:: 2024 Events

Date:	Wednesday, August 7, 2024, 6 – 8 pm
Location:	Community Environmental Council's (CEC) Environmental Hub, 1219 State St, Santa Barbara, CA
Price:	FREE
More Info:	margie@sbpermaculture.org, (805) 962-2571

Event Description

Solar Powered Homes, Communities & Gardens with Leif Skogberg

"Appreculture" or "Appreculture Design" is a holistic sustainability framework and integrated thinking and design system or philosophy based on the patterns and principles of nature, ecology and the garden. As an "appreciation" based and "appropriate" design system, it supports humanity to thrive and live in harmony through deeper understandings of the patterns and principles of Nature. This system is based on the practice of using "appreciation and appropriate design" as we work to make the world regenerative, resilient, and more beautiful. — Leif Skogberg

Please join us for an evening with long-time friend and former Santa Barbara resident Leif H. Skogberg, who is currently on a summer tour across the country with his presentation, Creating Local Resilience With Regenerative Design: Solar Powered Homes, Communities & Gardens.

Leif is a holistic sustainability educator, consultant, builder, and whole system designer who provides practical, affordable, and scalable solutions to address prevalent environmental challenges. A dynamic speaker and teacher, Leif shares how we can partner with both nature and modern technology to create more beauty, abundance, and resilience for our local communities. Leif's presentation covers essential strategies for how homeowners & businesses can reduce waste, purify water, passively cool buildings, reduce utility bills, grow food, sequester carbon, and regenerate community watersheds—all while increasing value and quality of properties and their environments.

Growing up in the Sierra Nevadas in a family deeply connected to the environment as beekeepers, Leif traveled to Santa Barbara to attend City College (SBCC), studying Environmental Horticulture. As a student, he became highly motivated and active with other students, cofounding the SBCC Student Sustainability Coalition; creating the first Project in Sustainability class, and participating in the first SBCC campus sustainability assessment in collaboration with faculty & administrators. With others, he initiated the SBCC food scrap composting program that later transitioned into a program for the City of Santa Barbara. As a capstone to his time at SBCC, Leif helped found and develop the SBCC Center for Sustainability, serving as one of its first Program Coordinators. After graduating, Leif worked for the City of Santa Barbara Environmental Services Division and later the Ojai Foundation.

Today, Leif is a twenty-year veteran of resilient & regenerative design, including permaculture, working with hundreds of large and small residential & commercial property owners. Leif is the founder of Appreculture Design Institute and TurnKi Sustainability, providing integrated land use design and solar energy system consulting around the country. He lives with his family in Wayne, New Jersey, where he chairs the local Environmental Commission and serves on the Wayne Master Plan Steering Committee.

We first met Leif while he was a student at SBCC and we collaborated with him and other students on many programs and events. We are happy to warmly welcome him back to Santa Barbara!

Santa Barbara Permaculture Network joins the Santa Barbara I Madonnari Street Chalk Art Festival

Dates:	Memorial Day Weekend, Saturday, May 25 – Monday, May 27, 2024, 10am – 6pm
Location:	Old Mission Santa Barbara, 2201 Laguna Street, Santa Barbara, CA
Price:	FREE
More Info:	margie@sbpermaculture.org, (805) 962-2571 Facebook event page

Event Description

Santa Barbara I Madonnari Street Chalk Art Festival

Join us at Santa Barbara's 38th Annual I Madonnari Chalk Art Festival, where we're once again sponsoring an art square. The event, held by the Children's Creative Project, takes place every Memorial Day weekend at the Old Mission Santa Barbara.

We first began participating in 2020 with nature-inspired art squares featuring themes that included beaver & wetlands; the amazing world of fungi; coastal kelp forests; and biologically alive soils beneath our feet. Our 2024 theme shares the work of ecological design pioneer John Todd and his "Living Machines" that work with nature using only sunlight, plants, and microorganisms to clean & restore waterways & oceans from toxic waste created by human activity. In 2023, John Todd and his wife Nancy Jack Todd were honored with our Eco Hero Award.

The I Madonnari Festival gives the public an opportunity to watch participating artists in action, sometimes with a chance to talk with them. For the second year, local artist Kristen Sell will be our featured artist. (See her work on last year's square.) Our square is usually located below the Old Mission steps, on the right hand side as you face the Mission.

Besides a wide variety of stunning artwork, the festival also includes music, food vendors, and visitors from around the world, with a chance to meet new friends at the tables provided on the Mission lawn. We hope to see you there!

Beaverland: How One Weird Rodent Made America Talk & Booksigning with Author Leila Philip

Date:	Monday, March 25, 2024, 6:30pm
Location:	Community Environmental Council's (CEC) Environmental Hub, 1219 State St, Santa Barbara, CA
Price:	FREE
More Info:	margie@sbpermaculture.org, (805) 962-2571 Facebook event page

Beaverland Booksigning & Talk

Event Description

Journalist Leila Philip first became interested in beavers when she saw a group building a pond near her house. Her fascination led her to research and write her new book, Beaverland, which describes how this amazing oversized rodent has played an oversized role in American history—and how it can positively impact our future.

Through history and contemporary storytelling, Beaverland highlights the beaver's profound impact on our nation, from the early trans-Atlantic trade and our feverish western expansion, to today's river restoration efforts. Through her search for contemporary beavers, their advocates, and their foes, what emerges is an ecological history, a call-to-action, and a startling portrait of the contemporary fur trade. Altogether it tells one of the greatest conservation stories in American history.

The Washington Post called the book "fascinating," the Wall Street Journal said it was "full of charm and wonder," and the New York Times called it "inspiring"—but what makes Philip most happy is the book's impact on beavers.

"The movement to bring beavers back to North America has grown in the past sixteen months since the book first went to press," she writes in a new afterword, where she goes on to list recent legislation and lawsuits in support of beavers. "'Beaver believers' are moving from the fringe into the mainstream. Government agencies, federal and state employees, tribal governments, and state legislators are joining nonprofits, scientists, individuals, ranchers, farmers, and other landowners in new partnerships with the shared goal of harnessing what beavers do to help restore river systems and create watershed resiliency."

Meanwhile, efforts are underway to quantify the economic value that beavers provide. For instance, in a 2021 study, researchers at the University of Wisconsin calculated that within 25 years, the return of beavers to the Milwaukee watershed could create 1.7 trillion gallons of storm water storage annually valued at $3.3 billion.

These developments prove that "the light bulb is turning on," Philip writes. "We are coming to grips with the ecological consequences of our long history of…abuse in the ways we have used our water."

"We urgently need to reset our relationship with the natural world," she concludes. "The underlying connections that we cannot see, the increased flow of water through the land and the increased connection between water and land through the beaver damming complex and the start of canals has initiated biologic, ecologic, hydrologic and geomorphic processes that we are only beginning to understand."

At the event, Philip will discuss:

Beavers' historical and contemporary impact on both our economy and our ecosystem.
How the work beavers do is being harnessed throughout the country to restore stream systems and repair drought ravaged grasslands for ranchers and farmers alike.
How beavers are being put to use to help us face the urgent challenges of climate change by mitigating damage from flooding, wildfire, and drought—at a fraction of the cost of engineered solutions.
The human challenges of coexisting with beavers who often bring water where humans either also wish to live or have built infrastructure—and the new coexistence strategies being developed and refined with increasing success.
The challenge of returning rivers to their natural state and learning to live with the ways beavers are part of the water cycle.

A community program hosted by The Santa Barbara Permaculture Network and the Community Environmental Council (CEC).

2nd Annual San Luis Obispo Beaver Festival

Date:	Saturday, March 23, 2024, 10am – 3pm
Location:	Mission Plaza, San Luis Obispo, CA
Price:	FREE
More Info:	SLO Beaver Brigade or margie@sbpermaculture.org, (805) 962-2571

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Event Description

Leila Philip will also be the featured speaker at the 2nd annual San Luis Obispo County Beaver Festival. Come learn about beavers at this free event, which includes live music, children's activities, a beaver trivia contest, speakers, and a plethora of information on the benefits that beavers provide to us in our state and county. Live music by Cuyama Mama and the Hot Flashes and local singer/songwriter, Elliott Johnson.

A community program hosted and sponsored by the SLO Beaver Brigade.

Co-sponsored by The Santa Barbara Permaculture Network, The Beaver Institute, New Times, KCBX FM, Morro Bay Open Space Alliance, and the City of San Luis Obispo.

Santa Barbara Permaculture Network 4th Annual Eco Hero Award
Honoring Albert K. Bates

Date:	Saturday, February 24, 2024, 6:30 – 9pm
Location:	Lobero Theatre, 33 East Canon Perdido St, Santa Barbara, CA
Price:	$10 & $20; Friends of Eco Hero Premium: $100
Tickets:	On sale now online (with convenience fee) or at the Lobero box office
More Info:	margie@sbpermaculture.org, (805) 962-2571

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Event Description

You know, we may have been screwed before I was born. The trajectory we're on could well have been set well before I was born and I'm just along for the ride. Now, I have a bailing bucket in this sinking ship. So, I'm gonna bail. Because it makes me feel good to be doing something positive. As long as I have the ability to do something I'm going to keep doing it. — Albert K. Bates

Santa Barbara Permaculture Network celebrates its fourth Annual Eco Hero Award, honoring Albert K. Bates, environmental lawyer, author, Right Livelihood Award recipient, UN Climate Conference delegate, and biochar pioneer.

A perennial good-natured optimist but hard-core realist, Albert Bates has been an advocate for the Earth and its ecosystems for over 50 years.

Like many of his generation, he gravitated towards living in an intentional community, joining The Farm ecovillage in Tennessee in 1972, after trekking (thru-hiking) the entire Appalachian Trail north to south. In his years at The Farm, Albert learned many practical skills, working as a horse farmer, mason, solar technician, illustrator, typesetter, flour miller, riding instructor, mushroom grower, paramedic, councilman, and schoolteacher.

Albert served on the executive board of Plenty, a not-for-profit organization founded by members of The Farm that put small water, energy, and healthcare systems into underserved communities around the world. In 1980, The Farm and Plenty were awarded the first Right Livelihood Award, sometimes called the alternative Nobel Peace prize, for "caring, sharing, and acting with and on behalf of those in need at home and abroad." Plenty supports economic self-sufficiency, cultural integrity, and environmental responsibility in partnership with community groups and organizations in Central America, the US, the Caribbean, and Africa.

With Plenty, Bates founded the Natural Rights Center and launched a lawsuit to end atomic power on human rights grounds that went before 22 federal judges and the US Supreme Court four times. Bates also challenged uranium mining in the Black Hills and the first strike MX Missile deployment in the Dakotas. He also challenged a State law retroactively disenfranchising all felons, winning a State Supreme Court order that restored the right to vote to more than 200,000 citizens in Tennessee.

As a young lawyer, he defended rural Tennessee residents from some of the most dangerous toxins imaginable that were being dumped by agrochemical companies into the Knox Aquifer, a primary source of drinking water. Bringing in experts and showing statistically high cancer rates by county, he won a statewide ban on fracking and deep well injection.

While researching that case, he began a journey of learning about how climate change might affect water rights in the future, which led to his fifth book, Climate in Crisis: The Greenhouse Effect and What We Can Do (1990) with a foreword by Al Gore. Shaken by all he learned, he retired from the practice of law and took up forest mushroom farming with a mail-order catalog called Mushroompeople.

Later forays to the Brazilian and Peruvian Amazon introduced him to terra preta (dark earth) and biochar, with biochar's potential for mitigating climate change and improving soil quality where implemented. Biochar is modeled after an ancient practice found in the Amazonian basin, where indigenous people used it with great success for centuries to create rich fertile soils, out of their typically thin tropical soils.

In 1994, Bates founded the Farm Ecovillage Training Center and in 1995 co-founded the Global Ecovillage Network. Both were outshoots of the Global Village Institute for Appropriate Technology, a nonprofit scientific research, development, and demonstration organization, with projects on six continents, including resettling Ukrainian refugees with The Green Road project, and regaining food sovereignty for Palestine. He has taught hundreds of courses in permaculture, natural building, ecovillage design, and climate solutions in more than 60 countries, including training certified permaculture instructors in China and Cuba.

Albert Bates has been an ongoing delegate to the United Nations Climate Conferences (COP), representing the Global Ecovillage Network, ProNatura, and the International Biochar Initiative.

He is the prolific author of more than 20 books including Climate in Crisis; The Paris Agreement; The Biochar Solution; Transforming Plastic; The Dark Side of the Ocean; Plagued; and Burn: Igniting a New Carbon Drawdown Economy to End the Climate Crisis (in German as Cool Down) with coauthor with Kathleen Draper. His latest book is Retropopulationism: Clawing Back a Stable Planet from Eight Billion and Change (2023).

Albert will be attending the International Biochar Conference in Sacramento, CA, in February 2024.

A community program hosted and sponsored by The Santa Barbara Permaculture Network.

Co-sponsored by Blue Sky Biochar, the Santa Barbara Independent, Bamboo DNA, Teeccino, Buena Onda Empanadas, Ah Juice, the Community Environmental Council (CEC), SBCC Environmental Horticulture, Explore Ecology, Regenerative Landscape Alliance, Island Seed & Feed, Orella Ranch/Gaviota Givings, Santa Barbara Aquaponics, Sustainable World Radio, Santa Barbara Agriculture & Farm Foundation, Paradise Found, Quail Springs Permaculture, Hour Books, Mesa Harmony Garden, Wingnut Mushroom Farm, Rincon-Vitova Insectaries, and Earthbanc.

Learn More:

Interview: Albert Bates on Biochar: Can it save the planet?, YouTube
Interview: Albert Bates: Half a Century in Service to People and Planet, YouTube
Interview: Albert Bates: Amazing Journey, the early steps, YouTube
Podcast: Biochar: Using Fire to Cool the Earth, Reversing Climate Change podcast #79
Interview: Albert Bates: On Where Activism Meets Counterculture, For the Wild
Video: Albert Bates presentation on "Life at The Farm", Part 1 of 2 at 2011 International Conference on Sustainability, Transition and Culture Change: Vision - Action - Leadership
Video: Albert Bates presentation on "Life at The Farm", Part 2 of 2 at 2011 International Conference on Sustainability, Transition and Culture Change: Vision - Action - Leadership
Article: The History of the Global Ecovillage Network: 1991-2015 on the Global Ecovillage Network
Interview: Albert Bates on Understanding Climate Change in the IPCC 2022, YouTube

16th Annual Santa Barbara Community Seed Swap

A celebration to bring seeds & people together

Date:	Sunday, January 28, 2023, 11am – 4pm (rain or shine!)
Location:	Santa Barbara Community Arts Center (SBCAW), 631 Garden St, Santa Barbara, CA
Price:	FREE
More Info:	margie@sbpermaculture.org, (805) 962-2571

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Join us for the 16th Annual Santa Barbara Community Seed Swap at the Santa Barbara Community Arts Center (SBCAW) in downtown Santa Barbara, with both indoor and outdoor spaces, rain or shine!

Hundreds attend this free event every year sharing seeds and knowledge with other backyard gardeners, plant lovers, beekeepers, farmers and more. Come be a part of this seed saving movement, making sure locally-adapted seeds & plants are passed on to future generations. Free seeds offered to help gardeners get started. Local groups will have seed and plant related exhibits. Live music, and kids activities throughout the day.

Once again we will honor a Local Food Hero. This year the award goes to Leslie Person Ryan of Sweet Wheel Farm & Flowers in Summerland. Join us for an award ceremony at 1:30 pm.

Bring seeds, plants, cuttings, and garden knowledge to swap.
Don't have these? Then come get seeds. Seeds to sow, seeds to grow, seeds to harvest. Seeds to save and share next year.
Activities for all ages.
Music that will have your toes tapping.
Plant and seed-related exhibits from local groups
Special speakers throughout the day.
A gathering of garden friends old and new.
Seed saving is a fun and easy way to connect to the circle of life.

A community program hosted and sponsored by The Santa Barbara Permaculture Network.

Co-Sponsored by Island Seed & Feed, Blue Sky Biochar, Explore Ecology, and Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds.

2024 Local Real Food Hero Award

Once again we honor a Local Food Hero as part of the Seed Swap. This year the award goes to Leslie Person Ryan of Sweet Wheel Farm & Flowers. Leslie has been committed to building food resilience, beginning with her Food Cart providing healthy organic food to her community, including donating and delivering to many vulnerable citizens. After a cataclysmic fire and debris flow event in 2018 left Summerland completely isolated and without food for two weeks, Leslie determined Summerland was a "food desert" that needed its own farm to be food secure. Starting by farming on six leased acres, Leslie later led her community in a campaign to save and purchase the farm, with an intention to ultimately grow enough to feed everyone in the community, while demonstrating best regenerative farming practices.

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Crossings: How Road Ecology is Shaping the Future of Our Planet: Talks & Booksignings with author Ben Goldfarb

Date #1:	Monday, October 23, 2023, 6:30 – 8:30 pm
Location:	San Luis Obispo Public Library, 995 Palm Street, San Luis Obispo, CA
Date #2:	Tuesday, October 24, 2023, 6:30 – 8:30 pm
Location:	The Community Environmental Council's Environmental Hub, 1219 State Street, Santa Barbara, CA
Price:	FREE
More Info:	margie@sbpermaculture.org, (805) 962-2571

Crossings: How Road Ecology is Shaping the Future of Our Planet

Event Description

Some 40 million miles of roadways encircle the Earth, yet we tend to regard them only as infrastructure for human convenience. While roads are so ubiquitous they're practically invisible to us, wild animals experience them as entirely alien forces of death and disruption. A million animals are killed by cars each day in the U.S. alone, but as the new science of road ecology shows, the harms of highways extend far beyond roads. Creatures from antelope to salmon are losing their ability to migrate in search of food and mates, invasive plants hitch rides in tire treads, road salt contaminates lakes and rivers, and the very noise of traffic chases songbirds from vast swaths of habitat.

In Crossings, environmental journalist Ben Goldfarb, the award-winning author of Eager: The Surprising Secret Life of Beavers and Why They Matter, travels throughout the United States and around the world to investigate how roads have transformed our planet—and how "road ecologists" are seeking to blunt the destruction through innovative solutions. Goldfarb meets with conservationists building bridges for California's mountain lions and tunnels for English toads; engineers deconstructing the labyrinth of logging roads that web national forests; animal rehabbers caring for Tasmania's car-orphaned wallabies; and community organizers working to undo the havoc highways have wreaked upon American cities. As our planet's road network continues to grow, the science of road ecology has become increasingly vital. Written with passion and curiosity, Crossings is a sweeping, spirited, and timely investigation into how humans have altered the natural worldmdash;and how we can create a better future for all living beings.

The message in Crossings is especially relevant to us locally, as construction will soon begin on the Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing in Agoura Hills. It will be the largest wildlife corridor in the world, allowing wildlife to cross freely over the 101 Freeway without the threat of death or accidents, ensuring the survival of many isolated species.

A community program hosted and sponsored by The Santa Barbara Permaculture Network.

Co-Sponsored by the Community Environmental Council (CEC) and Sustainable World Radio.

Learn More:

Article: How Roads Have Transformed the Natural World, Smithsonian Magazine
Podcast: NPR's Fresh Air interviews Ben Goldfarb on How Roads & Highways Affect Wildlife

Rachel's Farm Film Premiere with filmmaker Rachel Ward

Date:	Sunday, October 15, 2023, 6 – 8:30 pm
Location:	Lobero Theatre, 33 East Canon Perdido St, Santa Barbara, CA
Price:	$14; kids 12 & under free
Tickets:	On sale now online (with convenience fee) or at the Lobero box office
More Info:	margie@sbpermaculture.org, (805) 962-2571

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If you loved Biggest Little Farm, you'll love Rachel's Farm!

Join us for a special evening with Rachel Ward of Australian film fame as she shares her experience coming to terms with the catastrophic fires & floods that have plagued Australia in recent years. The personal storytelling style of the film features intimate interviews with Rachel, her family, her inquisitive young farm manager who prompts them onto a regenerative farm learning path, and all the people she has been inspired by on her transition from the world of entertainment to the world of farming. With honesty and humor, the film gives a unique insight into her voyage from willful ignorance about the ecological impacts of conventional agriculture to embracing a regenerative farming movement to restore the health of Australia's farmland, food and climate.

Conversation and Q&A with Rachel follows. (Or come meet her the next day! See below.)

A community program hosted and sponsored by The Santa Barbara Permaculture Network.

Co-Sponsored by Ah Juice, Buena Onda Empanadas, Blue Sky Biochar, Teeccino, the Community Environmental Council (CEC), SBCC Environmental Horticulture, Explore Ecology, Regenerative Landscape Alliance, Island Seed & Feed, Orella Ranch/Gaviota Givings, Santa Barbara Aquaponics, Sustainable World Radio, Sweet Wheel Summerland Farm, Paradise Found, Quail Springs Permaculture, Hour Books, Rincon-Vitova Insectaries, and the Santa Barbara Independent.

Trailer

Meet filmmaker Rachel Ward

Date:	Sunday, October 16, 2023, 10 am – Noon
Location:	The Community Environmental Council's Environmental Hub, 1219 State Street, Santa Barbara, CA
Price:	FREE
More Info:	margie@sbpermaculture.org, (805) 962-2571

Come & Meet filmmaker Rachel Ward

Event Description

The next day, come meet filmmaker Rachel Ward at the CEC's Enviro Hub for an informal regenerative agriculture gathering and discussion. Snacks and drinks provided.

Regenerative agriculture (or "regen ag") is a holistic approach to farming and grazing that focuses on restoring and enhancing the health of ecosystems. By choosing food that's produced regeneratively, what you eat can be good for the planet, good for farmers, and good for you and your family's health.

A community program hosted and sponsored by The Santa Barbara Permaculture Network and the Community Environmental Council (CEC).

Stewart Udall: The Politics of Beauty Film Premiere with Filmmaker John de Graaf

Date:	Thursday, April 27, 2023, 6:30 – 9 pm
Location:	Marjorie Luke Theatre, 721 E. Cota St, Santa Barbara, CA
Price:	FREE
More Info:	Facebook event page or margie@sbpermaculture.org, (805) 962-2571

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Event Description

Go well, do well my children. Cherish sunsets, wild creatures and wild places. Have a love affair with the wonder and beauty of the earth." — Stewart Udall, from Message to our Grandchildren

Just in time for Earth Day, Santa Barbara Permaculture Network hosts the film premiere of Stewart Udall & The Politics of Beauty with award-winning filmmaker John de Graaf. Following the film, Mr. de Graaf will participate in a Q&A and discussion sharing Stewart Udall's unique connection to Santa Barbara and the first Earth Day.

