organization into its new form PAN (The Permaculture Association of the Northeast). He has helped teach Permaculture Design Courses since 2012 with The Resilience Hub in Unity, Portland and Boston. He designs landscapes, builds houses and practices homesteading and ancestral skills in his own household. You can see more of his work at midcoastpermaculture.com.
Suggested readings:
Nature in Numbers (video)
Scales of Permanence by Marit Parker
Jesse leads the group in a Scatter Vision exercise. This widens our scope of vision to help us notice patterns.
Jesse led the group through various patterns commonly seen in nature, such as spirals, branching, waves and lobing and how these patterns can be used in landscape design. We discussed the importance of being able to recognize patterns and know in which situations they would be useful or not. We were also introduced to the concept of the Scales of Permanence, which is used in the permaculture design process.
2/13/24: Transition Towns
2/13/24: Transition Towns
This week the group watched the documentary film In Transition 2.0: a story of hope and resilience in extraordinary times. The Transition movement is a framework for building community sustainability and resilience that was founded by Rob Hopkins in England and has spread around the world. This film shows stories of Transition Towns around the world doing projects like community gardens, community owned businesses, printing their own money, and more. After the movie, we discussed our takeaways. We discusses potential barriers to projects like these, the complexities of decision-making processes, the importance of supporting each other through our inner-transition work, and the importance of celebrating our wins together. The Transition movement is about building what's next rather just just focusing on destroying what's here. We ended by doing a dreaming exercise where we brainstormed things that our dream university or town would have.
2/27: Transition Town Visioing Workshop
2/27: Transition Town Visioing Workshop
Belu led a Visioning Workshop to imagine what could happen if we made a Transition Town/University in Orono. We started by listing things that our dream university would have if there were no constraints. Then we envisioned what this would actually look and feel like. Then we identified key people and projects (patterns) by mapping out the groups that already exist our community. We discussed ways that we can create more connectivity between these existing groups and discovered that this is very difficult to do with so many different people and groups with their own goals.
3/26/24: Mutual Aid
3/26/24: Mutual Aid
Tamra Benson (she/her) graduated from the University of Maine in 2023 with a B.A. in Biology. She is the founder and vice president of the Black Bear Mutual Aid Fund. She now works as a Community Organizer for Food AND Medicine, a nonprofit based in Brewer whose motto is that no one should have to choose between food, medicine, and other necessities. At FAM, Tamra primarily helps to coordinate the Collective Gardens Program. She strongly believes that everyone, no matter their circumstances, deserves to have their needs met, and that community care initiatives are healing and effective methods for collective, sustainable change. Tamra loves hiking, music, and the color green!
The Black Bear Mutual Aid Fund is an organization by, of, and for the University of Maine community members including students, faculty, and staff, which aims to shift our community culture towards one of community care, solidarity, and interdependence. The BBMAF was founded in 2023 by a dedicated group of organizers passionate about community care and solidarity. The purpose of the Black Bear Mutual Aid Fund is to alleviate economic inequality and hardships in the UMaine community by supporting networks, acts, and norms of mutual aid and community care. Check out their website to learn more.
Join us to discuss mutual aid, solidarity, and how we can learn from the natural world to be better neighbors and community members.
Suggested reading:
“All Flourishing is Mutual: Modeling Human Societies after Mutual Aid" by Tamra Benson
The group had a wonderful discussion about the how we can practice sustainable community care and the meaning of true collective flourishing. Tamra prompted us to ponder on how mutual aid shows up in nature and how we can learn from these examples. Lastly, we discussed other types of mutual aid programs we would like to see in our own community.
4/9/24: Agroforestry
4/9/24: Agroforestry
Alaina Ring is a masters student in Plant, Soil, and Environmental Sciences in the Agroecology Lab at UMaine. She has worked as an outdoor educator, ski patroller, herbalism apprentice, and on a forestry crew, where she unearthed a passion for growing medicinal plants and managing forested ecosystems. Alaina hopes to dedicate her career to becoming a knowledgeable steward of the land, with a specific interest in regenerative farming systems, plant conservation, and adaptive silviculture for climate change.
Join us to learn about agroforestry, discuss how it relates to permaculture, and how both can be used to build a culture of land-based work.
Suggested readings:
Tour of Red Fern Farm in Wapello, Iowa from the Agroforestry Farm Tour Video Series
Valley Clayplain Forest Farm: Permaculture-inspired agroforestry by Sydney Blume, from VT Farm-to-Plate
Alaina walked us through the principles and practices of Agroforestry. She then facilitated a lively discussion about the barriers to doing land-based work - which includes an aging industry, low-wages, and knowledge barriers - and how we might be able to build an accessible and inviting culture of living off of the land. She provoked the group contemplate on how our generation relates to work and why doing land-based work is important.
Page updated
Report abuse