Celebrating the life and legacy of former U.S. Congressman and Secretary of the Interior Stewart Udall, this beautiful film tells the inspiring story of Udall as an advocate of social and environmental justice, international cooperation, the arts, and most of all, the protection of our shared environment and magnificent natural beauty, leading the way with much of the environmental legislation we now take for granted. Udall's record and accomplishments are perhaps unmatched by any other Interior Secretary, yet most Americans know very little about him.

Serving as Secretary of the Interior under both John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson, he provided the political leadership for an enormous legacy that includes the Clean Air and Clean Water Restoration Acts, the Land and Water Conservation Fund, the Wilderness Act, the Endangered Species List, the Highway Beautification Act, the Wild and Scenic Rivers and National Scenic Trails Acts, the Pesticide Reduction and Mining Reclamation Acts, the Solid Waste Disposal Act, and the National Historic Preservation Act.

Stewart Udall was also responsible for the creation of many of our national parks and monuments, more than any other American since Theodore Roosevelt. Working collaboratively with Congress, 3.85 million acres were added to the public domain, including four national parks—Canyonlands in Utah, Redwoods in California, North Cascades in Washington state, and Guadalupe Mountains in Texas—and six national monuments, eight national seashores and lakeshores, nine national recreation areas, twenty historic sites, and fifty-six wildlife refuges.

Udall was also the government's primary advocate for the 1964 Wilderness Act, which permanently ensured that millions of acres of wild land would remain "untrammeled by man." He was the intellectual force behind the Land and Water Conservation Fund, which directed fees and royalties from offshore oil and gas drilling to pay for wilderness protection and recreation.

But Udall was much more than an environmentalist. He spoke out for peace during the Cold War, at one point traveling with poet Robert Frost to the Soviet Union to meet its premier, Nikita Khrushchev, to encourage weapons reductions. With his brother Morris Udall while still in college, they challenged racism at the University of Arizona, where both were celebrated and popular athletes. Later as a public official, with the support of President Kennedy, he forced the integration of the Washington Redskins football team in 1962. When Udall discovered that the National Park Service (NPS) had only one African American ranger (in the Virgin Islands), he directed the NPS to launch a major recruiting campaign in traditionally black colleges. Robert Stanton, the only African American director of the National Park Service, credits Udall's effort as helping make possible his career as a park ranger.

Udall also reshaped the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) to give more power to tribal organizations, appointing Oneida leader Robert Bennett as the first Native American to direct the BIA. "Udall always took a back seat to Indian leaders," says Diane Humetewa, a Hopi and the first Native American federal judge. In 1966, Udall froze the federal transfer of lands to the state of Alaska to ensure that Alaska Natives would not lose their lands. As William Hensley, an Alaskan Native leader later wrote, "Udall, with his sense of fairness, used his power to help establish the most generous land settlement in American history. Later in life, Udall managed a law practice that represented uranium miners, many of them Navajos, who had health issues due to radiation exposure.

Among his rare missteps that had profound consequences for our own community, Udall approved federal oil and gas leases off the coast of Santa Barbara. As a result, a catastrophic oil spill happened in the Santa Barbara Channel in 1969, at that time ranked as the largest in U.S. waters. The consequences were devasting for the Santa Barbara community, its environment, wildlife, and economy. But what transpired out of that tragedy lives on in a remarkable legacy. Citizen activists, students, and volunteers from all walks of life rallied, pitching in to clean up, and then formed an amazing array of organizations still active today to help protect against future disasters and formulate environmental policy, including the Community Environmental Council (CEC), Get Out Oil (GOO), the Environmental Defense Center (EDC), and the first Environmental Studies Program at UCSB. An impromptu Earth Day was also held at the foot of the Santa Barbara pier, which later inspired the first national Earth Day. Udall later returned to Santa Barbara to acknowledge his mistake and formerly apologize.

John de Graaf has been producing and directing PBS documentaries for more than 40 years. He spent 31 years at KCTS, the Seattle PBS affiliate. Fifteen of his programs have been broadcast nationally during primetime on PBS, including his 1997 hit special Affluenza. He has directed and written many biographies and history programs, including the PBS national Earth Day 1990 special For Earth's Sake: The Life and Times of David Brower, which includes an interview with Stewart Udall. His 1992 biography of Japanese American internment resister Gordon Hirabayashi, A Personal Matter, won the highest award for legal reporting from the American Bar Association and inspired the acclaimed play Hold These Truths. He has won more than 100 regional, national, and international filmmaking awards, and The John de Graaf Environmental Filmmaking Award is presented annually at the Wild & Scenic Film Festival in California. He is an author, filmmaker, speaker, and activist with a mission to help create a happy healthy and sustainable quality of life for America.

A community program hosted and sponsored by The Santa Barbara Permaculture Network.

Co-Sponsored by Blue Sky Biochar, Bamboo DNA, Teeccino, Ah Juice, the Community Environmental Council (CEC), Antioch University Santa Barbara, SBCC Environmental Horticulture, Explore Ecology, Regenerative Landscape Alliance, Sweetwater Collaborative, Island Seed & Feed, Orella Ranch/Gaviota Givings, Santa Barbara Aquaponics, Sustainable World Radio, Santa Barbara Agriculture & Farm Foundation, Paradise Found, Quail Springs Permaculture, Hour Books, Mesa Harmony Garden, Wingnut Mushroom Farm, Rincon-Vitova Insectaries, Ojai Center for Regenerative Agriculture (CRA), WonderMouse Studios, and the Santa Barbara Independent.

Learn More:

Interview: John de Graaf on "Stewart Udall: The Politics of Beauty" on Thursday's Access Uta, UPR Utah Public Radio

Books & Other Works by Stewart Udall:

The Quiet Crisis, 1963
1976: Agenda for Tomorrow, 1968
America's Natural Treasures: National Nature Monuments & Seashores, 1971
In Coronado's Footsteps, 1984
To the Inland Empire: Coronado and our Spanish Legacy, 1987
The Quiet Crisis and the Next Generation, 1992
The Myths of August: A Personal Exploration of Our Tragic Cold War Affair with the Atom, 1994
Majestic Journey: Coronado's Inland Empire, 1995
The Forgotten Founders: Rethinking The History of the Old West, 2002
A Letter to My Grandchildren, 2010

Related Resources:

Santa Barbara Permaculture Network 3rd Annual Eco Hero Award
Honoring John & Nancy Jack Todd

Date:	Friday, March 17, 2023, 6:30 – 9pm
Location:	Lobero Theatre, 33 East Canon Perdido St, Santa Barbara, CA
Price:	$10, $20 & $40; Friends of Eco Hero Premium: $100
Tickets:	On sale now online (with convenience fee) or at the Lobero box office
More Info:	Facebook event page or margie@sbpermaculture.org, (805) 962-2571

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Ecological design goes way beyond any other field of design. It taps deep into Nature's operating instructions, organizing knowledge & ecosystems to serve human needs without despoiling the planet. — John Todd

Please join us as we celebrate our third annual Eco Hero Award honoring John & Nancy Jack Todd, pioneers in the ecological design movement.

Beginning in the late 1960's this unique and amazingly productive husband and wife team has shared a partnership journey over five decades, committed to the emerging field of ecological design, that uses human ingenuity to design a future in balance with nature, while healing broken ecosystems damaged historically, and by modern industrial society.

Youthful founders of the New Alchemy Institute, in 1969 John & Nancy Todd began their journey on a twelve-acre site in Cape Cod, Massachusetts, with the intention of "scientifically exploring strategies that could have evolutionary value to humanity and the planet's future". The New Alchemy Institute had an enthusiastic and talented young staff of scientists and innovators who pioneered among other things, Eco-Machines®, living machines designed for biological waste water treatment using solar energy & living organisms. This team also led the way with the newly evolving organic agriculture & aquaculture movement; also the design of bioshelters—dwellings that provide their inhabitants with energy, food & shelter—with minimal reliance on fossil fuels.

With lessons learned from the New Alchemy Institute, they embarked on the Ark for Prince Edward Island, an ambitious project with support of the Canadian government, while in the midst of an energy crisis being felt around the world. The Ark was a bioshelter that generated its own electricity with wind generators, and used solar energy for space and water heating, tested purposely in Prince Edward Island's cold northern climate. Despite the wintery weather with limited daylight, the Ark's gardens and fruit trees provided food all winter long for its inhabitants.

Today John & Nancy operate Ocean Arks International, a nonprofit research and outreach organization founded in 1982. Ocean Ark's stated mission is "to create planetary healing through promoting ecological literacy and the dissemination of vital eco-technologies", with projects focused on the restoration of the world's oceans and fresh waters, using the tools of nature to heal toxic waste sites, oil spills, leaking landfills and severely damaged waterways. In order to provide consultancy services to communities and businesses John Todd Ecological Design was also formed with projects around the globe. Through the years, Nancy Jack Todd has been the chronicler of all their work, masterfully describing the scope of what they were attempting, while at times even predicting the revolutionary direction they were going. These publications remain potently relevant today. They have collaborated & partnered with many other ecological design pioneers, including William McLarney, Bill McKibben, Amory Lovins, Janine Benyus, Stewart Brand, John D. Liu, Paul Hawkens, and in their earliest days the anthropologist Margaret Mead who strongly influenced their work.

Recently the Todds have joined forces with the ambitious Greening the Sinai project, along with John D. Liu, our 2019 Eco Hero Award recipient. Headed up by The Weather Makers, a widespread group of international engineers and scientists, this project proposes altering the climate cycle in one of the hottest, driest places on the planet—to a cooler, moister one—as was successfully done in a similar historically desertified region, the Loess Plateau in China. Since fresh clean water is a precious and limited resource in the Sinai, Dr. John Todd's Eco-Machine® is an especially valuable tool as a natural system for treating industrial and human wastewater, while remediating existing degraded bodies of water.

The Santa Barbara Permaculture Network Eco Hero Award honors those individuals who have committed themselves to work in service of the planet and its inhabitants for more than thirty years, with actual solutions and concrete ways forward that benefit many, often on a global scale, while demonstrating pathways forward for future generations. Audiences will learn what inspired John & Nancy, how they made their projects happen, and what challenges they faced along the way—with time for the audience to ask questions, especially encouraging youth attending to interact.

Past recipients include John D. Liu, Paul Stamets, and Louie Schwartzberg. We are honored to have John & Nancy Jack Todd join us in person as recipients for the 2023 Eco Hero Award. A reception follows in the Lobero courtyard for all ticket holders.

Nancy Jack Todd is an author, former dancer, and editor of numerous publications, who has been involved in international environmental affairs for more than forty years. A co-author of many books with her husband John Todd (see below), Nancy is also the long-time editor of the Journal of the New Alchemist that chronicled New Alchemy Institute as it evolved over time. She is currently the editor and publisher of The Annals of Earth, a newsletter of Ocean Arks International, and manages their outreach programs. Among the numerous honors she has shared with John are the "Charles and Ann Morrow Lindbergh Award", the "Bioneers Lifetime Achievement Award", the "Friends of the United Nations Award", and the "Swiss Threshold Award" for contributions to human knowledge.

John Todd is a biologist and ecologist who graduated from McGill University in Canada with degrees in agriculture, parasitology & tropical medicine, with a Ph.D. from the University of Michigan in Marine Biology. John is a professor emeritus and distinguished lecturer at the University of Vermont, and fellow of the Gund Institute for Ecological Economics also at the University of Vermont. John has been an assistant scientist at Woods Hole Oceanographic, and assistant professor at San Diego University. He is the co-founder of the New Alchemy Institute, founder and president of John Todd Ecological Design; and president of Ocean Arks International. John designed a facility-size Eco-Machine® for the Omega Institute of Sustainable Living in Rhinebeck, New York. A favorite speaker at the annual Bioneers Conference in the San Francisco Bay area, collaborating while there with other ecological design pioneers like Janine Benyus, Paul Hawkins, and Bill McKibben. His many awards include the "Buckminster Fuller Challenge Award" (2008) for the best idea and concept to help save the planet and humanity; "Top Visionary" award (2007) by Resurgence & Ecologist magazine, and was profiled as one of top 35 figures "Inventing Modern America" in the "Genius" issue of Esquire magazine. Todd was named "Hero of the Earth" by Time magazine in 1999.

A community program hosted and sponsored by The Santa Barbara Permaculture Network.

Learn More:

Book: The Book of the New Alchemists by Nancy Jack Todd, 1977
Book: The Village as Solar Ecology by Nancy Jack Todd, 1979
Book: Tomorrow Is Our Permanent Address: The Search for an Ecological Science of Design as Embodied in the Bioshelter by John Todd, 1980
Book: Bioshelters, Ocean Arks, City Farming: Ecology as the Basis of Design by Nancy Jack & John Todd, 1984
Book: From Eco-Cities to Living Machines: Principles of Ecological Designs by Nancy Jack & John Todd, 1994
Book: A Safe and Sustainable World: The Promise Of Ecological Design by Nancy Jack Todd, 2006
Book: Healing Earth: An Ecologist's Journey of Innovation and Environmental Stewardship by John Todd, 2019
Video: Why Design Now?: Eco-Machine at the Omega Center for Sustainable Living
Video: John Todd on Ecological Design & Living Machines
Video: Eco-Machines/Living Machine examples: El Monte Sagrado Resort Taos, New Mexico; Eco Hood in Prescott, AZ
Interview: John Todd on Working with Nature to Clean Water, Sustainable World Radio, Episode 131, 2016
Bio: Kathe Seidel, German Botanist, first to incorporate vegetation into wastewater treatment wetlands in the 1950's
Interview: John & Nancy Jack Todd: Ecological Design & the New Alchemy Institute, 2006
Documentary: The New Alchemists on CBC Canada, 1974
Video: The Weathermakers Greening the Sinai Project: John Todd, John D. Lui and the Weathermakers
Article: "Our biggest challenge? Lack of imagination": Scientists turning the desert green, The Guardian, 2021
The New Alchemy Institute & The Green Center

15th Annual Santa Barbara Community Seed Swap

A celebration to bring seeds & people together

Date:	Sunday, January 29, 2023, 11am – 4pm (rain or shine!)
Location:	Santa Barbara Community Arts Center (SBCAW), 631 Garden St, Santa Barbara, CA
Price:	FREE
More Info:	margie@sbpermaculture.org, (805) 962-2571

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Event Description

Join us for the 15th Annual Santa Barbara Community Seed Swap at the Santa Barbara Community Arts Center (SBCAW) in downtown Santa Barbara, with both indoor and outdoor spaces, rain or shine!

Hundreds attend this free event every year sharing seeds and knowledge with other backyard gardeners, plant lovers, beekeepers, farmers and more. Come be a part of this seed saving movement, making sure locally adapted seeds & plants are passed on to future generations. Free seeds offered to help gardeners get started. Local groups will have seed and plant related exhibits. Live music, and kids activities throughout the day.

Once again we will honor a Local Food Hero, this year to veteran Los Osos Valley organic farmer Larry Kandarian of Kandarian Organic Farms, who grows ancient grains & legumes and practices exemplary soil care. Join us for an award ceremony at 1pm in the central courtyard.

Bring seeds, plants, cuttings, and garden knowledge to swap.
Don't have these? Then come get seeds. Seeds to sow, seeds to grow, seeds to harvest. Seeds to save and share next year.
Activities for all ages.
Music that will have your toes tapping.
Plant and seed-related exhibits from local groups
Special speakers throughout the day.
A gathering of garden friends old and new.
Seed saving is a fun and easy way to connect to the circle of life.

A community program hosted and sponsored by The Santa Barbara Permaculture Network.

Co-Sponsored by Explore Ecology, Island Seed & Feed, Blue Sky Biochar, Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds, and Santa Barbara Aquaponics, and The Plant Good Seed Company.

2023 Local Real Food Hero Award

Once again we honor a Local Food Hero as part of the Seed Swap. This year the award goes to Larry Kandarian of Kandarian Organic Farms. Larry has been farming on the Central Coast for over 25 years. He is passionate about sharing the regenerative soil practices he uses on his farm and the unusual variety of ancient grains, legumes, and superseeds crops he grows, including Tibetan black barley, Kamut, quinoa, chia, farro, and teff, to name just a few, all certified organic and GMO-free, grown without chemical fertilizers, using low-till practices. On his 130-acre farm in the Los Osos Valley, Larry works with younger farmers, veterans, and those with disadvantages, sharing his decades of growing knowledge, while attending multiple farmers markets every week. Kandarian Farms is a member of and contributes to the Farm to School initiative on the Central Coast. Larry has been a favorite speaker and exhibitor at the annual Santa Barbara Community Seed Swap for many years, and we value his contribution to the event immensely.

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Beavers in the Landscape

Date:	Saturday, January 21, 2023; 6:30–8:30pm
Location:	Santa Barbara Community Arts Center (SBCAW), 631 Garden St, Santa Barbara, CA
Price:	FREE
More Info:	margie@sbpermaculture.org, (805) 962-2571

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Event Description

Beaver dams are gaining popularity as a low-tech, low-cost strategy to build climate resiliency at the landscape scale. — Dr. Emily Fairfax

Join Santa Barbara Permaculture Network for an evening with Dr. Emily Fairfax, PhD, and Cooper Lienhart as they share their work & passion for beaver, a keystone species that until recently was a vastly underrated ecosystem restoration hero.

Beavers are native to North America (Castor canadensis), in populations in the millions, before the European fur trade decimated their numbers almost to extinction. They are responsible for a landscape most early settlers and farmers took for granted—deep soils built up over centuries with ponds & wetlands they created. These wetlands function as natural sponges, trapping silt, making them excellent carbon sinks, that help with climate change.

With extended droughts and catastrophic fires plaguing California and the West in recent years, Dr. Fairfax began focusing her research on the impact of beaver on wildfires. Where beaver and their dams and pond complexes are allowed to flourish, water tables naturally rise and keep the surrounding vegetation and soils hydrated. Dr. Fairfax's observations on the positive aspects beavers have in controlling wildfires with the wetlands they create, prompted her to coin the phrase "Smokey the Beaver".

As a part of the evening, Cooper Lienheart, a recent environmental engineering grad of Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, will share how as a student he became interested in beaver. Like many young people Lienhart became increasingly concerned about climate change, and learned about wetlands and their ability to act as carbon sinks sequestering carbon, and the role of beaver in creating these wetlands.

Of course, beavers and human settlements are often at odds. But in communities like Martinez, CA, where a popular Beaver Festival takes place every year, they and others have demonstrated these conflicts can be managed with clever strategies, good for the beaver and the community. And with these kind of beaver management strategies come come new jobs, especially good for the next generation, many who yearn for positive livelihoods.

Cooper Lienhart, after graduating from Cal Poly SLO, enrolled in The Beaver Institute, learning beaver coexistence techniques, and with three organizations in Northern California, has trained in building "Beaver Analog Dams", structures that encourage beavers to start building dams in advantageous locations. Lienhart has worked with the Tulalip tribe in Washington State learning beaver relocation techniques.

Dr. Emily Fairfax is an Assistant Professor of Environmental Science and Resource Management at California State University Channel Islands. Dr. Fairfax double majored in Chemistry and Physics as an undergraduate at Carleton College, later earning a PhD in Geological Sciences from the University of Colorado Boulder. She uses a combination of remote sensing and field work to research how beaver activity can create drought and fire resistant patches in the landscape under a changing climate.

A community program hosted by Santa Barbara Permaculture Network and co-sponsored by the Farmer and the Cook.

Learn More:

Gratitude Revealed Film Premiere with filmmaker Louie Schwartzberg

Date:	Saturday, November 19, 2022, 6:30 – 9:00pm
Location:	Marjorie Luke Theatre, 721 E. Cota St, Santa Barbara, CA
Price:	$10; tickets available online (fees apply) or at the door
More Info:	margie@sbpermaculture.org, (805) 962-2571

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(fees apply)

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Trailer

Event Description

Gratitude is a state of mind that preserves our humanity amidst the chaos.
— Louie Schwartzberg

Just in time for Thanksgiving! Santa Barbara Permaculture Network presents the Santa Barbara premiere of Gratitude Revealed, a new film by Louis Schwartzberg, the director of the acclaimed Fantastic Fungi documentary and recent recipient of our 2022 Eco Hero Award, graciously received to a standing ovation.

An epic journey forty years in the making, Gratitude Revealed is a rich visual tapestry that takes viewers on a transformational cinematic experience of how to live a more meaningful life full of gratitude. Through intimate conversations with everyday people, thought leaders, and personalities, the film reveals that gratitude is a proven pathway back from the disconnection we feel in our lives—disconnection from ourselves, our planet, and each other. Louie will be attending the event in person, and welcomes a lively Q&A session following the film. Check out the movie trailer above and the official music video, then join us at the premiere!

Louie Schwartzberg is an American director, producer, and cinematographer, recognized as a pioneer in high-end time-lapse cinematography, and a visual artist known for breaking down barriers of perception and taking viewers on journeys of time and scale. For more than forty years, with his studio Moving Art, his passion has been telling stories through film that celebrate life and reveal the mysteries and wisdom of nature.

A community program hosted and sponsored by The Santa Barbara Permaculture Network.

Cosponsored by Explore Ecology, Community Environmental Council (CEC), Sweetwater Collaborative, Quail Springs Permaculture, Blue Sky Biochar, Santa Barbara Aquaponics, Sustainable World Radio, and the Santa Barbara Independent.

Water Always Wins: Thriving in an Age of Drought & Deluge Talk & Booksigning with Author Erica Gies

Date:	Tuesday, November 15, 2022, 6 – 8pm
Location:	Santa Barbara Community Arts Center (SBCAW), 631 Garden St, Santa Barbara, CA
Price:	FREE
More Info:	margie@sbpermaculture.org, (805) 962-2571 Facebook event page

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Event Description

The way we have been relating to water and the natural world is not innate. We create our narrative, and we can change it. — Erica Gies

Please join us for a talk and booksigning with award winning journalist Erica Gies with her timely book Water Always Wins: Thriving in an Age of Drought & Deluge. In the book, Ms. Gies takes readers through time and around the world to understand the water we take for granted, and to learn to work in harmony with it.

Told as a detective story, Water Always Wins follows water experts as they search for clues to water's past, using close observation, historical research, ancient animal and human wisdom, and cutting-edge science. Their epiphanies start to fundamentally change the way we look at water, helping us understand how water really works and why our efforts to control it are failing.

Increased sea-level rise, more frequent and extreme floods, and droughts are signs of climate change. Meanwhile, urban sprawl, industrial agriculture, and engineered water infrastructure seem to exacerbate rather than solve these problems.

As we observe the devastation we are wreaking on the environment that sustains us with our efforts to control water, we are forced anew to reckon with something we have forgotten during the Industrial and Information ages—that we are indeed a part of nature. That we impact nature and nature impacts us.

The water detectives' discoveries shared in the book point in one direction: to survive the devastating floods and droughts brought by climate change we need to relearn how to live with water. To approach it with humility rather than arrogance, and work with it rather than try and subdue it.

Gies will share thoughts about the "slow water" movement and how communities can shape solutions and adapt to the changing world.

Erica Gies is an independent journalist and National Geographic Explorer who writes about water, climate change, plants, and animals for Scientific American, the New York Times, Nature, The Atlantic, and other outlets. She cofounded two environmental news startups, Climate Confidential and This Week in Earth. She is based in San Francisco and Victoria, British Columbia.

An informal panel discussion with community members follows the talk. Books signed by the author will be available for purchase at a special event price.

A community program hosted and sponsored by The Santa Barbara Permaculture Network.

Learn More:

Water Always Wins, Sierra Club Book Review, July 18, 2022

Santa Barbara Permaculture Network 2nd Annual Eco Hero Award
Honoring Paul Stamets & Louie Schwartzberg

Date:	Friday, June 17, 2022, 6:30 – 9:00pm
Location:	Lobero Theatre, 33 East Canon Perdido St, Santa Barbara, CA
Price:	$10 – $20; Friends of Eco Hero Premium, $100 Tickets available online (with convenience fee) or at the Lobero box office
More Info:	margie@sbpermaculture.org, (805) 962-2571

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Event Description

Due to unavoidable circumstances Paul Stamets won't be able to participate on May 13, so this event has been rescheduled to Friday, June 17, 2022. All existing tickets will be honored.

Join us finally as we finally celebrate our Second Annual Eco Hero Award honoring visionary mycologist Paul Stamets and award-winning cinematographer Louie Schwartzberg.

The Santa Barbara Permaculture Network Eco Hero Award honors those individuals who have committed themselves to work in service of the planet and its inhabitants for more than thirty years, with actual solutions and concrete ways forward that benefit many, often on a global scale, while demonstrating pathways forward for future generations.

Both Paul Stamets and Louie Schwartzberg will be in attendance to receive the award, Louie in person and Paul via Zoom. They'll share their experiences—what inspired them, how they made their projects happen, and what challenges they faced along the way—with time for the audience to ask questions, especially encouraging youth attending to interact.

Film clips willbe shown from their collaboration on joint projects, including the amazing Fantastic Fungi film (trailer).

A special treat for the community following the event will be beautiful time-lapse moving photography of nature's splendor projected on the outdoor wall of the Lobero Theatre, which Louie Schwartzberg also shared and regaled audiences with at the Vatican in St. Peters Square in Rome in 2015.

Paul Stamets is a preeminent mycologist in the United States and an award-winning author, researcher, and renowned speaker, sharing with the public the unusual and profound connection between humans and mushrooms. He is an entrepreneur and founder of Fungi Perfecti, a family-owned, environmentally-friendly company, and has authored many books including, Mycelium Running: How Mushrooms Can Help Heal the World, and Fantastic Fungi: How Mushrooms Can Heal, Shift Consciousness, and Save the Planet, written in concert with the Fantastic Fungi film.

Louie Schwartzberg is an American director, producer, and cinematographer, recognized as a pioneer in high-end time-lapse cinematography, and visual artist known for breaking down barriers of perception and taking viewers on journeys of time and scale. For more than forty years, with his studio Moving Art, his passion has been telling stories through film that celebrate life and reveal the mysteries and wisdom of nature, most recently with the conscious shifting film Fantastic Fungi where once again he makes the invisible visible for his audiences.

A community program hosted and sponsored by The Santa Barbara Permaculture Network.

Cosponsored by Blue Sky Biochar, Bamboo DNA, Teeccino, Community Environmental Council (CEC), SBCC Environmental Horticulture, Explore Ecology, Regenerative Landscape Alliance, Island Seed & Feed, Orella Ranch-Gaviota Givings, Santa Barbara Aquaponics, Sustainable World Radio, World Business Academy, The Optimist Daily, Quail Springs Permaculture, Hour Books, Mesa Harmony Garden, Wingnut Mushroom Farm, Rincon-Vitova Insectaries, Ojai Center for Regenerative Agriculture (CRA), and the Santa Barbara Independent.

14th Annual Santa Barbara Community Seed Swap

A celebration to bring seeds & people together

Date:	Sunday, March 20, 2022, 11am – 4pm (rain or shine!)
Location:	Santa Barbara Community Arts Center (SBCAW), 631 Garden St, Santa Barbara, CA
Price:	FREE
More Info:	margie@sbpermaculture.org, (805) 962-2571 Facebook event page

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Event Description

Join us for the 14th Annual Santa Barbara Community Seed Swap, with a new Spring date and a brand new location at the Santa Barbara Community Arts Center (SBCAW), with both indoor and outdoor space.

Hundreds attend this free event every year, sharing seeds and knowledge with other backyard gardeners, plant lovers, beekeepers, farmers and more. Come be a part of this seed saving movement, making sure locally adapted seeds & plants are passed on to future generations.

This year's Local Food Hero Award honors the Explore Ecology School Garden Program and its Garden Educators. Please join us for an award ceremony at 2pm.

Proof of COVID-19 vaccination NOT required for entry. Masks encouraged inside indoor spaces (per request of many of our exhibitors, with their health in mind).

Seed saving is a fun and easy way to connect to the circle of life!

Bring seeds, plants, cuttings, and garden knowledge to swap.
Don't have these? Then come get seeds. Seeds to sow, seeds to grow, seeds to harvest. Seeds to save and share next year.
Activities for all ages.
Music that will have your toes tapping.
Plant and seed-related exhibits from local groups
Special speakers throughout the day.
A gathering of garden friends old and new.

A community program hosted and sponsored by The Santa Barbara Permaculture Network.

Co-Sponsored by Explore Ecology, Island Seed & Feed, Blue Sky Biochar, Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds, and Santa Barbara Aquaponics.

2022 Local Real Food Hero Award

Once again we honor a Local Food Hero as part of the Seed Swap. This year the award goes to the Explore Ecology School Garden Program and its amazing Garden Educators. Explore Ecology's mission is educating the next generation of environmental stewards, serving more than 30,000 children annually. As a part of their mission, Explore Ecology's Garden Educators teach garden-based lesson plans in 30 local schools, connecting children to the food they eat while creating healthy garden ecosystems. Unique to the program is the ongoing support of a dedicated Garden Educator for each participating school, working with both the teachers and their students. and the exemplary growers who have kept their community fed and nourished with the highest quality produce and food for many decades, including this year when the COVID pandemic made locally grown food more important than ever. We deeply thank and honor them for their stewardship of the land and commitment to providing a healthy and viable foodshed for the Santa Barbara community.

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Beavers in the Landscape

Date:	Thursday, November 11, 2021; 5–8pm; talk begins at 6pm
Location:	Patio at the Farmer and the Cook Restaurant, 339 West El Roblar, Ojai, CA 93023
Price:	FREE
More Info:	Facebook event page or margie@sbpermaculture.org, (805) 962-2571

Beavers in the Landscape

Event Description

Beaver dams are gaining popularity as a low-tech, low-cost strategy to build climate resiliency at the landscape scale. — Dr. Emily Fairfax

Join Santa Barbara Permaculture Network for an evening with Dr. Emily Fairfax, PhD, CSU Channel Islands, as she shares her research focused on beaver, a keystone species, that until very recently was a vastly underrated ecosystem restoration hero. Learn about our own California Beaver, found in unlikely spots like the upper Salinas River, Santa Ynez River, and more.

Passionate about science from a young age, Dr. Fairfax was happy when nature and science came together with her interest in beavers. As a geoscientist who studies ecohydrology of wetlands and riparian areas, it was a perfect academic and vocational match.

Beavers are native to North America (Castor canadensis), in populations topping 600 million before trappers in the 1800's decimated their numbers almost to extinction. They were responsible for a landscape most early settlers and farmers took for granted—deep soils built up over centuries—in wetlands they created. These wetlands then and now function as natural sponges trapping silt and water, which are excellent carbon sinks.

With extended droughts and catastrophic fires plaguing California and the West in recent years, Dr. Fairfax began focusing her research on the impact of beaver on wildfires. Squishy, wet landscapes simply don't burn. And where beaver are, with multiple dam and pond complexes, squishy land abounds. These observations of the positive impact of beavers on wildfires prompted Dr. Fairfax to coin the phrase "Smokey the Beaver".

Of course, beavers and human settlements are often at odds. But in communities like Martinez, CA, where a popular Beaver Festival takes place every year, they and others have demonstrated these conflicts can be managed with clever strategies, good for the beaver and the community. And with these kind of beaver management strategies come interesting new jobs, especially good for our next young adult generation, many who yearn for positive livelihoods.

As a part of the evening event we will share the work of, Cooper Lienheart a recent engineering grad of Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, who currently works as a SLO Beaver Brigade Restoration Specialist, and has decided to make beaver and wetland restoration his life work.

Woodfired Pizza and other delicacies available from the Farmer and the Cook for purchase.

A community program hosted by Santa Barbara Permaculture Network and co-sponsored by the Farmer and the Cook.

Learn More:

13th Annual Santa Barbara Community Seed Swap

A celebration to bring seeds & people together

Date:	Sunday, January 31 – Sunday, February 28, 2021
Location:	Seed Swap Facebook page
Price:	FREE
More Info:	margie@sbpermaculture.org, (805) 962-2571 Facebook group page

Poster

Event Description

Seeds, they are our past, they are our future. In past times, they were skillfully adapted to climate and location. Join us as we encourage our community to save and grow out seeds specific to our own climate and place, while honoring our ancestors gift & legacy.

The Seed Swap is a local community event attended by hundreds of attendees every year, that was originally inspired by the International Seed Swap Day which takes place around the world on the last Sunday in January. This year, we're adapting to the realities of COVID 19 by sponsoring the 13th Annual Community Seed Swap online!

We will host a month-long virtual experience starting on January 31, that will feature interesting seed saving projects, some of our favorite speakers & exhibitors from past events, a community seed grow out project, and suggestions on how to share seeds in your own neighborhoods. It will be interactive, and all are encouraged to participate! All activities will take place on the SB Annual Community Seed Swap Facebook page.

A community program hosted and sponsored by The Santa Barbara Permaculture Network.

Community Seed Grow-Out project

In times of peril we think of planning our gardens for abundance & sharing. As a part of the 2021 Virtual Seed Swap, we're sponsoring the first Community Seed Grow-Out project, featuring the "Potimarron" (Red Kuri) squash, which is amazingly productive, easy-to-grow, compact in size, and can be stored up to 12 months. It's excellent for home & amp;feeding families, but also sharing with foodbanks & soup kitchens. Island Seed & Feed, a long time Seed Swap event co-sponsor, is offering organic seeds from Botanical Interests for sale, and we're also giving away free packets of four seeds with directions at the Island Seed & Feed store, located at 29 S. Fairview Ave. in Goleta. More sites to follow—stay tuned for updates on the Seed Swap Facebook page.

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2021 Local Real Food Hero Award

Once again we honor a Local Food Hero as part of the Seed Swap. This year the award goes to the Santa Barbara Farmers Market and the exemplary growers who have kept their community fed and nourished with the highest quality produce and food for many decades, including this year when the COVID pandemic made locally grown food more important than ever. We deeply thank and honor them for their stewardship of the land and commitment to providing a healthy and viable foodshed for the Santa Barbara community.

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Eco Film Night Series: Kiss the Ground Premiere

Save the Soil, Save the World!

Date:	Monday, September 21, 2020, 8:30–10pm; admission kiosk opens at 7:30pm
Location:	West Wind Drive-In Theater, 907 S. Kellogg Ave., Goleta, CA 93117
Price:	$10 per person or $20 per car; pay cash at the theater (no advance tickets)
More Info:	Facebook event page margie@sbpermaculture.org, (805) 962-2571

Poster

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Trailer

Event Description

Join us as we continue our Eco-Film Night series at the West Wind Drive-In with the newly released documentary Kiss the Ground. Filmmakers Josh & Rebecca Tickell of Big Picture Ranch, who also authored the groundbreaking book with the same title, will be in attendance, sharing with the audience their seven year journey making the film.

Carbon is a naturally occurring chemical compound vital to life that provides soil its fertility and water holding capacity. But since the industrial revolution and the advent of modern farming practices, too much carbon has been released into the atmosphere, causing climate disruption with increases in temperatures and extreme weather events around the world.

Kiss the Ground reveals that by regenerating the health of the world's soils, we can completely and rapidly stabilize Earth's climate, restore lost ecosystems and create abundant food supplies. And not a minute too soon!

Using compelling graphics and visuals, along with striking NASA and NOAA footage, Kiss the Ground artfully illustrates how by drawing down atmospheric carbon, soil is the missing piece of the climate puzzle. This film is positioned to effectively educate and catalyze a movement to accomplish the impossible—to solve humanity's greatest challenge, to balance the climate and secure our species' future.

Featured in the film are many illustrious climate problem solvers, including Paul Hawken, Ray Archuleta, John Wick, David Bronner, and of special note for our community, Santa Barbara Permaculture Network's 2019 Eco-Hero Award recipient, John D. Liu, of Ecosystem Restoration Camps.

Come join us as we share another community event at the unique setting of our local drive-in, adapting in a creative way to the realities of COVID. Watch inside your car or bring chairs to sit outside (cars safely spaced). Listen with your car or portable radio on 102.1 FM.

We will start the evening with a chance to hear from our exemplary cosponsors about their work, and also a short film debut by Ray Cirino, who created a fun children's film about beavers to begin the evening.

Event sponsored by the Santa Barbara Permaculture Network. Cosponsored by the Community Environmental Council (CEC), Blue Sky Biochar, World Business Academy, The Optimist Daily, Explore Ecology, Sustainable World Radio, Hour Books, LOACOM, Regenerative Landscape Alliance, Teeccino, Ojai Center for Regenerative Agriculture (CRA), Casitas Valley Pastures, Santa Barbara Aquaponics, and the Santa Barbara Independent.

Eco Film Night Series: 2040 Film Premiere

Australia's top grossing film for 2019 comes to the West Wind Drive-In Theater

Date:	Monday, August 10, 2020; gates & kiosk open at 7:30pm
Location:	West Wind Drive-In Theater, 907 S. Kellogg Ave., Goleta, CA 93117
Price:	$10 per person or $20 per car; pay at the theater (no advance tickets)
More Info:	Facebook event page margie@sbpermaculture.org, (805) 962-2571

Poster

Trailer

Event Description

What will the future look like in 2040? As a parent of a four-year old daughter, award-winning filmmaker Damon Gameau deeply contemplates the effects of climate change over the next 20 years and how it will impact the planet and his daughter's future.

Although the future looks a bit uncertain and even scary, Gameau begins to think we might have the means to do better if we simply embraced the best solutions already available and shifted them into the mainstream. With this in mind, Gameau embarks on a journey around the world to learn what solutions might actually already exist, and discovers some remarkable and inspiring people with stories to tell and innovations to share. The result is 2040, Australia's top grossing film for 2019.

Structured as a visual letter to his daughter, 2040 blends traditional documentary footage with dramatized sequences and high-end visual effects to create a vision board for his daughter and the planet. Gameau is both the storyteller and the active researcher. And while taking his film worldwide, has been conducting interactive public webinars with input from additional climate activists and experts.

Come enjoy a COVID-safe and inspiring summer evening! Watch in your car, or bring chairs to sit beside your car.

Brian von Herzen of The Climate Foundation is featured in the 2040 film showcasing Marine Permaculture as one of the most promising solutions for solving climate change by restoring the health of kelp forests around the world. Our evening will start with a brief film about a potential Climate Foundation project hoping to locate in California, to which you can donate.

Event sponsored by the Community Environmental Council (CEC), Blue Sky Biochar, World Business Academy, The Optimist Daily, Explore Ecology, Regenerative Landscape Alliance, Teeccino, Santa Barbara Aquaponics, Hour Books, and the Santa Barbara Independent.

Santa Barbara Permaculture Network joins the Santa Barbara I Madonnari Street Chalk Art Festival 2020 (Online!)

Dates:	Memorial Day Weekend, Saturday, May 23 – Monday, May 25, 2020
Price:	FREE

Event Description

We're excited to sponsor a square in this year's I Madonnari Italian Street Painting Festival. Always at the Santa Barbara Mission on Memorial Day weekend, this year the event is going virtual! Join us online over the three day holiday weekend as our featured artist Ray Cirino, along with enthusiastic volunteers, creates an Ecosystem Restoration-themed pastel chalk art square, highlighting our favorite ecosystem restoration hero, the beaver!

The fun begins to unfold on Saturday, May 23, continuing to its completion on Monday, May 25. All three days will be available for viewing online. Learn more about the festival and follow the progress of the artists and their projects on the I Madonnari Facebook and Instagram pages.

We thank the Explore Ecology environmental education nonprofit for cosponsoring with us by providing a wonderful site, and the Ecosystem Restoration Camps nonprofit and emerging global movement for the inspiration for our entry this year.

The festival benefits the Children's Creative Project, supporting visual and performing arts education in the Santa Barbara County Schools for more than 50,000 children in more than 100 schools. For Santa Barbara residents, on Saturday, May 23, 9am–1pm, free chalk is available to kids for their own creations; see the I Madonnari website for details.

For more information, contact Margie at margie@sbpermaculture.org or 805.962.2571.

Sponsored by the Santa Barbara Permaculture Network. Cosponsored by Explore Ecology, Blue Sky Biochar, and Ecosystem Restoration Camps.

Santa Barbara Permaculture Network joins The Great Work of Our Time Livestream with John D. Liu & Special Guests

Date:	Saturday, April 18, 2020, 9am – 12pm
Register:	https://bit.ly/GreatWorkofOurTime
Price:	FREE

Event Description

The Great Work of Our Time livestream event will have many voices sharing intentions on how to work together for the benefit of all life on Earth. With profound and nuanced conversations, John D. Liu and guest speakers will share their work and experiences about ecosystem restoration, with the potential of twenty-three existing Ecosystem Restoration Camps, and the thousands more needed worldwide, followed by Q&A session.

In a crisis with few immediately actionable solutions...Ecosystem Restoration Camps can not only help mitigate and adapt to climate changes, restore hydrology, soil fertility and biodiversity...they can help address hunger, homelessness, unemployment and social disruption.

Special Guests Participating:

Elder Tina Calderon, Tongva Nation
Pieter van der Gaag, Ecosystem Restoration Foundation
Helmy Abouleish, Sekem
Arouna & Biko
John Allen, The BirdHouse
Matthew E. Trumm, Treetop Permaculture
Andrew Langford, Gaia University
Finian Makepeace, Kiss The Ground
Dr. Allen Williams, Soil Health Academy
Mollie Engelhart, Sow A Heart Farm
Wouter van Eck, Foodforest Ketelbroek
Rising Appalachia
Paul Stamets, Fungi Perfecti
Sonne Copijn, The Bee Foundation
Li An Phoa, Drinkable Rivers
Manari, Sapara tribe
Didi Pershouse, Soil Carbon Coalition
Sam Teicher, Coral Vita
Roxane Boonstra, Coral Restoration Foundation
Willem Ferwerda, Commonland
Jessie Smith, White Buffalo Land Trust
Tom Duncan, Earthbanc
Ties van der Hoeven, The Weather Makers
Dulanie Ellis, Ground Operations: Battlefields to Farmfields
Misha Teasdale, GreenPop
Christopher Breedlove, Burning Man Leadership Council
Charles Eisenstein
Adrian Vallera, Disclosurefest
Playing for Change

Learn More:

Video: Promo Video for Global Ecosystem Restoration LIVESTREAM with John D. Liu & Linda Gibbs

Video: Decade on Ecosystem Restoration announced by UN

12th Annual Santa Barbara Community Seed Swap

A celebration to bring seeds & people together

Date:	Sunday, January 26, 2020, 1pm – 4pm (rain or shine!)
Location:	Santa Barbara Public Library, Faulkner Gallery, 40 E. Anapamu St, Santa Barbara, CA
Price:	FREE
More Info:	margie@sbpermaculture.org, (805) 962-2571 Facebook group page

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Join us for the 12th Annual Santa Barbara Community Seed Swap, returning to the downtown location at the Santa Barbara Central Library. Hundreds attend this free event every year, sharing seeds and knowledge with other backyard gardeners, plant lovers, beekeepers, farmers and more. Come be a part of this seed-saving movement, making sure that locally adapted seeds & plants are passed on to future generations. Special guest speakers, knowledgeable exhibitors, children's activities, and music!

Seed saving is a fun and easy way to connect to the circle of life!

Bring seeds, plants, cuttings, and garden knowledge to swap.
Don't have these? Then come get seeds. Seeds to sow, seeds to grow, seeds to harvest. Seeds to save and share next year.
Activities for all ages.
Music that will have your toes tapping.
Special speakers throughout the day.
A gathering of garden friends old and new.

A community program hosted and sponsored by The Santa Barbara Permaculture Network.

Co-Sponsored by Island Seed & Feed, Blue Sky Biochar, Healing Grounds Biodynamic Nursery, and Ojai Center for Regenerative Agriculture.

2020 Local Real Food Hero Award

Once again we will be honoring a Local Food Hero at the Seed Swap! This year the award goes to Kevin Childerley, founder of Santa Barbara Aquaponics. Kevin is a passionate Aquaponics innovator & educator, sharing with his community the potential of this unique food growing strategy that combines aquaculture and hydroponics, in a closed loop system. Committed to demonstrating it is possible to grow food sustainably close to home while using less space, water, and energy, Kevin continues to experiment & refine his projects, knowing this is just what will be needed in future decades for our cities with growing populations. Creatively linking to the local economy, Kevin recently moved into a 20,000 sq. foot greenhouse and has already begun providing organic produce for local CSA's and restaurants, demonstrating how it is possible to reduce carbon emissions by eliminating travel miles of food for our community that comes from way too far away.

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Fantastic Fungi Film Premiere: one night only!

Award-winning filmmaker Louie Schwartzberg's sight and sound spectacular

Event:	Film screening followed by discussion and Q&A with the filmmaker and special guests
Date:	Sunday, November 24, 4pm (doors open at 3:30)
Location:	Marjorie Luke Theatre, 721 E. Cota St, Santa Barbara, CA
Price:	$20 general, $15 students

Event:	VIP After Party with Louis Schwartzberg and local SB cultivators, foragers and educators
Date:	Sunday, November 24, 7pm
Location:	Barbareño Restaurant, 205 W Canon Perdido St, Santa Barbara, CA
Price:	$50

Tickets:	Buy now (ticket fees apply)
More Info:	Facebook event page margie@sbpermaculture.org, (805) 962-2571

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When so many are struggling for connection, inspiration, and hope, Fantastic Fungi brings us together as interconnected creators of our world. This stunning documentary explores the power, beauty, complexity, and importance of the often-overlooked fungi kingdom, offering solutions to some of the most pressing medical and environmental challenges we face.

Fantastic Fungi is a consciousness-shifting film that takes the audience on an immersive journey through time and scale into the magical earth beneath our feet, an underground network that can heal and save our planet. Through the eyes of renowned scientists and mycologists like Paul Stamets, best-selling authors Michael Pollan, Eugenia Bone, Andrew Weil, and others, we become aware of the beauty, intelligence and solutions the fungi kingdom offer us in response to some of our most pressing medical, therapeutic, and environmental challenges.

Fantastic Fungi is being released in tandem with the book Fantastic Fungi: How Mushrooms Can Heal, Shift Consciousness, and Save the Planet, edited by Paul Stamets. The book will be on sale at the event.

Louie Schwartzberg is an award-winning cinematographer, director, and producer whose notable career spans more than four decades providing breathtaking imagery using his time-lapse, high-speed and macro cinematography techniques. Schwartzberg is a visual artist who breaks barriers, connects with audiences, and tells stories that celebrate life and reveal the mysteries and wisdom of nature, people, and places.

Louie's theatrical releases include the 3D IMAX film Mysteries of the Unseen World with National Geographic, narrated by Forest Whitaker; the documentary Wings of Life for Disneynature, narrated by Meryl Streep; and America's Heart and Soul for Walt Disney Studios.

A community event co-sponsored by 360° Communications, the Santa Barbara Permaculture Network, Community Environmental Council (CEC), 350 Santa Barbara, Antioch University Santa Barbara, World Business Academy, SBCC Environmental Horticulture, Fairview Gardens, Explore Ecology, Blue Sky Biochar, Mesa Harmony Garden, Quail Springs Permaculture, Ojai Center for Regenerative Agriculture (CRA), Sweetwater Collaborative, Isla Vista Food Coop, Oasis Design, Santa Barbara Aquaponics, Sustainable World Radio,Cultivate Events, LOACOM, Sunburst Farm & Sanctuary, and Edible Santa Barbara Magazine

Healing Earth: An Ecologist's Journey of Innovation & Environmental Stewardship
with Author & Ecologist John Todd

Event:	Talk & Book-Signing
Date:	Friday, October 18, 2019, 6:30 – 8:30pm
Price:	$10 at the door or via Eventbrite
Location:	Community Hall, Antioch University, 602 Anacapa Street, Santa Barbara, CA

Event:	Workshop
Date:	Saturday, October 19, 9:30am – 12:30pm
Price:	$30; full-time students free (with current ID) Reserve and pay on Eventbrite
Location:	Community Hall, Antioch University, 602 Anacapa Street, Santa Barbara, CA

More Info:	margie@sbpermaculture.org, (805) 962-2571 Facebook event page

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The solutions for the future are going to depend entirely on us becoming intimately attuned to the natural world.
— John Todd

Join us for an inspiring two-day event with renowned ecologist John Todd, sharing his newly published book, Healing Earth: An Ecologist's Journey of Innovation & Environmental Stewardship.

A stand-out from the sea of despairing messages about climate change, well-known sustainability elder John Todd has taught, mentored, and inspired such well-known names in the field as Janine Benyus, Bill McKibben, and Paul Hawken.

Best known for his Eco-Machines, greenhouses with tanks filled with a variety of plants and other living organisms capable of turning sewage and wastewater into pure drinking water, John Todd is an evolutionary biologist working in the general field of ecological design. Ecological design uses sunlight, biodiversity and natural processes to create clean water with the byproducts of natural gases and biological material.

Todd's work, which spans nearly five decades, demonstrates how nature is capable of cleaning up some of the most toxic messes modern technology and the industrial revolution has unleased on the planet. From old textile mills on the east coast of America still polluting rivers and waterways, to ongoing oil spills, to luxury resort hotels, high-rises, and even cities needing to solve present day sewage and water issues, Todd has offered pragmatic visions of hope with his revolutionary ecological designs.

Todd's recently published book Healing Earth chronicles many examples of workable engineering solutions for environmental problems, such as healing the aftermath of mountain-top removal and valley-fill coal mining in Appalachia; using windmills and injections of bacteria to restore the health of a polluted New England pond; working with community members in a South African village to protect an important river. It also provides concrete suggestions for solving as yet unresolved issues related to the climate crisis.

Todd is a biologist and the founder and president of John Todd Ecological Design. He holds degrees covering the fields of agriculture, parasitology, tropical medicine, fisheries and ethology. In addition to new paradigms in an academic setting, he is the founder and president of Ocean Arks International, a non-profit research and education organization and co-founder of New Alchemy Institute, a research center that has done pioneering investigation into organic agriculture, aquaculture and bioshelters. In 2008 he received the Buckminster Fuller Challenge Award for the best idea and concept to help save the planet and humanity. In 2007, he was named one of the top 100 visionaries of the 20th century by Resurgence & Ecologist magazine, and he was profiled as one of top 35 figures "Inventing Modern America" in the "Genius Issue" of Esquire.

A community event hosted by Santa Barbara Permaculture Network. Part of the Santa Barbara Permaculture Network Civics 101 for Climate Change Series

Co-sponsored by Antioch University Santa Barbara, Blue Sky Biochar, Teeccino, El Capitan Canyon Resort, Santa Barbara Aquaponics, and the Santa Barbara Independent.

Learn More:

Video: Why Design Now: Eco-Machine at the Omega Center for Sustainable Living

Video: Ecological Design & Living Machines

Video: Eco-Machines/Living Machine examples: El Monte Sagrado Resort Taos, New Mexico; Eco Hood in Prescott, AZ

Interview: John Todd on Sustainable World Radio, Episode 131

John Todd Ecological Design

Ocean Arks International

New Alchemy Institute & The Green Center

Kathe Seidel, German Botanist, first to incorporate vegetation into wastewater treatment wetlands in the 1950's

Celebrating Beavers: Climate & Ecosystem Restoration Heroes!

Featuring the new film The Beaver Believers and guest artist Ray Cirino with his beaver artwork & Summer Solstice beaver float

Date:	Friday, June 28, 7 – 9pm
Location:	The outdoor patio at Bici Centro, 434 Olive St, Santa Barbara, CA
Price:	FREE
More Info:	Facebook event page margie@sbpermaculture.org, (805) 962-2571

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Join us for an evening of film and fun celebrating our new climate & ecosystem heroes, the beavers! We'll be showing the recently released documentary The Beaver Believers, which tells the urgent yet whimsical story of an unlikely cadre of activists—a biologist, a hydrologist, a botanist, an ecologist, a psychologist, and an hairdresser—who share a common vision: restoring the North American Beaver, the most industrious, ingenious, bucktoothed little engineer, to the watersheds of the American West. Shot in eight western states, Mexico, and Canada, through desert drought, raging wild fires, floods, and wetland tranquility, the film will change the way you think about climate change and inspire you to think about the opportunities of working with nature for solutions.

The Beaver Believers encourage us to embrace a new paradigm for managing our western lands, one that seeks to partner with the natural world rather overpower it. As a keystone species, beavers enrich their ecosystems, creating the biodiversity, complexity, and resiliency our watersheds need so desperately to absorb the impacts of climate change. Beavers can show us the way, and do much of the work for us, if only we can find the humility to trust the restorative power of nature and our own ability to pay a positive role within it.

Most south coast residents aren't aware beavers were in our region—or that some still remain. But when hiking in the backcountry behind Santa Barbara and Ventura, you might come across beaver rock art done by the original native peoples of this land, proving beaver have been here for thousands of years. Let's welcome them back to help rehydrate the land!

Ray Cirino, local artist, has fallen in love with beaver and will display and share his Summer Solstice Beaver Float and other beaver artwork. Others are encouraged to bring artwork, poems, or favorite books about beavers to share.

No reservations are required! The event takes place in the spacious outdoor patio of Bici Centro (Santa Barbara Bicycle Coalition) in downtown Santa Barbara. Come early to explore the community bike center and the beaver artwork & float. Bring sweaters & jackets in case it gets cold!

Learn more

Video: The Beaver Believers Film Trailer

Booklet: BEAVER IN CALIFORNIA: Creating a Culture of Stewardship, by the Water Institute at the Occidental Arts & Ecology Center. Extensive research has recently heightened recognition of the important role beaver (Castor canadensis) can play in watershed health and climate change resiliency. The species' ecological services include enhanced water storage, erosion control, habitat restoration and creation, listed species recovery, the maintenance of stream flows during the dry summer period, and other beneficial adaptations to our changing climate conditions.

Book: Eager: The Surprising Secret Life of Beavers and Why They Matter by Ben Goldfarb. Environmental journalist Goldfarb reveals that our modern idea of what a healthy landscape looks like and how it functions is wrong, distorted by the fur trade that once trapped out millions of beavers from North America's lakes and rivers. The consequences of losing beavers were profound: streams eroded, wetlands dried up, and species from salmon to swans lost vital habitat.

Worth a dam: This Martinez, CA beaver advocacy group has an online library of beaver information and resources and hosts an annual beaver festival in Martinez, coming up on June 29, 2019. Because the beaver isn't just an animal; it's an ecosystem!

First-hand: Beavers in Santa Barbara County, by James Wapotich.

Article: The historical range of beaver in coastal California: an updated review of the evidence.

Article: Beavers Used to Be Almost Everywhere in California, by Alison Hawkes. In an interesting historical footnote, California brought back some beavers to stem erosion from 1923–1950, increasing the statewide population from a dwindling 1,300 in 1942 to 20,000 by 1950. The translocations happened in 58 counties, including Marin, Napa, Contra Costa, Alameda, San Mateo and Santa Cruz, and are thought to be responsible for the beavers that live here today. So it's not a crazy idea that beavers could be brought in again to help mitigate twenty-first century problems like climate change-induced droughts and water shortages.

Reverse Climate Change with Marine Permaculture: Strategies for Ocean Regeneration with Dr. Brian von Herzen

Event:	Evening Talk with Dr. Brian von Herzen
Date:	Friday, May 31, 2019, 6:30pm – 9pm
Price:	$5, students free
Location:	Fé Bland Forum/Business Communication Center, Santa Barbara City College (West Campus) 800 Block of Cliff Drive, Santa Barbara, CA

Event:	Morning Workshop
Date:	Saturday, June 1, 2019, 9:30am – 12:30pm
Price:	$20, students free Reserve and pay on Eventbrite
Location:	Antioch University, 602 Anacapa Street, Santa Barbara, CA

More Info:

margie@sbpermaculture.org, (805) 962-2571
Facebook event page

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Please join us and Dr. Brian von Herzen, Executive Director of the Climate Foundation, to discuss Marine Permaculture, one of the key strategies featured in the groundbreaking and bestselling book Drawdown: the Most Comprehensive Plan Ever Proposed to Reverse Global Warming.

With every breath we take, we can thank the ocean for the oxygen we breathe. Our oceans feed us and contribute to the world's economy in the trillions of dollars, and—when healthy—naturally sequester enormous amounts of carbon from the atmosphere. But with rapidly rising temperatures and increased pollution, ocean ecosystems have been mightily challenged. Vast aquatic deserts, devoid of life, have formed across the globe.

Dr. Brian von Herzen has been studying the decline of ocean ecosystems for more than a decade. Astonished by the rapidity of their decline, von Herzen wants to change this by restoring marine life with thousands of new kelp forests along the worlds coastlines, with what he calls Marine Permaculture.

Recognizing plankton and kelp forests are key to ocean ecosystem recovery and that they require cool nutrient-rich waters to thrive, unlike the blanket of warm surface waters caused by global warming, von Herzen along with his Climate Foundation team invented Marine Permaculture Arrays (MPAs). These are lightweight latticed structures, roughly a half a square mile in size and submerged 80 feet below sea level, to which kelp can attach. Attached buoys rise and fall with the waves, powering pumps that bring up colder, nutrient-rich waters from far below to the surface platforms. Kelp soak up the nutrients and grow. Once these kelp beds are established, other marine life returns, in time restoring an ecosystem that has benefits for people and the planet. Enhanced habitat for fish to thrive in and multiply, food security for growing populations, feedstocks for animals, kelp fertilizers for farm fertility, biofuels for energy, and of course, vastly increased sequestration of atmospheric carbon.

We seem to be facing more and more challenges with climate change. With reforestation of our oceans, Dr. von Herzen and the Climate Foundation feel we can solve global warming in our lifetime.

A community program hosted by Santa Barbara Permaculture Network. Part of the Santa Barbara Permaculture Network Civics 101 for Climate Change series.

Co-Sponsored by El Capitan Canyon, SBCC Environmental Horticulture, Antioch University, Blue Sky Biochar, Teeccino, Pharmersea, AMA Sea Beauty, Santa Barbara Aquaponics, and the Santa Barbara Independent.

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Dr. Brian von Herzen obtained degrees in physics, engineering and planetary science from Princeton and Caltech, respectively, where he was a Hertz Fellow. At Princeton, Brian worked closely with Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute (WHOI). His dissertation on global climate models validated orbital variation effects on climate. Von Herzen serves as Executive Director of the Climate Foundation and leads projects on land and sea with research groups in India, Africa, USA and the Pacific Ocean. Von Herzen serves as an advisor with the Drawdown Project. He also researched, developed and commercialized biochar reactors for improved sanitation in areas that have no way to effectively handle human waste, with additional benefits of biochar as a by-product used for increased soil fertility.

Video: How Marine Permaculture Works

Video: Marine Permaculture, in the Words of Brian von Herzen

The Climate Foundation is dedicated to educating and empowering people to halt global warming in our lifetime.

Project Drawdown: 100 Solutions to Reverse Climate Change

Interview: Drawdown Podcast Interview with Dr. Brian von Herzen

Pharmersea is an experimental 25-acre sea farm off the Ellwood pier in Goleta, the the brainchild of Dr. Michael Neushul. PharmerSea has recently launched its first consumer brand, AMA SeaBeauty, an organic "thalassotherapy" skincare line that utilizes farm-fresh seaweed extracts, developed to be part of the blue economy by offering ocean stewardship through responsibly developed consumer goods.

Restore Paradise! The Camp Fire Ecosystem Restoration Project: Redesigning for a Regenerative Future

Date:	Monday, April 22, 2019, 6pm – 8pm
Location:	South Coast Watershed Resource Center, 981 Cliff Drive, Santa Barbara, CA 93109
Price:	FREE
More Info:	Facebook event page margie@sbpermaculture.org, (805) 962-2571

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On November 8, 2018, the small town of Paradise, California was destroyed by the devastating Camp Fire, the largest wildfire in California's history—yes, more massive, but similar to what many other California communities have also experienced in recent years.

But with tragedy comes opportunity! Paradise would like to be a model for not only how the land and people can recover, but how to rebuild in balance with nature, and with resilience for the new climate realities of drought, fire, and flood that are facing all communities in California.

Join us for an evening in support of the Camp Fire Ecosystem Restoration Project, and the very first Ecosystem Restoration Camp to be located in the USA. Come learn from the community of Paradise's experiences, and the innovative ideas they have for a different way of responding to tragedy, including an upcoming Paradise Camp Fire Restoration Weekend event April 26-28. Many lessons from the Ecosystem Restoration Camp global movement will be incorporated and shared.

The free Santa Barbara evening event will include film, discussion, pizza & drinks. Matthew Trumm of Treetop Permaculture and coordinator for the Camp Fire Restoration Project, will be available via ZOOM to share and answer questions. Santa Barbara resident Art Ludwig of Oasis Designs will share film shorts on fire & earthquake resistant housing, debris flow protection, stormwater capture, and designs for sustainable & affordable housing that he is currently working on.

A community event hosted by the Santa Barbara Permaculture Network and Abundant Earth Foundation.

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Camp Fire Restoration Weekend, April 26–28, 2019: An opportunity to come together in Paradise, CA, for an educational experience in regenerative design, ecological restoration, community organizing and permaculture gardening. We'll gather as a community to learn by doing. Watch the promo film, or support the project by registering to attend or making a donation.

Ecosystem Restoration Camps: A grassroots non-profit organization engaging people to transform damaged landscapes into thriving, biodiverse ecosystems, founded in response to a groundswell of support from people worldwide who see the amazing potential of soil restoration.

Ecosystem Restoration Camps California Group

UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration: Announced on March 1, 2019, the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration offers unparalleled opportunity for job creation, food security and addressing climate change.

Santa Barbara Permaculture Network Eco Hero Award
Honoring John D. Liu

Date:	Sunday, March 17, 2019, 6:30 – 9pm
Location:	Lobero Theatre, 33 East Canon Perdido St, Santa Barbara, CA
Price:	$10 – $20; Friends of John D. Liu, $100 Tickets available online or at the Lobero box office
More Info:	Facebook event page margie@sbpermaculture.org, (805) 962-2571

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Together, we can help to restore Paradise on Earth — John D. Liu

Join us for our first annual Eco Hero Award, honoring John D. Liu, international journalist, award-winning documentary filmmaker, soil scientist, founder and ambassador for the global network of Ecosystem Restoration Camps.

John D. Liu considers Global Ecosystem Restoration the great work of our time. Vast areas of the Earth have been degraded and turned to desert by human activity over the millennia, causing drought, poverty, and releasing carbon into the atmosphere with bad soil practices. The U.N. currently estimates the Earth has almost 5 billion acres of deforested and degraded ecosystems, an area larger than the South American continent.

As a young Chinese-American, Liu's early career started as a cameraman and journalist covering major geopolitical events. In 1995 he got an assignment to film the Loess Plateau, one of the driest and poorest regions in China, where the Chinese government and the local people of the region transformed a massive degraded area the size of Belgium into a verdant and productive green oasis.

Stunned by what he saw and realizing that this ecosystem restoration model could be replicated around the world, Liu was inspired to become a soil scientist, and spent the next twenty years visiting more than eighty countries documenting similar large scale ecosystem restoration projects, eventually creating the award-winning What if We Change documentary and Hope in a Changing Climate film series. Broadcast on CBS, BBC, National Geographic and other outlets, these film series cover successful ecosystem restoration projects in Portugal, Jordan, China, Ethiopia, Sweden, Rwanda, Spain, Mongolia, Uganda, Australia and more.

With his work and films John D. Liu shows what is possible for the Earth with ecosystem restoration, delivering a message of hope and inspiration. But Liu also feels the human species is at a crossroads, to survive or not survive as a civilization. Former cradles of civilization have failed by depleting their ecosystems, but for the first time, there is the potential of losing the planet as a home by disrupting all its functioning systems.

Understanding how the ecological functions of our planet work is key to our survival, and Liu suggests healthy ecosystems are where all of our wealth actually comes from. Will we design economic and production systems from scarcity and ignorance, continually depleting and extracting, or from abundance, with new models that protect, enhance, and preserve ecosystems, working with nature to assist with what an evolving planet is always prepared to do, rehabilitate itself and flourish.

Bringing this restoration vision into the 21st century, Liu and others launched the Ecosystem Restoration Camp movement, where he currently serves as Ambassador for the global Ecosystem Restoration Camp network. The Ecosystem Restoration camps are for youth and all ages to come together and learn practical hands on skills and effective strategies for restoring soil and water cycles, reversing desertification, and ultimately mitigating climate change. Camp Altiplano, the first ecosystem restoration camp, located in a large emerging desert in Spain, celebrated its first anniversary last summer. Other camps are in the works, including a camp in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, and a developing site in Paradise, California, where devasting wildfires took place last Fall.

After the Eco Hero award is presented, Liu will share personal stories about his experiences over the decades, and update the audience about the developing Ecosystem Restoration camps and how others might get involved. A reception follows in the Lobero Courtyard, where all are welcome to meet and converse with Liu.

Santa Barbara Permaculture Network will also recognize individuals and groups doing regenerative and ecosystem restoration work in the Santa Barbara and Southern California area.

A community program hosted and sponsored by The Santa Barbara Permaculture Network.

Co-Sponsored by the Community Environmental Council (CEC), Blue Sky Biochar, Abundant Earth Foundation, Quail Springs Permaculture, and the Santa Barbara Independent.

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John D. Liu is the founder of the Environmental Education Media Project (EEMP); Senior Research Fellow with the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN); Visiting Fellow with the Critical Zone Hydrology Group, Faculty of Earth and Life Sciences at the Vrije University Amsterdam; Chairman of the Advisory Board for the Ecosystem Restoration Camps Foundation; and Ecosystem Ambassador for the Commonland Foundation.

Videos: What if We Change documentary and Hope in a Changing Climate film series on YouTube.

Interview: Interview with John D. Liu/Hope & Ecosystem Restoration Camps on YouTube.

Ecosystem Restoration Camps California Group

Earth Repair! Ecological Restoration & Bio-Remediation to Heal the Planet

Event:	Evening Talk with Leila Darwish, Tom Duncan, and a panel of community members, moderated by Paul Relis
Date:	Friday, February 22, 2019, 6:30pm – 9pm
Price:	$10 at the door; full-time students free (with current ID). No reservations required.
Location:	Antioch University, 602 Anacapa Street, Santa Barbara, CA

Event:	Morning Workshop with Leila Darwish, 9:30am – 12:30pm Bioremediation 101: Empowering Communities to Deal with the Legacy of Our Toxic World Afternoon Workshop with Tom Duncan, 1:30pm – 4:30pm Restoring Polluted Waterways with Floating Wetlands
Date:	Saturday, February 23, 2019
Price:	$30 each or $40 for both (plus ticket fees) Reserve and pay on Eventbrite
Location:	Antioch University, 602 Anacapa Street, Santa Barbara, CA

More Info:

margie@sbpermaculture.org, (805) 962-2571
Facebook event page

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Millions of acres of land have been contaminated by pesticides, improperly handled chemicals, dirty energy projects, toxic waste, and other pollutants in the United States and Canada.

Technology has provided humans with an unparalleled standard of living, but in the process has left a severely degraded and contaminated environment in need of recovery. With the health of our land, waterways, oceans, and human health at risk, how do we navigate out of these toxic times, both our past legacy, and what we will face in the future.

Join Santa Barbara Permaculture Network as we host Leila Darwish and Tom Duncan for a two day event as they share their international work and expertise with ecological restoration using bio-remediation, a process of detoxifying and restoring the land and water by working with plants, fungi and micro-organisms.

Evening Talk with Leila Darwish & Tom Duncan
Our keynote speakers will discuss their work with Bioremediation and Ecological Restoration in local communities and internationally to help solve the toxic legacy that impacts our environment. Followed by a community panel moderated by Paul Relis.

Morning Workshop with Leila Darwish, 9:30am – 12:30pm
Bioremediation 101: Empowering Communities to Deal with the Legacy of our Toxic World

From supporting communities recovering from environmental disasters such as oil spills, to transforming urban lots to grow healthy local and accessible food, how can we work with the power of living systems to bring healing and regeneration to the sometimes toxic and often damaged lands and waters that sustain us?

This workshop is an introduction to the wild and regenerative world of bioremediation, diving into both toxic realities and radical remedies. It will explore ways to work with the many micro-organisms, fungi, and plants that are some of the planets finest and oldest disaster responders, alchemists, and healers.

The workshop will cover the how to's for microbial remediation (bacteria), phytoremediation (plants) and mycoremediation (fungi). It will also share important self-care practices (both herbal supports and protective gear) for earth repair practitioners working and living in contaminated environments. Finally, we will brainstorm ways to use bioremediation rooted in earth care and solid community organizing to support frontline communities responding to natural and environmental disasters, from the aftermath of wildfires to oil spills.

Afternoon Workshop with Tom Duncan: 1:30pm – 4:30pm
Restoring Our Waterways with Floating Island & Wetlands Bioremediation Technologies:

What are manmade floating wetlands and islands used for? How are they constructed, and with what materials? Are they good for both small home and urban gardens, but also large scale farming? What developments are taking place around the world with floating island and wetlands technologies that might help Climate Change? Can we bio-mimic nature's wetlands to effectively clean up our environment?

Join Tom Duncan, founder of AquaBiofilter™ Floating Wetlands & Island technology, as he shares his years of experience and expertise designing wetlands systems large and small, for cleaning up toxicity, growing food, and providing enhanced wildlife habitat, both above and below the waterline.

We will explore case studies, technology, and share ideas on wetland project implementation in catchments. Also conversation about new ways for raising funds to restore the commons. This is an amazing opportunity to learn from one of the most experienced people in this field—please bring your questions!

A community program hosted by Santa Barbara Permaculture Network. Part of the Santa Barbara Permaculture Network Civics 101 for Climate Change series.

Co-Sponsored by Antioch University, Community Environmental Council (CEC), Blue Sky Biochar, and the Santa Barbara Independent.

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Leila Darwish is a community organizer, author, bioremediation educator, permaculture designer, and disaster recovery worker with a deep commitment to providing accessible and transformative tools for communities dealing with the toxic contamination of their lands and waters, and responding to natural and environmental disasters. Her original focus was on oil spills, as she came from the tar sands region in Alberta, Canada. Shocked by how ill-prepared both government and oil companies were for cleaning up oil spills, Leila was prompted to educate herself with a deep dive into the world of bioremediation. With a mission to empower citizens and communities to organize, scale up, and respond effectively to all kinds of industrial disasters where dangerous chemicals are released into the air, water and soil, she embarked on a career as a grassroots bioremediation educator and consultant. In 2013, Leila published her first book, Earth Repair: A Grassroots Guide to Healing Toxic and Damaged Landscapes. Her work is rooted in environmental and social justice, inspired by the power of community action and regenerative earth repair. She wants all citizens, especially those in the most vulnerable communities, to have the knowledge and skills needed to protect their families and homes from exposure to harmful toxins. She has taught numerous bioremediation and oil spill response courses in communities across North America. She has a Masters of Disaster Resilience Leadership from Tulane University in New Orleans. Her Earth Repair book will be available for purchase at all events. Learn more about Leila and her work.

Tom Duncan is an entrepreneur devoted to the health of the planet, who has been building aquaponics systems in small and large scale aquaculture systems across Australia and China for almost twenty years. Tom invented the AquaBiofilter™ Floating Wetlands & Floating Island technology to clean up polluted lakes, water bodies, rivers and estuaries. With all kinds of pollutants entering our waterways, including urban runoff, stormwater sediments, heavy metals from industry, and agricultural pesticides and fertilizers causing deadly algal bloom, these floating wetlands help restore ecological function by filtering and purifying with the use of microbes and plants. In 2004, Duncan and a team of scientists demonstrated that polluted lakes across Asia could be completely restored, while also preventing future toxic algal blooms. He proved in the field and through quantitative modeling that dedicating just 1% of farm and urban catchments to floating wetland ponds would eliminate toxic algae blooms in lakes, rivers and estuaries. Floating wetlands remove nutrients, suspended solids and pollutants, mopping up impurities and releasing clean water to rivers and oceans. In addition to cleaning the water, floating islands optimize habitat for wildlife, and provide additional areas for food production for growing populations. Tom served as Chairman of the Green Building Council of Australia for two years, developing the new Green Building Rating Tool. He is also the founder of Liquid Token, a fintech platform for impact assets and natural capital. He has experience across sectors including environmental technology and large scale restoration, investment and finance, technology and policy. Learn more about Tom's work & projects.

Paul Relis is cofounder of the Santa Barbara Community Environmental Council (CEC) and Senior Vice President of CR&R Environmental Services, leaders in Anaerobic Digestion (AD), converting organic waste to 100% Renewable Natural Gas.

11th Annual Santa Barbara Community Seed Swap

A celebration to bring seeds & people together

Date:	Sunday, January 27, 2019, 1:30pm – 4:30pm (rain or shine!)
Location:	Trinity Gardens at Trinity Lutheran Church, 909 North La Cumbre Road, Santa Barbara, CA
Price:	FREE
More Info:	margie@sbpermaculture.org, (805) 962-2571 Facebook group page (in English & Spanish)

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Event Description

Join us for the 11th Annual Santa Barbara Community Seed Swap at Trinity Gardens!. Hundreds attend this free event every year, sharing seeds and knowledge with other backyard gardeners, plant lovers, beekeepers, farmers and more. Come be a part of this seed-saving movement, making sure that locally adapted seeds & plants are passed on to future generations. Indoor & outdoor activities, special speakers, children activities, food & live music! Local groups will have plant and seed-related exhibits.

Speaker topics this year include: Seed Saving 101, the Maya Forest Garden, Bee City USA, Compost Tea & Biology of the Rhizosphere, Building Living Soils with Biochar, Sacred Seeds of the Peruvian Andes, Building Beneficial Insect Habitat, and more.

Seed saving is a fun and easy way to connect to the circle of life!

Bring seeds, plants, cuttings, and garden knowledge to swap.
Don't have these? Then come get seeds. Seeds to sow, seeds to grow, seeds to harvest. Seeds to save and share next year.
Activities for all ages.
Music that will have your toes tapping.
Special speakers throughout the day.
A gathering of garden friends old and new.

A community program hosted by Santa Barbara Permaculture Network & Trinity Gardens.

Co-Sponsored by Island Seed & Feed, Blue Sky Biochar, Healing Grounds Biodynamic Nursery, and Ojai Center for Regenerative Agriculture.

2019 Local Real Food Hero Award

Once again we will be honoring a Local Food Hero at the Seed Swap! This year the award goes to Nancy Weiss, Director of Food Services for the Santa Barbara Unified School District. Passionately devoted to the health of our community's children, Nancy has been instrumental in upgrading school cafeteria lunches from prepackaged, highly processed foods, to high quality, cooked from scratch meals, from locally sourced organic growers. Bringing healthy food to students wherever they are, Nancy incorporated Mobile Café food trucks to go where needed, especially near high school campuses. Helping students learn not only about eating healthy food, but also growing it, Nancy partnered with Explore Ecology to initiate the unique Farm to Toast program where wheat is being grown at school gardens. Nancy's vision for the future includes a soon to be realized dream, a farm owned by Santa Barbara County Schools. Nancy's motto is "Real Children deserve Real Food."

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2nd Annual Building Our Resilient Food System: Cultivating Connections

Date:	Tuesday, November 13, 2018, 6pm – 8pm
Location:	Downtown Central Library, Faulkner Gallery, 40 E. Anapamu St, Santa Barbara, CA
Price:	FREE
More Info:	Facebook event page margie@sbpermaculture.org, (805) 962-2571

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Help us continue to shape a sustainable food future for Santa Barbara County! Join us for the second annual free community listening and activation session for the Santa Barbara County Food Action Plan.

Last year, over 100 individuals representing businesses, schools, neighborhoods, and organizations of all types came out to share and connect with others engaged in making a secure food system for our county. Come find out next steps for implementation of the plan, inform others of your work, and learn about the progress of exciting projects in action, including how:

Activists in Cuyama and Lompoc are making sure thousands of residents have both access to healthy food and family-friendly classes on how to prepare it
Higher education institutions like UCSB, Allan Hancock College and Santa Barbara City College are addressing student hunger
Local community members are seeing health benefits for the whole family through prescriptions for fruits and vegetables
A local network is flourishing that prevents tons of restaurant-quality food from going to landfill and instead feeds the hungry
Ranchers and farmers are seeing measurable results from regenerative agriculture practices that increase their bottom line while drawing down carbon from the air
Organizations are working to establish a more robust and visible Food Action Plan network

Attendees–including individuals, businesses, schools, and organizations of all types, will once again be encouraged to inform the process by sharing about their own regional work to create a more secure, sustainable food system. A networking session will provide time to seek out new partnerships and opportunities to support each other.

The event is organized by the Community Environmental Council, the Foodbank of Santa Barbara County, and the Santa Barbara Foundation. Co-sponsors are Santa Barbara Food Alliance and the Santa Barbara Permaculture Network.

The Santa Barbara County Food Action Plan is a community-driven strategic plan that assesses and provides recommendations for how we grow, distribute, consume, and dispose of food. The Foodbank of Santa Barbara County and the Community Environmental Council spearheaded the project, with major support from the Santa Barbara Foundation. Community gatherings are an essential component of the Food Action Plan, which is designed to create a more resilient food system that supports a healthy economy, healthy people, and a healthy environment.

What If…We Change Film Series & Talk

Date:	Sunday, August 19, 4 – 6:30pm
Location:	South Coast Watershed Resource Center, Arroyo Burro (Hendry's) County Beach Park, 2981 Cliff Drive, Santa Barbara, CA 93109
Price:	FREE
More Info:	Facebook event page margie@sbpermaculture.org, (805) 962-2571

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What if…We change. Let's Fix this Earth!

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Together, we can help to restore Paradise on Earth — John D. Liu

Join Santa Barbara Permaculture Network for an award-winning documentary film series featuring John D. Liu highlighting ecosystem restoration projects around the world.

It all started in 1995 when John D. Liu, an award-winning journalist and cameraman working for CBS News, got an assignment to film the Loess Plateau in China, one of the poorest regions in the country. He observed how the local Chinese people had transformed a massive degraded area the size of Belgium, damaged from centuries of agriculture and grazing, into a verdant and productive green oasis.

Liu was stunned by what he saw and, and with the realization this ecosystem restoration model could be replicated all over the world, was inspired to become a soil scientist.

Of course there was a message to be shared, so as a talented storyteller and filmmaker, Liu spent the next 30 years documenting large scale ecosystem restoration projects around the globe, eventually creating the award-winning What if…We Change documentary series. The series covers restoration projects in Portugal, China, Ethiopia, Sweden, Rwanda, Spain, Mongolia, Uganda, Australia and more.

Because Liu considers Global Ecosystem Restoration the great work of our time, he launched Ecosystem Restoration Camps, a grassroots NGO that engages people of all ages to come and live for an extended time and help transform damaged landscapes into thriving, biodiverse ecosystems. The first camp was located in the Spanish Altiplano region, where one of the largest dryland deserts is rapidly emerging, threatening the environmental health of Europe.

In an era when the world and our own Santa Barbara community is facing daunting environmental challenges, with droughts, fires, floods, and an increasingly erratic climate—we know innovative solutions are needed. Santa Barbara Permaculture Network is excited to have John D. Liu join us online LIVE via ZOOM platform at the event where we can explore some of the similarities of his work and Permaculture. Please bring your ideas and questions for John, so together, with all our hearts and minds, we can help fix this earth!

John D. Liu is a soil scientist and an American filmmaker who has lived in China for over 30 years. His early career with CBS News as a producer and cameraman had him covering major geopolitical events of the time, but after an assignment covering the Loess Plateau Watershed Rehabilitation Project, he became an ecological filmmaker, founding the Environmental Education Media Project. In addition to the What if We Change documentary, Liu's other films include Hope in a Changing Climate; Rwanda, Forests of Hope; and Green Gold. He also wrote and produced Jane Goodall: China Diary for National Geographic. Liu is Senior Research Fellow with the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), and Visiting Fellow with the Critical Zone Hydrology Group; Faculty of Earth and Life Sciences at the Vrije University Amsterdam. Liu is Chairman of the Advisory Board for the Ecosystem Camps Foundation, and currently serves as Ecosystem Ambassador for the Commonland Foundation.

No reservation are required. Bring a brown bag lunch or favorite potluck dish for an informal outdoor picnic and time for conversation following the event. Children welcome!

Sponsored by Santa Barbara Permaculture Network.

Learn more

Ecosystem Restoration Camps: a grassroots non-profit organization that is engaging people to transform damaged landscapes into thriving, biodiverse ecosystems, founded in response to a groundswell of support from people worldwide who see the amazing potential of soil restoration.

Interview: Interview with John D. Liu/Hope & Ecosystem Restoration Camps on YouTube.

International Permaculture Day

Date:	Sunday, May 6, 2018, 2 – 5pm
Location:	South Coast Watershed Resource Center, Arroyo Burro (Hendry's) County Beach Park, 2981 Cliff Drive, Santa Barbara, CA 93109
Price:	FREE
More Info:	margie@sbpermaculture.org, (805) 962-2571 Facebook event page

Event Description

Please join us for the 2018 International Permaculture Day in Santa Barbara. We will celebrate by sharing our recent experiences at the International Permaculture Conference & Convergence (IPC) in India, what could be more appropriate?

Some of the highlights:

Over 1000 participants from more than 60 countries attended. Once again participants had a chance to experience another culture in a way that seldom happens with ordinary tourist travel. We will give a short talk, show an IPC India video, with time for questions, then go outdoors to picnic on the park lawn with Indian food appetizers.
Our hosts for IPC India, Padma & Narsanna Koppula of Aranya Agricultural Alternatives, did a magnificent job bringing attendees & speakers from all parts of India, including women farmers, who were kind of rock stars at the event! Women as Agents of Change was a subtheme for IPC India, accomplished with the women farmers who attended in large numbers, and it highlighted the dedication of Aranya Agriculture Alternative, this work, their mission for over 20 years. And IPC India heroes, a team of extraordinary volunteers who came from around the world to help with IPC India, some staying for an entire year.
Learn about the grassroots permaculture global community crowdfund that raised $10,000 for attendees who wouldn't have been able to come otherwise, organized by the Friends of the International Permaculture Convergences (FIPC), of which we are members.

This IPC event had special meaning, as it was the 30th anniversary of Permaculture coming to India with Bill Mollison, and team teaching the first PDC with Robyn Francis in 1987.

We will also talk briefly about the next IPC in Argentina in 2020, at a gorgeous site near Iguazu Falls National Park, a UNESCO Heritage site. (Time to start practicing your Spanish now!)

This will be both an indoor & outdoor event at the South Coast Watershed Center at the Arroyo Burro (Hendry's) County Park. No reservation needed. Bring a brown bag lunch or favorite Indian potluck dish/appetizers for an informal picnic outdoors. Children welcome!

Evolution of Organic: Santa Barbara Film Premiere

with filmmaker Mark Kitchell

Date:	Thursday, March 8, 2018, 7pm – 9pm
Location:	Marjorie Luke Theatre, 721 E. Cota St, Santa Barbara, CA
Price:	$10: Regular admission $20: Friends of Film & Farm Community ticket. Helps support free guest passes for community farmers. Includes reserved seating front of auditorium.
Tickets:	Available at the door; or buy online (with additional fees)
More Info:	margie@sbpermaculture.org, (805) 962-2571 Facebook group page

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Among all the films on food and farming, Evolution of Organic is the first to tell the story of the organic movement. How it started, who the people were who bravely initiated it, and how it literally changed the way we eat food.

In this funny and engaging film you will learn about the organic agriculture movement, past, present, and future. Not just a history, Evolution of Organic explores an exciting future, and the next generation of growers who are broadening the definition of organic, with things like no-till farming, urban farming, and considering carbon farming as a solution to climate change. Come share the fascinating journey and all the personalities who made it happen…

Mark Kitchell is an acclaimed filmmaker interested in the social movements of our time that shift culture. It was no accident that California, home of the world's most industrialized agriculture, also gave rise to its opposite—organic agriculture. The '60s counter-culture headed back to the land, determined to grow safe and healthy food. Few had any farming experience; but they experiment and learn and in time become good farmers.

In addition to Evolution of Organic, Kitchell's earlier films include the iconic Berkeley in the Sixties, which was nominated for an Academy Award; and Fierce Green Fire, an exploration of environmental activism from conservation to present day climate change issues. Kitchell will be in attendance for questions and discussion at the event.

Invited as guests to be honored at the film premiere will be organic growers and farmers from the Santa Barbara region, many who were instrumental in launching the organic movement. After the film will be time for discussion about the future of organics, who the emerging farmers are in our area, and what assistance is needed for their success. We will also take a moment of gratitude for all our local farmers who kept growing and going on our behalf during the fire & flood events in recent weeks.

A community program hosted by Santa Barbara Permaculture Network & Marjorie Luke Theatre.

Co-Sponsored by Community Environmental Council (CEC), Santa Barbara Independent, Island Seed & Feed, Ah Juice Organics, 350 Santa Barbara, & Teeccino.

10th Annual Santa Barbara Community Seed Swap

A celebration to bring seeds & people together

Date:	Sunday, January 28, 2018, 1:30pm – 4:30pm (rain or shine!)
NEW Location:	Trinity Gardens at Trinity Lutheran Church, 909 North La Cumbre Road, Santa Barbara, CA
Price:	FREE
More Info:	margie@sbpermaculture.org, (805) 962-2571 Facebook group page (in English & Spanish)

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Join us for the 10th Annual Santa Barbara Community Seed Swap at a brand new location! This year at the beautiful Trinity Gardens, with both indoor and outdoor space, for lots of seed sharing activities, children welcome.

Hundreds attend every year, sharing seeds and knowledge with other backyard gardeners, plant lovers, beekeepers and farmers. Come be a part of this seed-saving movement, making sure that locally adapted seed & plants are passed on to future generations. Special speakers, children activities & live music!

Local groups will have plant and seed related exhibits. Many sharing valuable seed saving techniques that encourage local gardeners to grow out and harvest some of their best seeds for future gardens and seed swaps, making us a truly food secure community. Seed-saving is a fun and easy way to connect to the circle of life.

Bring seeds, plants, cuttings, and garden knowledge to swap.
Don't have these? Then come get seeds. Seeds to sow, seeds to grow, seeds to harvest. Seeds to save and share next year.
Activities for all ages.
Music that will have your toes tapping.
Special speakers throughout the day.
A gathering of garden friends old and new.

A community program hosted by Santa Barbara Permaculture Network & Trinity Gardens.

Co-Sponsored by Island Seed & Feed, Botanical Interests, Santa Barbara Seed Savers Guild, Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds, Renee's Garden Seeds, and Healing Grounds Biodynamic Nursery.

2018 Local Real Food Hero Award

Once again we will be honoring a Local Food & Plant Hero at the Seed Swap. This year the award goes to Jerry Sortomme, former Chair of the Santa Barbara City College (SBCC) Environmental Horticulture Department, whose love affair with plants has affected all who have met him, inspiring students of all ages for many decades. His SBCC students, dubbed "Jerry's kids," went on to careers in environmental science, horticulture, edible landscapes, sustainable design and other green professions. Have you been to the SBCC Lifescape garden? The La Huerta Historic Garden at the Old Mission? Yup, those and more were inspired and launched by Jerry Sortomme. Please join us in honoring this local food hero.

Learn more on our Facebook group page.

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Live Well & Spark a Climate Revolution: Booksigning & Talk

Date:	Sunday, November 12, 6:30 – 8:30pm
Location:	Bici Centro courtyard, 434 Olive St, Santa Barbara, CA
Price:	FREE
More Info:	Facebook event page margie@sbpermaculture.org, (805) 962-2571

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Live Well & Spark a Climate Revolution

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These two disparate things—reducing my own fossil fuel use and increasing my ability to love—are actually intimately connected. There is no separation between me and the rest of the life on this planet.
— Peter Kalmus

Join Santa Barbara Permaculture Network as we host Peter Kalmus, author of the newly published book Be the Change; Live Well & Spark a Climate Revolution. Special guest Paul Relis, co-founder of the Community Environmental Council (CEC) after the devastating oil spill in the Santa Barbara Channel in 1969, will introduce Peter, linking two generations of committed and passionate citizen activists.

Alarmed by drastic changes now occurring in the Earth's climate systems, Kalmus, a climate scientist and suburban father of two, embarked on a journey to change his life and the world. He began bicycling, growing his own food, meditating, and making other simple, fulfilling changes. Ultimately, he slashed his climate impact to under a tenth of the US average, and became happier in the process.

Being the Change explores the connections between our individual daily actions and our collective predicament. It merges science, spirituality, and practical action to develop a satisfying and appropriate response to global warming. The core message to his book is deeply optimistic: living without fossil fuels is not only possible, it can be BETTER.

Peter Kalmus is an atmospheric scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory with a Ph.D. in physics from Columbia University, and a BA in Physics from Harvard, maintaining clearly in his book and talks, he is speaking on his own behalf, not representing any of the scientific agencies he works for, or institutions where he studied. Kalmus is a contributing editor and columnist for YES! Magazine.

Please come early to explore the community bike center. Books will be available to purchase, author donating profits.

Sponsored by Santa Barbara Permaculture Network, the Santa Barbara Bicycle Coalition (Bici Centro), Community Environmental Council (CEC), & Oasis Design

Part of the Santa Barbara Permaculture Network CIVICS 101 FOR CLIMATE CHANGE, A Community Education Series.

Learn more

Blog: Peter Kalmus's Life with a Tenth the Fossil Fuel

Book: Being the Change: Live Well & Spark a Climate Revolution, published by New Society Publishers.

Website: Paul Relis, author of Out of the Wasteland: Stories from the Environmental Frontier.

Article: To My Fellow Climate Scientists: Be Human, Be Brave, Speak Truth. By Peter Kalmus in YES Magazine.

Profile: Peter Kalmus: a scientist pioneers a low carbon Lifestyle in Altadena CA in City Atlas New York.

Article: How one American family has moved away from fossil fuels. "Being the Change" is proof that weaning oneself off fossil fuels is not only possible, but also joyful and fun for a young suburban family.

Article: Who Owns the Future of California's Energy? Its Residents. How California Could Get to 100 Percent Renewable Energy. By Peter Kalmus in YES Magazine.

Interview: Climate Change and Be-cycling with Peter Kalmus on RootSimple.com.

Building Our Resilient Food System: Cultivating Connections

Date:	Wednesday, October 25, 2017, 6pm – 8pm
Location:	Downtown Central Library, Faulkner Gallery, 40 E. Anapamu St, Santa Barbara, CA
Price:	FREE
More Info:	Facebook event page margie@sbpermaculture.org, (805) 962-2571

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Building Our Resilient Food System: Cultivating Connections

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Building Our Resilient Food System: Cultivating Connections is a free community listening and activation session that will explore the vision, progress and next steps planned for the Santa Barbara County Food Action Plan. We invite you to share what your neighborhood, business, or organization is doing, and connect with others engaged in making a secure food system for our county.

Community members will hear about the goals of the plan and learn about successes from the organizations and individuals actively pursuing these goals. Attendees, including individuals, businesses, schools, and organizations of all types, will also be encouraged to inform the process by sharing about their own regional work to create a more secure, sustainable food system. A networking session will provide time to seek out new partnerships and opportunities to support each other.

Sponsored by Community Environmental Council (CEC), Santa Barbara Foundation, Food Bank of Santa Barbara County, Santa Barbara Food Alliance, and the Santa Barbara Permaculture Network

Learn more

Download the SBC Food Action Plan (PDF).

The SANTA BARBARA COUNTY FOOD ACTION PLAN is a strategy-based community "blueprint" for an accessible, thriving, sustainable, and healthy food system. It addresses every aspect of the food system in a way that supports healthy people, a healthy economy, and a healthy environment.

What is a Food Action Plan? A food action plan is a community-driven strategic plan that assesses how we grow, distribute, consume, and dispose of food. While each community tailors the plan to their specific needs, most share two common elements: they capture the aspirations of the community around food and farming, and they identify concrete things that can be done to improve the policies, programs, and individual actions that shape how food moves from farm to plate.

What is a Food System? The food system encompasses how food moves from farms to tables. It includes farmers and the farmland on which food is grown, manufacturers and processors, distributors—from truckers to grocery stores to food banks—and all residents as consumers. It also incorporates the inputs needed and outputs generated at each step, including food waste. There are no defined geographical boundaries of our food system, but for the purposes of this plan, we localize the system to be Santa Barbara County.

5 Steps to an Abundant Future with Matt Powers

Date:	Saturday, August 12, 2017, 10am – Noon
Location:	South Coast Watershed Resource Center, Arroyo Burro Beach Park (Hendry's Beach) 2981 Cliff Drive, Santa Barbara, CA
Price:	FREE
More Info:	Facebook event page margie@sbpermaculture.org, (805) 962-2571

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I've focused my energies on translating the information I've found into forms that everyone, especially children, youth, and families, can learn, understand, and use permaculture in their daily lives.
— Matt Powers

Join us on Saturday, August 12, as we host a morning talk with ecological designer, educator, and author Matt Powers, as he shares his 5 Steps to An Abundant Future that he suggests are needed to guarantee an abundant future for humans and the planet.

Seeing Permaculture as a powerful tool, Powers wants Permaculture to become a household word, that ultimately finds its way into households and communities everywhere.

A design science that uses the patterns and systems of nature to provide sustainably and regeneratively for both humans and the environment, Permaculture solves all the insurmountable problems of our modern world. Loss of topsoil, deforestation, and pollution, can all be addressed and reversed and regeneration can be achieved, as documented in a multitude of Permaculture projects around the world.

The 5 Steps to an Abundant Future are:

Building Healthy Soils
Growing Forests
Restoring the Oceans & All Waters
Regenerating Biodiversity
Rewilding Human Culture

The good news is that with these 5 steps, we can begin to reverse climate change, sequester excess carbon, clean up gnarly pollution in the air, water and soil, and bring back nature—all with the whole systems thinking of Permaculture.

According to Matt, Permaculture is, in the simplest of terms, a way of seeing the world through nature's eye, a lens through which to view the world based on three ethics Earth Care, People Care, and Care of the Future. This requires constant observation and adaptation as nature is constantly changing. Permaculture is action-oriented: it provides a framework for ecological and sustainable problem solving and design. It can be applied to anything because everything is sourced in nature, its patterns and its cycles. The way cites are designed, food is grown, homes are heated and communities interact can all be redesigned using permaculture lens to be sustainable, ethical and regenerative.

Matt will also be sharing his recently published book The Permaculture Student 2 for students, teachers, families, and learners, which is designed as a year-long curriculum filled with projects, activities, and formulas combined into one easy-to-understand volume. With up-to-date information, the book provides a holistic and comprehensive exploration of the philosophy of permaculture.

Matt Powers is an educator and high school teacher with a master's degree in education. A true Renaissance man, he is also a professional musician and song writer, a plant breeder, seed saver, and gardener. He is the resident horticultural and gardening expert at the Baker Creek Heirloom Seed Company. He has collaborated with leading global experts on soil, mycology, ecology, permaculture design, landscape restoration, regenerative farming, and alternative energy. With his books The Permaculture Student 1 and The Permaculture Student 2, he created a curriculum for K-12 and college students all over the world, with translations available in Spanish, Polish, and Arabic with French and Italian coming soon.

Powers' own interest in Permaculture was inspired by a desire to live a better, healthier life for himself and his family, as a result of his wife's third bout with cancer. As he and his family began studying food, healthy living, and organic gardening, in this search, they ultimately discovered the positive, solutions-oriented philosophy of Permaculture.

No reservations required.

Brown bag with us! Stay around to picnic in the park following the talk. Lemonade, chips & dips provided, bring your own brown bag lunch. Children welcome.

Sponsored by Santa Barbara Permaculture Network.

Co-Sponsored by Explore Ecology, Pharmersea & AMA SeaBeauty.

More by Matt Powers

Book: The Permaculture Student 2: A Collection of Regenerative Solutions, by Matt Powers.

Article: The Permaculture Student 2: A Guidebook For The Future.

Online courses: The Permaculture Student Online and Permaculture Gardening with Matt Powers.

Podcasts: Permaculture Tonight, available on iTunes & SoundCloud.

Matt's books will be available for purchase at the event.

Tomorrow: A Permaculture Inspired film, Santa Barbara Premier

Date:	Wednesday, July 26, 2017, 7pm
Location:	Marjorie Luke Theatre, Santa Barbara, CA
Price:	$10 general; $7 seniors & students (with current ID)
Tickets:	Available at the door; or buy online (with additional fees)
More Info:	Website & Trailer margie@sbpermaculture.org, (805) 962-2571

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"Without question, TOMORROW is absolutely the best and most creative film on the future of humanity and the environment".
— Paul Hawken, author of the recently published bestseller, Project Drawdown

The Santa Barbara premier of a film directed & produced by Cyril Dion & Mélanie Laurent. Tomorrow won the Cesar award for best documentary, has been viewed by over a million people in France. The film has been released in over 30 countries, including the U.S. in April 2017.

In 2012, French writer and activist Cyril Dion learned about a study carried out by twenty-two scientists from around the world that forecasts the extinction of multiple forms of life, and possibly a large part of humanity, by the year 2100. This news barely received any media coverage at all. Convinced that spreading catastrophic news is not effective, Dion decided to explore, along with actress and director Mélanie Laurent and a small film crew, what our world could look like if we brought together some of the best solutions to date in agriculture, energy, economics, education, and democracy. What they found was amazing, and inspired a film…

Why this film?

TODAY, we sometimes feel powerless in front of the various crises of our times.

TODAY, we know that answers lie in a wide mobilization of the human race. Over the course of a century, our dream of progress commonly called "the American Dream", fundamentally changed the way we live and continues to inspire many developing countries. We are now aware of the setbacks and limits of such development policies. We urgently need to focus our efforts on changing our dreams before something irreversible happens to our planet.

TODAY, we need a new direction, objective… A new dream! The documentary Tomorrow sets out to showcase alternative and creative ways of viewing agriculture, economics, energy and education. It offers constructive solutions to act on a local level to make a difference on a global level. So far, no other documentary has gone down such an optimistic road…

TOMORROW is not just a film, it is the beginning of a movement seeking to encourage local communities around the world to change the way they live for the sake of our planet. Start small to grow big, and write a new story for the generations to come.

Sponsored by Marjorie Luke Theater, Community Environmental Council (CEC), Santa Barbara Sierra Club & Santa Barbara Permaculture Network

Learn more

New York Times Critic's Pick: Worried About a Sustainable Tomorrow? There's Hope. Nicole Herrington, April 19, 2017

Tomorrow: Tomorrow All Over the Globe, Solutions Already Exist. The companion book to the film, by Cyril Dion.

IPC India Crowdfund Campaign Launch Event
with Charlie Mgee of the Formidable Vegetable Sound System

Date:	Sunday, May 28, 2017, 5 – 10pm
Location:	Private Ranch on the Southern California Coast, north of Goleta
Tickets:	EventBrite
Price:	$20 Early Bird Tickets on sale through May 26th $30 Regular; $50 Super Supporter
Plus:	COMMUNTY LEARNING OPPORTUNITY: Precedes Concert, 1 – 4:30pm, free with concert tickets

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Have you ever been to an International Permaculture Convergence (IPC)?

They are epic, drawing the best & brightest permaculturists from around the world to help put together visionary solutions for a better world. For more than 40 years Permaculture has been leading the way with innovative, planet and climate friendly design strategies, that are just now being fully recognized by the rest of the world as the answer to some of our most pressing problems. Held every two years in different parts of the globe, the next IPC takes place in Hyderabad India, November 2017, hosted by Aranya Agricultural Alternatives.

The Friends of the International Permaculture Convergences (FIPC) and Santa Barbara Permaculture Network are hosting a CROWDFUND campaign launch event in support of the IPC India scholarship fund on Sunday, May 28, with electro-funk, ecological electro-swing ukulele, super enthusiastic Charlie Mgee of the Formidable Vegetable Sound System band.

Visiting from Australia, Charlie is currently on tour promoting his new CD. He has been to every corner of the globe, recognizing music as one of the best tools for bringing about cultural change, and has dedicated his musical mission to composing swingin' tunes on ukulele about Permaculture, sustainability and other ecological themes. In 2015, Charlie played for the opening night of the most recent International Permaculture Convergence (IPC UK) in London, England (see video below).

Please join us for an evening of celebration, as we celebrate 20 years of Permaculture in our Southern California region, and India a 30 year Anniversary since Bill Mollison arrived to share the word of Permaculture on that continent! In addition to an evening of music, we will share information about IPC India and the exemplary work of the host organization, Aranya Agricultural Alternatives, and what others have been doing in India all through the years.

All event ticket admissions go towards the crowdfund campaign, which is specifically for scholarships for IPC delegates from around the world, who may be skill rich, but many times coming from countries and regions that are cash poor. Forty-two delegates have applied so far. Please support generously with your dollars, the life & civilization they save may be your own!

Beverages & appetizers will be offered, and a Food Cart with Indian themed food for purchase will also be available (please indicate when registering if interested in purchasing).

Charlie's new CD will be available for sale, and the newest edition of the Permaculture Magazine North America, just off the press, will be available for a special event price.

The event is invitation only, with directions provided after payment & registration. Parking is limited, please carpool!

If you aren't able to attend, may still contribute to the FIPC scholarship crowdfund campaign for delegates wanting to attend IPC India. FIPC is a USA-based, fiscally sponsored nonprofit of Inquiring Systems Inc. All donations are tax deductible.

More Fun: COMMUNTY LEARNING OPPORTUNITY: Precedes Concert 1 – 4:30pm.

For those interested in coming earlier for more time outdoors, there will be a Hands-on Experiential Learning opportunity prior to the evening music, on a ranch that has been practicing & demonstrating regenerative and carbon farming practices for over 10 years. Bring gloves, hat, wear closed toe shoes, if you'd like to participate in some projects while learning a thing or two from the best (you must have concert ticket to participate).

Learn more

IPC13 India and Aranya Agricultural Alternatives:

The story of permaculture in India, and the campaign to support both local Indian farmers (400!) by Aranya, and International delegates to attend with support of FIPC.

IPC India

Have a Listen: Infectious Charlie Mgee & Formidable Vegetable Sound System samples:

IPC UK: opening party for the International Permaculture Conference in London

Formidable Vegetable Sound System: Patterns

Trees Eat Us All: A Tribute to Bill Mollison (1928-2016) from Charlie Mgee Formidable Vegetable Sound System

The Carbon Farming Solution

A live interactive webinar with Eric Toensmeier and a panel of key community members

Date:	Sunday, April 30, 2017, 6 – 8:30pm
Location:	Fé Bland Forum/Business Communication Center, Santa Barbara City College (West Campus) 800 Block of Cliff Drive, Santa Barbara, CA
Price:	$5; students free (with current ID)
More Info:	margie@sbpermaculture.org, (805) 962-2571 Facebook event page

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If every farmer in the USA practiced Carbon Farming, in less than 10 years, we would sequester ALL the CARBON that has been emitted since the Industrial Age.
— Joel Salatin, POLYFACE Farm

As the climate crisis heats up, agriculture is in the hot seat, not only as a contributor to climate change, but also as a potential solution. Eric Toensmeier has spent the last several years tracking both, and put much of what he learned in his seminal book, The Carbon Farming Solution: A Global Toolkit of Perennial Crops and Regenerative Agriculture Practices for Climate Change Mitigation and Food Security.

Join us for a unique live interactive webinar on the SBCC Campus as Toensmeier discusses the potential of Carbon Farming, one of the best and most doable solutions for the Climate crisis, with an audience of students, faculty and the general public.

Carbon is a naturally occurring chemical compound vital to life that provides soil its fertility and water-holding capacity, but since the industrial revolution and the advent of modern farming practices, too much carbon has been released into the atmosphere causing climate disruption.

According to Toensmeier, Carbon Farming is a suite of practices that sequester excess atmospheric carbon while producing food and other necessary goods, often with increased yields and ecosystem benefits. The event will explore the global context, but also focus on practices suited to California, including annual cropping, tree intercropping, grazing, silvopasture, perennial crops, and rainwater harvesting. Collectively, Carbon Farming practices are a critical component of climate change mitigation, an effort that requires a speedy transformation of virtually every sector of our civilization.

Eric Toensmeier is a lecturer at Yale University, a senior fellow with Project Drawdown, and the author of several books on Permaculture.

Toensmeier will be joined by a panel of Santa Barbara community members, who with a diverse audience of faculty, students and general public, will pose questions specific to our region. Hunter Francis, Director of the Cal Poly San Luis Obispo Center for Sustainability, will be the panel moderator.

No reservations required. Parking is free on the West Campus on Sundays.

Sponsored by Santa Barbara Permaculture Network and the SBCC Environmental Horticulture Dept.

Co-Sponsored by the Community Environmental Council, CAFES Center for Sustainability Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara Food Alliance, Quail Springs Permaculture & Orella Ranch

Learn more

The Carbon Farming Solution: A Global Toolkit of Perennial Crops and Regenerative Agriculture Practices for Climate Change Mitigation and Food Security. By Eric Toensmeier, foreword by Dr. Hans Herren.

Permaculture & Climate Change Adaptation: Inspiring Ecological, Social, Economic and Cultural Responses for Resilience and Transformation. By Dr. Thomas Henfrey and Dr. Gil Penha-Lopes.

California's Grand Plan to Fight Climate Change on the Farm: California lawmakers move toward paying farmers to adopt climate-smart practices.

Restoring Global Soil Quality Is One Of The Best Things We Can Do For Climate Change: Little known climate change fact: Just the first meter of soil contains as much carbon as the entire atmosphere. And there's potential to soak up much more.

Resilient Agriculture: Cultivating Food Systems for a Changing Climate: By Laura Lengnick.

COP21 Insights from the Paris Climate Conference with Albert Bates: Permaculture Realized Podcast Episode 16 (radio interview).

Polyfaces film: Documentary showcasing the work of Joel Salatin and the renowned Polyface Farm in Virginia.

Santa Barbara Food Action Plan: A food action plan is a community-driven strategic plan that assesses how we grow, distribute, consume, and dispose of food. While each community tailors the plan to their specific needs, most share two common elements: they capture the aspirations of the community around food and farming, and they identify concrete things that can be done to improve the policies, programs, and individual actions that shape how food moves from farm to plate.

CalCAN: The California Climate and Agriculture Network (CalCAN) is a statewide coalition that advances state and federal policy to realize the powerful climate solutions offered by sustainable and organic agriculture.

4 per 1000 Initiative: The aim of the Initiative is to demonstrate that agriculture, and agricultural soils in particular, can play a crucial role where food security and climate change are concerned. Based on robust scientific evidence, the Initiative therefore invites all partners to declare or to implement practical programs for carbon sequestration in soil and the types of farming methods used to promote it (e.g. agroecology, agroforestry, conservation agriculture, landscape management).

A Central Coast Bioneers Film Showcase

Featuring film clips from the 2016 National Bioneers Conference, with a focus on Ocean & Climate

Date:	Sunday, April 9, 2017, 5 – 7pm
Location:	Fe Bland Auditorium/BC Forum, Santa Barbara City College (West Campus) 800 Block of Cliff Drive, Santa Barbara, CA
Price:	$5; students free (with current ID)
More Info:	margie@sbpermaculture.org, (805) 962-2571 Facebook event page

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Have you ever been to a Bioneers Conference? They are epic! For 27 years the place to be to learn about cutting edge ideas shared by Bioneers, the innovators and visionaries of our time, who look deep into the heart of nature for solutions to a better future. Held annually in San Raphael, CA, we are happy to bring a taste of the Bioneers experience home to our own communities.

As California has one of the longest coastlines in the world, the backyard for all our Central Coast communities, we focus on Ocean and Climate, and the exciting idea of a Blue Green economy, that while providing food close to home and creating sustainable livelihoods, also helps restore the health of our oceans and mitigates climate change.

Short Films:

Louis Masai, eco-artist, whose exquisite murals, set against the backdrop of city life, explores the eminent loss of the world's coral reefs.
Bill McKibben, founder of 350.org grassroots climate campaign, shares Climate update; where we are politically & scientifically, and the groundswell of global citizen engagement.
Janine Beynus, founder of the Biomimicry Institute; shares visionary nature-inspired innovations & 2017 Biomimicry awards.
Xiuhtezcatl Martinez, founder of Earth Guardians, indigenous youth, environmental activist, rapper, involved with landmark U.S. Federal Climate Lawsuit.

Feature Film:

The Least Deadly Catch: Ocean Farming in the Climate Change Era, with Bren Smith

With introductions by John Roulac of Nutiva & Daniel Marquez of Pharmersea, and updates from Community Environmental Council (CEC) about the SB County Food Action Plan.

Bren Smith, founder of GreenWave & winner of the 2015 Buckminster Fuller Challenge award, became a commercial fisherman at age 14, but witnessed the destruction of the ocean firsthand. In a quest for a better way, he pioneered a revolutionary new model of harvesting bounty from the seas. He describes his innovative, practical design and future vision for "restorative 3-D ocean farming". It restores ecosystems, mitigates climate change, creates jobs in a blue-green economy, and ensures healthy, secure local food for communities.

Followed by a conversation with Daniel & Antoinette Marquez about their local model of the Blue Green Economy, Pharmersea, a 25 acre sea farm off the Ellwood Pier, in Goleta, CA, that provides sustainably harvested ingredients for AMA SeaBeauty skin products.

No reservations required. Enjoy special exhibitors prior to the event. Parking is free on the West Campus on Sundays.

Sponsored by Central Coast Bioneers, Santa Barbara Permaculture Network, Ecologistics, and the SBCC Environmental Horticulture Dept.

Co-Sponsored by the SB Independent, Nutiva, Community Environmental Council, Pharmersea, AMA Sea Beauty, Teeccino, Blue Sky Biochar, and the Santa Barbara Food Alliance

Learn more

Central Coast Bioneers: A local, self-organized Bioneers Resilient Communities Network group.

Bioneers: Bioneers founder Kenny Ausubel coined the term Bioneers in 1990 to describe an emerging culture. Bioneers are social and scientific innovators from all walks of life and disciplines who have peered deep into the heart of living systems to understand how nature operates, and to mimic "nature's operating instructions" to serve human ends without harming the web of life. Nature's principles kinship, cooperation, diversity, symbiosis and cycles of continuous creation absent of waste can also serve as metaphoric guideposts for organizing an equitable, compassionate and democratic society. The Bioneers radio show is aired locally every Monday at 1 pm on KCBX FM Public Radio 89.5.

Pharmersea & AMA SeaBeauty: PharmerSea is a 25-acre sea farm off the Ellwood pier at the foot of the Bacara resort, originally the brainchild of Dr. Michael Neushul. Neaushul Mariculture conducted research in conjunction with UCSB, Scripts Institute of Oceanography and NOAA, and before his death, Dr Neaushul was in the process of developing a library of over 800 seaweed clones that could help manage climate change. PharmerSea has recently launched its first consumer brand, AMA SeaBeauty, a seaweed skin care line that utilizes farm fresh seaweed extracts.

Ecologistics: Since its inception in 2010, Ecologistics has hosted five Central Coast Bioneers conferences (2010–2015) as a member of the National Bioneers Resilient Communities Network, and have ongoing environmental programs for San Luis Obispo County & the Central Coast.

Civics 101 for Climate Change

More Info:

margie@sbpermaculture.org, (805) 962-2571
Facebook group page

Event Description

Civics 101 for Climate Change is an ongoing series of events & workshops Santa Barbara Permaculture Network is sponsoring to help citizens understand Climate Change and its implications for our community and region. While many are aware of the problems associated with a changing and unpredictable climate, most have no idea of how to participate or help.

In the 21st century, with changes associated with climate and a growing population adding a billion or more in less than 20 years, cities will need to be adaptable and think strategically, with hopefully forward-thinking leaders.

What are other cities & countries around the world doing, can we learn from them? With this series we will share what some of the most innovative Permaculture designers and many others are offering as solutions.

9th Annual Santa Barbara Community Seed Swap

A celebration to bring seeds & people together

Date:	Sunday, January 29, 2017, 11am – 3pm (rain or shine!)
Location:	Downtown Central Library, Faulkner Gallery, 40 E. Anapamu St, Santa Barbara, CA
Price:	FREE
More Info:	margie@sbpermaculture.org, (805) 962-2571 Facebook event page (in English & Spanish)

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Event Description

Join Santa Barbara Permaculture Network as it hosts the 2017 9th Annual Santa Barbara Community Seed Swap on Sunday, January 29, from 11am-3pm, at the downtown Santa Barbara Central Library.

More than 400 people attended last year, sharing seeds and knowledge with other backyard gardeners, plant lovers, beekeepers and farmers. Come be a part of this seed-saving movement, making sure that locally adapted varieties of seed & plants are passed on to future generations. Special speakers, children activities, and live music!

Local groups will table, including the Santa Barbara Seed Saving Guild who will share valuable seed saving techniques and encourage local gardeners to grow out and harvest some of their best seeds for future gardens and seed swaps, making us a truly food secure community. Seed saving is a fun and easy way to connect to the circle of life.

Bring seeds, plants, cuttings, and garden knowledge to swap.
Don't have these? Then come get seeds. Seeds to sow, seeds to grow, seeds to harvest. Seeds to save and share next year.
Activities for all ages.
Music that will have your toes tapping.
Special speakers throughout the day.
A gathering of garden friends old and new.

A community program hosted by Santa Barbara Permaculture Network

Co-Sponsored by Island Seed & Feed, Botanical Interests, Santa Barbara Seed Savers Guild, Healing Grounds Biodynamic Nursery, and the Santa Barbara Certified Farmers Market

2017 Local Real Food Hero Award

At the 9th Annual Santa Barbara Community Seed Swap, once again we will present a Local Food Hero Award. This time the honor goes to Judy Sims.

Judy Sims' contribution to local food systems starts at the very beginning, with the child!

An elementary school teacher who taught for many years at Monte Vista school, Judy used her classroom to teach children about the environment through gardens, incorporating outdoor areas into her teaching practices.

What kind of gardens? Butterfly gardens, raised bed gardens, and an exquisite half acre ethno botany garden & nature trail, that demonstrates the importance of California native plants, that fed many through the millennia before the arrival of the Spanish.

Later, along with the Common Vision school orchard program, Permaculture friends, students & other community members, Judy installed the very first Food Forest/Orchard Garden located at a Santa Barbara public school in 2005.

Judy always had programs and projects in mind, not just for her own classroom & students, but for the entire school. Judy's students began growing food from the gardens for a weekly farmers market, where parents shopped when picking up their kids after school. Eventually, with funds raised from the school farmers market, a salad bar lunch program was initiated into the school cafeteria, an award-winning pilot project, that was later adopted district-wide. A worm farm project Judy and students created diverted school food lunch waste from the trash, instead converting it into rich compost for the gardens, along with other school wide recycling projects.

In time Judy Sims retired from teaching, but never from gardening. In 2009, she joined the s'Cool Garden team at Santa Barbara City College Center for Sustainability, a part of the Orfalea Foundation School Food Initiative project, as education coordinator, where over 25 local county schools were assisted in starting up and maintaining school gardens.

A longtime passionate community activist, Judy has been a key participant in many local garden organizations and projects. With typical creative drive and dynamic energy Judy helped create Trinity Gardens, Santa Barbara's newest community garden. Located on the grounds of Trinity Lutheran Church, it is a unique community garden, where individuals can rent plots, but where there is also a large communal growing area with a farm manager, growing fresh produce for food banks and other organizations who help with the needy.

At the La Huerta Historic Gardens, where hardy plants that were needed to sustain those from the early California Mission era are researched and grown on a demonstration site at the Santa Barbara Old Mission, Judy developed a docent program and is an ongoing volunteer.

Seed saving is a passion of Judy's, we are grateful for her participation every year with the Annual Santa Barbara Community Seed Swap, providing all the kids activities, and sharing seeds collected from her many garden sources. In assisting the future for children and gardens, in 2015 Judy helped create the first Growing Edible Education Symposium.

Gardeners, parents, kids, and community members salute Judy Sims, we thank her for her commitment and contribution to gardens, seed saving, and our Santa Barbara food system. She has inspired young and old and in between for many decades.

The Local Food Hero award is an international award developed by Vandana Shiva & the Navdanya Foundation to honor those involved in protecting seeds and contributing to a healthy sustainable food system. More than 70% of the world's food comes from small farms and gardens. In honoring Local Food Heroes, we are recognizing the real foundation of food security, and making a commitment to strengthen this foundation.

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Fighting Climate Change with Carbon Farming

with Darren Doherty of REGRARIANS Ltd.

Date:	Thursday, March 10, 2016 - 7:30pm - 9pm
Location:	downtown Central Library, Faulkner Gallery, 40 E. Anapamu St, Santa Barbara, CA
Price:	The event is FREE, no reservations are required.
More Info:	More Info: margie@sbpermaculture.org, 805-962-2571 Event facebook page https://www.facebook.com/events/179961695712271/

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If every farmer in the USA practiced Carbon Farming, in less than 10 years,
we would sequester ALL the CARBON that has been emitted since the Industrial Age
Joel Salatin, POLYFACE Farm

There's too much carbon in the atmosphere causing unruly & disturbing climate problems, but the solution isn't difficult, it's in the soil!

Carbon is a naturally occurring chemical compound vital to life, but since the industrial revolution and the advent of modern farming practices, too much carbon has been released into the atmosphere causing climate disruption. The good news is that with Carbon Farming & good soil practices, nature can do much of the remedial work for us.

Join Santa Barbara Permaculture Network on Thursday, March 10, as we host Darren Doherty of REGRARIANS Ltd, for a talk that suggests we can effectively fight climate change by improving the soil with innovative Carbon Farming techniques & strategies that restore & regenerate landscapes.

Carbon Farming is the process of sequestering carbon into healthy, biologically alive soils, using a variety of agricultural practices like no-till farming, cover crops, holistic range management & agroforestry. America's unique opportunity is it's vast landscapes of degraded agriculture & grazing lands that if restored to health would have the potential to capture billions of tons of carbon from the atmosphere annually. Farms that increase carbon in their soils also increase water retention, protect biodiversity, enhance productivity, all while combating Climate Change.

Darren Doherty is a 5th generation Australian farmer and an international expert on regenerative agriculture and permaculture design who has extensive experience across the world in project design, development, management & training. A career-long focus on the profitable & regenerative retrofit of broadacre landscapes has seen Darren Doherty acclaimed as a pioneer in this important field.

Darren Doherty & his wife Lisa Heenan have recently produced POLYFACES, a documentary showcasing the work of Joel Salatin & the renowned Polyface farm in Virginia. Darren will also be in the region teaching a sold out 10 day REGRARIAN workshop at Orella Ranch on the Gaviota Coast north of Santa Barbara.

Sponsored by Santa Barbara Permaculture Network
CIVICS 101 FOR CLIMATE CHANGE, A Community Education Series

Co-Sponsors: Community Environmental Council (CEC), Orella Ranch, & the Santa Barbara Food Alliance

Facebook event page: https://www.facebook.com/events/1533723326928002/

Additional Resources: (Check out all these great materials!)

Landscapes, Ecosystems, Agriculture and Food Systems (LEAF) Santa Barbara:
The LEAF Initiative was developed through a collaborative effort with community members, nonprofit organizations and donors. The initiative seeks to advance regional strategies to increase land conservation, improve ecosystem health, ensure agricultural viability and improve the local food system. https://www.sbfoundation.org/leaf

Regrarians Ltd: http://www.regrarians.org Our primary responsibility is to the regenerative enhancement of the biosphere's ecosystem processes. Our secondary responsibility is to provide the potential for people to be informed about the regenerative economy, whether it involves their work in agriculture, land management, corporate life, domestic services, manufacturing or other activities that are within the reasonable domain of humans…

"4 per 1,000" Initiative: The "4 per 1,000" Initiative wants to demonstrate that agriculture can provide practical solutions to the challenge of climate disruption, while also meeting that posed by food security through the use of farming methods that match local conditions: e.g. agroecology, agroforestry, conservation agriculture, landscape management. http://4p1000.org/understand

The California Climate and Agriculture Network (CalCAN):
A coalition of sustainable agriculture and farmer leaders that advances agricultural solutions to climate change. Agriculture can play a unique role in responding to the climate crisis by producing renewable energy, sequestering carbon and reducing greenhouse gas emissions while securing our food system for generations to come. http://calclimateag.org

Climate Chance: A summit dedicated to concrete action is a global summit with the aim to become a regular event for all non-state actors involved in the fight against climate change. http://www.climatechance2016.com/

Articles referring to Carbon Farming:

California's Grand Plan to Fight Climate Change on the Farm California/ lawmakers move toward paying farmers to adopt climate-smart practices. http://civileats.com/2016/02/02/californias-grand-plan-to-fight-climate-change-on-the-farm-jerry-brown/

Restoring Global Soil Quality Is One Of The Best Things We Can Do For Climate Change: Little known climate change fact: Just the first meter of soil contains as much carbon as the entire atmosphere. And there's potential to soak up much more. http://www.fastcoexist.com/3052240/restoring-global-soil-quality-is-one-of-the-best-things-we-can-do-for-climate-change

Permaculture RESOURCES:

Permaculture and Climate Change Adaptation Inspiring Ecological, Social, Economic and Cultural Responses for Resilience and Transformation ; by By Dr. Thomas Henfrey and Dr. Gil Penha-Lopes https://www.chelseagreen.com/permaculture-subject/permaculture-and-climate-change-adaptation

The Carbon Farming Solution A Global Toolkit of Perennial Crops and Regenerative Agriculture Practices for Climate Change Mitigation and Food Security By Eric Toensmeier Foreword by Dr. Hans Herren http://www.chelseagreen.com/the-carbon-farming-solution

Articles referring to Carbon Farming:

Restoring Global Soil Quality Is One Of The Best Things We Can Do For Climate Change:
Little known climate change fact: Just the first meter of soil contains as much carbon as the entire atmosphere. And there's potential to soak up much more. http://www.fastcoexist.com/3052240/restoring-global-soil-quality-is-one-of-the-best-things-we-can-do-for-climate-change

Resilient Agriculture Cultivating Food Systems for a Changing Climate, by Laura Lengnick:
http://www.newsociety.com/Books/R/Resilient-Agriculture

Radio Interview Episode 16, COP21 Insights from the Paris Climate Conference with Albert Bates:
http://realeyeshomestead.com/permaculture-realized-podcast-episode-16-cop21-insights-from-the-paris-climate-conference-with-albert-bates

POLYFACES FILM trailer: http://www.polyfaces.com
Documentary showcasing the work of Joel Salatin & the renowned Polyface Farm in Virginia.

POLYFACES A World of Many Choices

A film by REGRARIANS showcasing Joel Salatin

Followed by Q&A with film producers Lisa Heenan & Darren Doherty

Date:	Monday, March 14, 2016 7:30-9pm
Location:	Paseo Nuevo Theaters, in the Paseo Nuevo Shopping Mall, downtown Santa Barbara, 8 West De La Guerra St (off of State St), 93101
Price:	Pre-order tickets are available on Event Brite for $10, or $15 at the door.
More Info:	More Info: margie@sbpermaculture.org, 805-962-2571 Event facebook page https://www.facebook.com/events/179961695712271/

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On the renowned POLYFACE farm in Virginia a different kind of farming is taking place with Joel Salatin, a farmer who wants us to rekindle our relationship with food.

Please join Santa Barbara Permaculture Network on Monday, March 14, at the Paseo Nuevo Theater for the Santa Barbara premiere of POLYFACES, a documentary film about Joel Salatin and the renowned Polyface farm in Virginia that has been demonstrating some of the best regenerative & sustainable agriculture practices for over 40 years.

In 1961, William and Lucille Salatin moved their young family to Virginia's Shenandoah Valley, purchasing the most worn-out, eroded, abused farm in the area. Using nature as a pattern, they began the healing and innovation that now supports three generations.

Disregarding conventional wisdom, the Salatins planted trees, built huge compost piles, dug ponds, moved cows daily with portable electric fencing, and invented portable sheltering systems to produce all their animals on perennial prairie polycultures.

In time son Joel Salatin took the helm, teaching and authoring books on all that was learned at Polyface through the years. Eventually the farm became a major demonstration site with hundreds of people visiting annually, sharing knowledge on how to produce food without harmful chemicals, while respecting animals in their care, and ultimately returning the farm to a healthy ecosystem.

A Heinz Award winner, Joel Salatin was called the 'most innovative farmer in the world' by Time Magazine. He was featured in both the Oscar-nominated film Food Inc., and Michael Pollan's best-selling book The Omnivore's Dilemma. Joel Salatin is an inspiration to many thousands of farmers around the world.

The film's producer Lisa Heenan shared directing duties with daughter Isabella Doherty, chronicling the farm over four years of changing seasons. The film was produced by REGRARIANS Ltd., an Australian nonprofit established with partner Darren Doherty to provide resources for those who want to regenerate depleted landscapes.

Darren Doherty is one of the world's leading regenerative agriculture specialists, who has long advocated for the repair of broadacre landscapes as one of the solutions for climate change by sequestering carbon in biologically alive soils, and will be in Santa Barbara for a sold out workshop he will be teaching on the Gaviota Coast. Both Lisa Heenan & Darren Doherty will be in attendance at the Santa Barbara film premiere. Welcome to EditPad.org - your online plain text editor. Enter or paste your text here. To download and save it, click on the button below.

Event Co-Sponsors: Santa Barbara Permaculture Network, SB Independent, Community Environmental Council (CEC), Cultivate Events, LoaTree, Casitas Valley Farm, Quail Springs, Island Seed & Feed, Orella Ranch, permEzone, Sustainable World Radio, & the Santa Barbara Food Alliance

SPECIAL PRE-FILM EVENT!: A very special farm-to-table dinner at Barbareno Restaurant with Film Director Lisa Heenan, Mon March 14, 5-7pm, seating limited, $50/pp, reservations: (805) 963-9591

More Resources:

POLYFACES FILM trailer:

Polyfaces – Early in the Morning from RegrariansMedia on Vimeo.

POLYFACES FILM longer trailer:

Polyfaces English from RegrariansMedia on Vimeo.

POLYFACES FILM website:
http://www.polyfaces.com

Polyface Farms website
http://www.polyfacefarms.com/

"…regenerating soil is what will save the world…" HARVEY WEINSTEIN, Weinstein Company

"…an important contribution to the American food movement…" MICHAEL POLLAN, The Omnivores Dilemma

"…the best way to help us eat (and live) a whole lot better…" NEW YORK TIMES

"…Watch it. Get inspired…" ALEX JAMIESON, Super Size Me

Reporting from the Paris Climate Conference What does COP21 mean for Santa Barbara & California?

with Ethan Stewart of the Santa Barbara Independent

While much still to be done, let's take a moment to Celebrate!

Date:	Thursday, January 28, 2016 6:30-8:30pm
Location:	Antioch University Community Hall, 602 Anacapa St, Santa Barbara, CA 9310
Price:	Free. No reservations are required.
More Info:	More Info: margie@sbpermaculture.org, 805-962-2571

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I am not actually in Paris as a journalist, I am here as a human being ~ Ethan Stewart

Did you follow the Climate Talks in Paris, wonder what they meant to you and your community?

Please join Santa Barbara Permaculture Network on Thursday, January 28, for an evening with Ethan Stewart of the Santa Barbara Independent, as he shares his experiences attending & reporting on the 2015 Climate Conference in Paris (COP21).

Doing a particularly insightful job covering the Climate talks, Ethan gave a day by day account of all that took place, both at official gatherings and the myriad sidebar gatherings and meetings with NGOs, activists, and concerned citizens from around the world.

What was it like to be at this historic gathering of delegates & negotiators from 195 countries with widely varying agendas while needing to unanimously adopt an agreement that will profoundly affect all of our futures?

What was the process, who inspired, who disappointed, did he come away with euphoria or despair? And ultimately, what are the implications of the Paris Agreement for our city, county and state?

The goal of COP21 was to achieve a legally binding and universal agreement on climate, with the aim of keeping global warming below 2 degrees Celsius. And for the first time in more than 20 years of UN negotiations, although not legally binding, global consensus was reached.

Unlike past conferences, this time cities and local governments were identified as key problem solvers, with more than 400 mayors from around the world attending the Climate Summit for Local Leaders. As the world's eighth largest economy, California has the potential for emerging as a leader for global climate change solutions, with innovative clean technologies for the 21st century that are not only good for the planet, but also job creators and profitable for business.

Come learn more from all Ethan Stewart experienced and join the conversation with a panel of key community members from backgrounds in local government, business, education, faith based organizations, activists and students, exploring what it might be like to transition from a century of an economy based on fossil fuels, to a restoration economy where our energy needs are supplied largely with renewables. What part will we all play?

Ethan Stewart has been on staff at the Santa Barbara Independent since 2004. Currently Editor-at-Large for the Independent, Stewart has been its primary environmental reporter for much of the past decade. A lifelong lover of the great outdoors, Stewart's work has been honored by both state and national organizations for excellence in everything from "Investigative Journalism" and "Sports Writing" to "Environmental Reporting" and "Best Writing" in California in 2014 from the California Newspaper Publishers Association.

A Public Forum Hosted by Santa Barbara Permaculture Network
Facebook event page: https://www.facebook.com/events/1661720367421950/
Co-Sponsors: Santa Barbara Independent, Loa Tree, Antioch University, & the Community Environmental Council (CEC)

Additional Resources:

The Paris Project
Independent reporter Ethan Stewart & photographer Kodiak Greenwood in Paris, covering the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP21). Here you'll find their daily dispatches and analysis of the historic summit http://www.independent.com/news/COP21/

The Open Letter of Gratitude to All by Christiana Figueres; Executive Secretary UNFCCC (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change) http://newsroom.unfccc.int/unfccc-newsroom/an-open-letter-of-gratitude/

ADOPTION OF THE PARIS AGREEMENT Proposal by Laurent Fabius President of COP21 Draft decision -/COP.21 http://unfccc.int/resource/docs/2015/cop21/eng/l09.pdf

Community Environmental Council
Pioneers real life solutions in areas with the biggest impact on climate change – most notably energy, transportation and food systems. http://www.cecsb.org

Cities Prove to Be Vital Voice at Paris Climate Talks by Laura Turner Seidel http://ecowatch.com/2016/01/09/cities-paris-climate-talks/

The activities of cities alone account for more than 70 percent of energy-related carbon dioxide emissions. Roughly 54 percent of the world's 7.3 billion people currently live in cities and by 2050, that number is expected to rise to around 70 percent of the world's population. If the world is to avoid catastrophic climate change, we need our cities to continue to lead by developing and implementing concrete initiatives that improve the health, well-being and economic opportunities of citizens.

Permaculture RESOURCES:

Permaculture and Climate Change Adaptation Inspiring Ecological, Social, Economic and Cultural Responses for Resilience and Transformation by By Dr. Thomas Henfrey and Dr. Gil Penha-Lopes https://www.chelseagreen.com/permaculture-subject/permaculture-and-climate-change-adaptation

The Carbon Farming Solution
A Global Toolkit of Perennial Crops and Regenerative Agriculture Practices for Climate Change Mitigation and Food Security By Eric Toensmeier Foreword by Dr. Hans Herren http://www.chelseagreen.com/the-carbon-farming-solution

Videos:

The Paris Climate Negotiations Explained; by Grist online magazine (explained succinctly & with humor) (4min):

Call to Earth - A Message from the World's Astronauts to COP21: (6 min)

Main Talk: (approx. time 90 min)
Public Forum: Reporting from the Paris Climate Talks with Journalist Ethan Stewart of the Santa Barbara Independent What does COP21 mean for Santa Barbara & California?:

8th Annual Santa Barbara Community Seed Swap

A celebration to bring seeds & people together

Date:
Sunday, January 31, 2016 11-3pm

Location:
downtown Santa Barbara Public Library, Faulkner Gallery, 40 E. Anapamu St, 93101

Price:
Free

More Info:
For more information, (805) 962-2571

Posters

Event Description

Join Santa Barbara Permaculture Network as it hosts the 8th Annual Santa Barbara Community Seed Swap on Sunday, January 31, from 11am-3pm, at the downtown Santa Barbara Central Library, Faulkner Gallery.

More than 400 people attended last year, sharing seeds and knowledge with other backyard gardeners, plant lovers, beekeepers and farmers. Come be a part of this seed saving movement, making sure that locally adapted varieties of seed & plants are passed on to future generations. Special speakers, free seeds, children activities & live music!

Local groups will table, including the Santa Barbara Seed Saving Guild who will share valuable seed saving techniques and encourage local gardeners to grow out and harvest some of their best seeds for future gardens and seed swaps, making us a truly food secure community. Seed saving is a fun and easy way to connect to the circle of life.

Bring seeds, plants, cuttings, and garden knowledge to swap.

Don't have these
Then come get seeds.
Seeds to sow.
Seeds to grow.
Seeds to harvest.
Seeds to save and share next year.
Activities for all ages
Music that will have your toes tapping

Special Speakers throughout the day
A gathering of garden friends old and new.

A community program hosted by the Santa Barbara Permaculture Network Non-profit

SB Seed Swap Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/groups/632203483488117/

Santa Barbara Annual Community Seed Swap on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/632203483488117/

Octavo Anual Santa Barbara Intercambio de Semillas del Comunitario Domingo, 31 de enero, 2016 11 AM - 3 PM, Gratis FACEBOOK https://www.facebook.com/groups/632203483488117/

Real Food Hero Award for 2016

Once again we will be honoring a local "Real Food Hero" at the Santa Barbara Community Seed Swap.

This year the award goes to Oscar Carmona of Healing Grounds Nursery, a passionate local food advocate connecting people to the land & their food for over 30 years. Creating innovative programs encouraging people to grow their own healthy food while using beneficial practices good for the planet, Oscar teaches in both institutional settings & backyards.

From 1991 to 2004 Oscar was the Director of Garden Programs for the Community Environmental Council (CEC) in Santa Barbara, CA where he managed the City of Santa Barbara's community gardens and CEC's Urban Farm. He started CEC's Green Schools Gardening Program, Farming Fun Summer Camp, the Santa Barbara Youth Gardening Coalition, taught Green Gardener's Sustainable Practices courses, and served as the President of the Santa Barbara Horticultural Consortium.

One of the first certified organic nurseries on the Central Coast, Healing Grounds Nursery grows Biodynamic vegetable and herb seedlings. Beginning as a horticultural therapy program for the Transitions Mental Health Association, the nursery now sells seedlings both wholesale & to the public at the Santa Barbara Certified Farmers Markets. A key member of the Santa Barbara Seed Saving Guild, Oscar saves seed stock for the Santa Barbara Food Bank and other community groups; while participating in local seed exchanges and teaching seed saving workshops. http://healinggroundsnursery.com/

How to help, exhibit, volunteer:

Because the Seed Swap keeps growing, this year we would like to be both inside and outside at the downtown Santa Barbara Central Library.

Always inside because of chance of rain (yes please!), but this year would like to have additional space outside for children's activities & music, and to be more visible to the public.

As always we could a little help from the community to pay for the library facility and associated costs. The cost to use the Faulkner Gallery indoor space is $400, for the outdoor space, an additional $200. All tax deductible donations large or small welcome!

If you'd like to support this great community event, checks can be made out to SB Permaculture Network (suggested, $20, $50, $100): Mailing address, P.O. Box 92156, Santa Barbara, CA 93190, or go online to pay by credit card or PayPal: www.sbpermaculture.org

We will also be offering exhibit table spaces for $10, for those with plant & seed related exhibits. Volunteers also welcome. Please contact Margie if interested: margie@sbpermaculture.org

Many thanks for being a part of this great community event, please share the date with your friends & neighbors -

Seed saving is a fun and easy way to connect to the circle of life…

More Info:

Websites about Seed Saving:

Seed Savers Exchange:
www.seedsavers.org

Heirloom Seed Exchange:
www.heirloomseedswap.com

Seed Savers:
www.seedsavers.net

Seed Matters:
www.seedmatters.org

Organic Seed Alliance:
http://www.seedalliance.org/

Safe Seed Pledge & Initiative & list of Seed Companies who have taken the Safe Seed Pledge:
http://www.councilforresponsiblegenetics.org/viewpage.aspx?pageid=261

Rare Vegetable Seed Consortium:
http://www.growrareseeds.com/

Native Seeds/SEARCH Search:
www.nativeseeds.org

Santa Barbara Permaculture Network & The Community Environmental Council present:

A Conversation with Paul Relis & Pico Iyer
A Benefit for the Community Environmental Council 45th Anniversary

Date:
Monday, October 12, 6:30 - 8:30pm

Location:
Lobero Theater, 33 E Canon Perdido St, Santa Barbara, CA

Price:
Tickets $30, $20 & $10, (all ticket sales donated to the Community Environmental Council)

Lobero Ticket Information:
https://www.lobero.com/events/cec-pico-iyerpaul-relis/
or call the Lobero Ticket office: 805.9630761

Poster

Event Description

Two creative minds honor the Community Environmental Council's 45th Anniversary with a conversational journey exploring the past & future of the environmental movement, including a discussion of Paul Relis' recently published book, Out of the Wasteland - Stories from the Environmental Frontier.

Paul Relis is the founding executive director of the Community Environmental Council, who at the young age of twenty three, following the disastrous oil spill in the Santa Barbara Channel in 1969, helped launch an organization whose impact is still being felt locally & globally today. Pico Iyer, global traveler & sometime Santa Barbara resident, is an internationally acclaimed author & journalist with more than ten best selling books, whose global citizen perspective helps us understand the world we live in.

Join us for a thought provoking evening as Paul & Pico, personal good friends, lead us with infectious abandon into a lively conversation about what the future might hold, as we contemplate our environmental destiny in our Santa Barbara home town and on the planet.

A booksigning reception follows the talk.

A Community Event Sponsored by
Santa Barbara Permaculture Network & the Community Environmental Council

Paul Relis Bio:

Paul became the founding executive director of the Community Environmental Council (CEC) after the oil spill in the Santa Barbara Channel in 1969. Paul then became an executive with the state EPA, and lectured for nearly two decades on Environmental Studies at his alma mater, UCSB. Paul feels his current work with CR&R Inc, a company developing a 30 million dollar Anaerobic Digester at a facility in Perris, CA, opening in three months with a carbon free, ultra low emissions biofuels created from organic waste, is the exciting culmination of all his work, fulfilling a dream of making our community and state less reliant on oil for energy.
CR&R http://www.crrwasteservices.com/about/about_main.htm

http://www.paulrelis.com/work/

Bio: Pico Iyer

Pico Iyer is a celebrated author, journalist, and regular TED Talk lecturer (with multi million-views). Born in England to parents from India and educated at Eton, Oxford, and Harvard, Iyer writes frequently on globalism for Harper's, on culture & politics for The New York Times, on literature for The New York Review of Books, and on many topics for a wide range of magazines including TIME Magazine, National Geographic, and Tricycle:The Buddhist Review. His numerous books include, Video Night in Kathmandu, Cuba and the Night, The Global Soul, and his most recent book, The Man Within My Head. Having travelled almost everywherefrom Easter Island to Ethiopia to North Korea to Bolivia Iyer's lectures captivate audiences with stories about community and culture, and the ways in which technology and movement impact our sense of belonging. http://www.prhspeakers.com/speaker/pico-iyer

Santa Barbara Permaculture Network & Orella Ranch Present:

INHABIT Film Screening & Discussion

Date:
Wed, Sept 2, 2015 - 6:30 - 8:30pm

Location:
downtown Santa Barbara Central Library, Faulkner Gallery,40 E. Anapamu St, 93101

Price:
donations gladly accepted

More Info:
No reservations are required. More info: margie@sbpermaculture.org, 805-962-2571.

Can our impact on the planet be a positive instead of negative one?

Poster

Event Description

Join us for an evening of Permaculture inspiration at the Santa Barbara Premiere of INHABIT, a feature length documentary introducing permaculture.

The award-winning documentary INHABIT - A Permaculture Perspective showcases permaculture projects and the way they regenerate our world. INHABIT explores the many environmental and agricultural issues facing us today and examines solutions that are being applied using the ecological design process called 'Permaculture'.

Permaculture is a design science based on the observation and replication of patterns and relationships found in nature; it is an approach to designing sustainable systems of agriculture, community, economics, politics, and more. INHABIT looks at practices in rural, suburban, and urban environments to explore the breadth of response to local and global challenges - from issues of food, water, and medicine, to governance, economy, and culture. It is an attempt to illuminate certain societal and planetary ails through the lens of on-ground, Earth-based solutions.

*On hand for the evening will be Guner Tautrim from Orella Ranch where Keyline design & other permaculture strategies have been incorporated into their landscape with positive results. Orella Ranch will host an upcoming 3 day workshop with Mark Shepard, author of Restoration Agriculture, whose work and farm is featured in the INHABIT film.

have all of the benefits of natural, perennial ecosystems and create agricultural systems that imitate nature in form and function while still providing for our food, building, fuel and many other needs in your own backyard, farm or ranch

Sponsored by:
Santa Barbara Permaculture Network
& Orella Ranch

www.sbpermaculture.org

More Info:
Santa Barbara Permaculture Network Event Page:
for INHABIT film event: www.facebook.com/events/127721097568292/

INHABIT: A Permaculture Perspective Official Trailer:

INHABIT: A Permaculture Perspective from Costa on Vimeo.

For info about Mark Shepard Restoration Agriculture Workshop at Orella Ranch-
please go to Friends of Orella Ranch facebook: www.facebook.com/events/113762295636201/
Spend Friday October 30, 31st and Nov. 1st with Mark Shepard on the Orella Ranch, Gaviota Coast Santa Barbara County.
Family owned and operated for the last 149 years this coastal ranch will serve as the backdrop for learning the ins and outs of Mark Shepard's Restoration Agriculture practices. Camping and food included on site.
$475 Early bird (first 10 sign ups) then $550
website: http://restorationagricultureworkshop.weebly.com

Santa Barbara Permaculture Network Presents

Award-Winning Documentary Film

Rebels with a Cause

How a Battle Over Land Changed the California Landscape Forever

Date:
Thursday, May 28, 2015 6:30-8:30pm

Location:
downtown Santa Barbara Central Library, Faulkner Gallery,40 E. Anapamu St, 93101

Price:
Free

More Info:
No reservations are required. More info: margie@sbpermaculture.org, 805-962-2571.

they were unpaid & they were crazy. they were…

Poster

Event Description

In the first half of the 20th century, California's population increased by 600% and by the 1950's development was consuming coastal open space and farmland to housing development & shopping malls in a way that seemed to have no limits.

A stunningly beautiful film narrated by Frances McDormand, Rebels With A Cause is the tale about the dreamers and schemers and activists who - despite reversals, diversions and disappointments - persist in their mission for more than twenty years and foster a national movement beginning in California to preserve open space that ultimately grew into a legacy of National Seashores, National Parks and National Recreation Areas around the nation.

It's the story of garden clubs, ranchers, farmers conservationists, politicians, widows and volunteers, all of whom worked their way through compromise and negotiation with the American public coming up as the winner.

It's a struggle that crosses party lines, unites seemingly antagonistic foes, falters and is nearly extinguished many times along the way, but ultimately is victorious. Beautiful cinematic footage, clever animation, moving interviews and a very compelling story are woven together in story that is especially meaningful for our times.

Award winning filmmakers Nancy Kelly and Kenji Yamamoto of Kelly+Yamamoto Productions capture breathtaking natural landscapes while chronicling the story of an unusual group of individuals who make monumental change to help preserve a landscape for future generations.

Santa Barbara Permaculture Network invites community members, leaders, educators, students, and all who care about land preservation to attend and join the discussion about preservation of not only open space, but also agricultural lands in trust, urban community landtrusts, and how future generations can participate in preserving our own beautiful and unique landscape.

Hosted by: Santa Barbara Permaculture Network & Santa Barbara Food Alliance

More Info:

Watch the Trailer: http://rebelsdocumentary.org/trailer/

Information on Film and Filmmakers http://rebelsdocumentary.org

Rebels With A Cause onSB Permaculture Network Facebook Event Page: https://www.facebook.com/events/686558494804829/

Santa Barbara Food Alliance Facebook https://www.facebook.com/sbfoodalliance

12th International Permaculture Convergence

A journey to London, 2015

In September 2015 up to a thousand people from over fifty countries will be converging on London for a unique global gathering of people passionate about permaculture and those exploring its relevance to our pressing challenges. It's going to be an amazing month that draws on our movement's growth. The IPCs were started as a way of growing the network, sharing knowledge and celebrating achievements.

With no formal international body, IPCs have been one of the few opportunities to have discussions in person about strategy, educational standards, research, developments in practice, and regional / global development. They have also been a way to highlight best practice in specific environments, and to increase permaculture in the host country – especially in the early days. At the 10th IPC in Jordan it was agreed to have the 12th IPC in Britain.

IPCUK will bring together leading experts and practitioners from around the world.

We have everything we need to create a sustainable world and future. Together we will create a vision of a near future society that is caring, sustainable and fair, and explore how we can collectively design strategies and pathways to make it happen.

A two day Conference takes place September 8 & 9th for the public and permaculture community, followed by the 5 day (Sept 10-16) International Permaculture Convergence (IPC), the biennial global gathering of over 500 expert permaculture designers and practitioners (Permaculture Design Course required to attend).

Conference, https://www.ipcuk.events/conference 8-9 September 2015, The Light, Euston Road, London. Designing the World We Want - two days packed with presentations, workshops, academic papers, exhibitions, music, and art..

Convergence, https://www.ipcuk.events/convergence 10-16 September 2015, Gilwell Park, Essex. Designing the network we want - for people from around the world using permaculture in their everyday lives and communities.

Edge events, https://www.ipcuk.events/edge throughout the UK and Europe. From tours and courses, to talks and more.

Poster

International Permaculture Convergences

https://ipcuk.events/aboutIPCs

'IPC' stands for International Permaculture Convergence, it is a gathering of practitioners of permaculture from around the world, people who are working with nature to design a better world. IPCs started back in 1984 in Australia, and is the key global meeting point for the international permaculture network. It is fully self-financed, so donations https://www.ipcuk.events/donate and sponsorships if your business is interested in sponsoring any part of the conference or convergence.
https://www.ipcuk.events/sponsors/becomeasponsor are greatly appreciated!

History of IPCs

IPC1 Rowlands, New South Wales, Australia, 1984

IPC2 Breitenbush Hot Springs & Olympia in the NW of the USA, 1986

IPC3 Christchurch, New Zealand, 1988

IPC4 Nepal, 1991

IPC5 Copenhagen, Denmark and Gerlesborg, Sweden, 1993

IPC6 Perth, Australia, 1996

IPC7 Croatia organized in cooperation with Danish Association/European Permaculture Institute, 2005

IPC8 Brasil, Permacultura America Latina, 2007

IPC9 Malawi, 2009

IPC10 Jordan, 2011

IPC11 Cuba, 2013

Upcoming:

IPC12 UK 2015 https://ipcuk.events/

IPC13 India 2017 https://ipcuk.events/ipc-india-2017

Friends of International Permaculture Convergences (FIPC)

A sponsorship project of Inquiring Systems:
http://www.inquiringsystems.org/portfolio/friends-international-permaculture-convergence/

The Friends of the International Permaculture Convergence (FIPC) nonprofit is an organization working in conjunction with the International Permaculture Convergence Coordinating Committee to support the conveners of the individual International Permaculture Convergence (IPC) event held around the globe every two years.

FIPC's specific mission is to augment the funds needed for convening the bi-annual IPC event, with a special focus on scholarship funding for delegates traveling from all parts of the world to attend. Ongoing support for the IPC website with its valuable archives is also a part of the FIPC mission.

Poster

7th Annual Santa Barbara Community Seed Swap

A celebration to bring seeds & people together

Date:
Sunday, January 25, 2015 11-3pm

Location:
downtown Santa Barbara Public Library, Faulkner Gallery, 40 E. Anapamu St, 93101

Price:
Free

More Info:
For more information, (805) 962-2571

Posters

Event Description

Join Santa Barbara Permaculture Network as it hosts the 7th Annual Santa Barbara Community Seed Swap on Sunday, January 25, from 11am-3pm, at the downtown Santa Barbara Central Library, Faulkner Gallery.

More than 400 people attended last year, sharing seeds and knowledge with other backyard gardeners, plant lovers, beekeepers and farmers. Come be a part of this seed saving movement, making sure that locally adapted varieties of seed & plants are passed on to future generations. Special speakers, children activities & live music!

Local groups will table, including the Santa Barbara Seed Saving Guild who will share valuable seed saving techniques and encourage local gardeners to grow out and harvest some of their best seeds for future gardens and seed swaps, making us a truly food secure community. Seed saving is a fun and easy way to connect to the circle of life.

Bring seeds, plants, cuttings, and garden knowledge to swap.

Don't have these
Then come get seeds.
Seeds to sow.
Seeds to grow.
Seeds to harvest.
Seeds to save and share next year.
Activities for all ages
Music that will have your toes tapping

Special Speakers throughout the day
A gathering of garden friends old and new.

A community program hosted by the Santa Barbara Permaculture Network Non-profit

Co-sponsors: Island Seed & Feed, Santa Barbara Seed Saving Guild, & the Santa Barbara Food Alliance

Santa Barbara Annual Community Seed Swap on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/632203483488117/

Séptimo Anual Santa Barbara Intercambio de Semillas del Comunitario Domingo, 25 de enero, 2015 11 AM - 3 PM, Gratis FACEBOOK https://www.facebook.com/events/894141133952761/

Real Food Hero Award for 2015

Once again will be honoring a local "Real Food Hero" at the Seed Swap. This year the award goes to Matt Buckmaster of Island Seed & Feed. Bringing seeds and people together for more than 25 years, Matt is committed to being the organic & sustainability hub for our region by providing the highest quality seeds & plants and other garden and farm supplies, specializing in propagating organic heirlooms seeds onsite. Matt has been a major supporter of the Santa Barbara Annual Seed Swap since it's beginning days. Island Seed & Feed: http://islandseed.com/

Dynamic Governance Empowering People & Organizations

Introductory Public Talk
with John Buck & Manfred Friedrich

Date:
Friday, January 9, 2015 7-9pm

Location:
Santa Barbara County Public Health Building, 300 North San Antonio Road, Santa Barbara, CA 93110

Price:
$5-10 Sliding Scale. No reservations required.

More Info:
Lesley Weinstock: lesleyweinstock@yahoo.com https://www.facebook.com/events/369751236538965/.

Phone: 805-212-0052

Posters

Event Description

Learn how businesses & organizations around the world are "thinking smarter in circles"

Dynamic Governance (aka Sociocracy) is an elegantly simple, innovative new method of governing that creates more inclusive and efficient organizations, while creating better human relationships.

Join long time Dynamic Governance pioneers and experts John Buck and Manfred Friedrich for an introductory talk on Friday, January 9, as they share the ideas and concepts of Dynamic Governance as a way to empower and bring out the best in people working together for a common purpose.

First developed and honed in the Netherlands, Dynamic Governance has spread around the world and is currently used by several thousand organizations with inspiring results. Working in a wide range of settings including families, volunteer groups, community organizations, non-profits, government agencies, schools and universities, small businesses and large corporations, Dynamic Governance rewires the decision-making process to mine the intelligence and creativity that already exist in organizations.

Structured around self-organizing circles that make policy decisions and assign tasks and responsibilities through various group processes that engage the perspectives, skills, sympathies, and inspirations of all the members of a group, Dynamic Governance then strategically connects these individual circles to a wider interlinked organizational network.

John Buck co-authored We the People: Consenting to a Deeper Democracy, a book about a new, more inclusive way of governing ourselves using Dynamic Governance; and is the Division Director of The Sociocracy Group in the Netherlands, consulting with businesses, nonprofits, and collaboration councils around the world.

Manfred Friedrich is entrepreneur, organization builder, and mediator who uses Dynamic Governance to support organizations whose intentions are to foster collaboration, equality, personal growth, transparency and better decisions.

Hosted by: Interplay & Santa Barbara Permaculture Network www.sbpermaculture.org

Endorsers:Earth First Construction, Sweetwater Collaborative, Sama Group Santa Barbara, Center for Nonviolent Communication.

A two day Dynamic Governance workshop takes place on Jan 10th & 11th, see below for details.

More Info:

Workshop Details:

Workshop dates, January 10th & 11th, 2015

Empowering People and Organizations Dynamic Governance: A Weekend Workshop with world class presenters, John Buck, Manfred Friedrich & John Schinnerer

Cost: Early bird discount before January 1: $175-285 sliding scale Full price: $210-$335 sliding scale Scholarships and work trades available.

Registration:

http://www.governancealive.com/register/

More info: Lesley Weinstock: lesleyweinstock@yahoo.com, 805-212-0052

Workshop Event Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/805181679544551/

Learn more:

Dynamic Governance (Sociocracy):

http://sociocracyconsulting.com/resources

Youtube: Intro to Dynamic Governance (Sociocracy)

WORKSHOP DETAILS:

Empowering People and Organizations Dynamic Governance: A Weekend Workshop with John Buck, Manfred Friedrich & John Schinnerer.

Saturday, January 10, 10am-6pm Sunday, January 11, 10am-5pm

Workshop Location:

Santa Barbara County Public Health Building, 300 North San Antonio Road, Santa Barbara, CA 93110.

Start the New Year by setting aside time to empower yourself and your relationships. Learn how organizations and businesses around the world are "thinking smarter with circles."

Dynamic Governance (aka Sociocracy) is an elegantly simple, innovative change from conventional business methods. We encourage you to bring several people from your organization. Bring your actual work issues. Learn tools to get things done!

In the workshop you will:

:: Use collaborative decision-making, not consensus or win/lose voting.
:: Experience how everyone can have a real voice in decision-making.
:: Design power structures that foster creativity, reduce tension and prevent burnout.
:: Learn to have fewer, shorter, meetings, heighten productivity and increase commitment
:: Engage and empower both paid staff and volunteers.

Cost:

Early bird discount before January 1: $175-285 sliding scale Full price: $210-$335 sliding scale

Scholarships and work trades available. For more info, call or email Lesley Weinstock: lesleyweinstock@yahoo.com, 805-212-0052 - Workshop Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/805181679544551/

Payment: To register please go to: http://www.governancealive.com/register/ Scroll down to find the Santa Barbara workshop.

Your fee includes:

:: Optional teleconference 12:00pm, Tuesday, January 6 with a trainer to identify your needs.
:: Support groups, advice and coaching after the workshop.
:: Snacks, drinks and lunch Saturday and Sunday.

World Class Presenters:

John Buck: co-author of We the People: Consenting to a Deeper Democracy, Division Director, The Sociocracy Group, Netherlands. Consults with businesses, nonprofits, and collaboration Councils.

Manfred Friedrich: entrepreneur, organization builder, and mediator, offers Sociocracy to support conscious organizations longing to foster collaboration, equality, personal growth, transparency and better decisions.

John Schinnerer: MA Whole Systems Design, develops cultural and ecological systems for clients. His innovative, collaborative methods invite transparency, equivalence and enhance effectiveness and integrity.

Stories from around the world about dynamic governance:

:: The School of Media, Culture, and Design: star performer at Woodbury University, Burbank, CA.
:: The Appalachian Foodshed Project, a three-state system of Collaboration Councils with hundreds of volunteers, agencies, and businesses, is solving hunger and food desert challenges.
::The Permaculture Association of Scotland has adopted dynamic governance (sociocracy) as its governance system because it aligns with permaculture principles.

Date:	Sunday, January 31, 2016 11-3pm
Location:	downtown Santa Barbara Public Library, Faulkner Gallery, 40 E. Anapamu St, 93101
Price:	Free
More Info:	For more information, (805) 962-2571

Date:	Wed, Sept 2, 2015 - 6:30 - 8:30pm
Location:	downtown Santa Barbara Central Library, Faulkner Gallery,40 E. Anapamu St, 93101
Price:	donations gladly accepted
More Info:	No reservations are required. More info: margie@sbpermaculture.org, 805-962-2571.

Date:	Thursday, May 28, 2015 6:30-8:30pm
Location:	downtown Santa Barbara Central Library, Faulkner Gallery,40 E. Anapamu St, 93101
Price:	Free
More Info:	No reservations are required. More info: margie@sbpermaculture.org, 805-962-2571.

Date:	Sunday, January 25, 2015 11-3pm
Location:	downtown Santa Barbara Public Library, Faulkner Gallery, 40 E. Anapamu St, 93101
Price:	Free
More Info:	For more information, (805) 962-2571

Date:	Friday, January 9, 2015 7-9pm
Location:	Santa Barbara County Public Health Building, 300 North San Antonio Road, Santa Barbara, CA 93110
Price:	$5-10 Sliding Scale. No reservations required.
More Info:	Lesley Weinstock: lesleyweinstock@yahoo.com https://www.facebook.com/events/369751236538965/.
Phone:	805-212-0052

:: 2024 Events

Aug. 7, 2024Solar Powered Homes, Communities & Gardens

May 25–27, 2024Santa Barbara I Madonnari Street Chalk Art Festival

Mar. 25, 2024Beaverland Talk & Booksigning

Mar. 23, 2024San Luis Obispo Beaver Festival

Feb. 24, 2024Eco Hero Award honoring Albert K. Bates

Oct. 23 & 24, 202316th Annual Santa Barbara Community Seed Swap

:: 2023 Events

Oct. 23 & 24, 2023Crossings Talks & Booksignings

Oct. 16, 2023Rachel's Farm Film Premiere with filmmaker Rachel Ward

Apr. 27, 2023Stewart Udall: The Politic of Beauty Film Premiere

Mar. 17, 2023Eco Hero Award honoring John & Nancy Todd

Jan. 29, 202315th Annual Santa Barbara Community Seed Swap

Jan. 21, 2023Beavers in the Landscape

:: 2022 Events

Nov. 19, 2022Gratitude Revealed Film Premiere

Nov. 15, 2022Water Always Wins Talk & Booksigning

Jun. 17, 2022Eco Hero Award honoring Paul Stamets & Louie Schwartzberg

Mar. 20, 202214th Annual Santa Barbara Community Seed Swap

:: 2021 Events

Nov. 11, 2021Beavers in the Landscape

Jan. 31 – Feb. 28, 202113th Annual Santa Barbara Community Seed Swap

:: 2020 Events

Sep. 21, 2020Eco Film Night Series: Kiss the Ground Premiere

Aug. 10, 2020Eco Film Night Series: 2040 Film Premiere

May 23–25, 2020Santa Barbara I Madonnari Street Chalk Art Festival

Apr. 18, 2020The Great Work of Our Time Livestream with John D. Liu & Special Guests

Jan. 26, 202012th Annual Santa Barbara Community Seed Swap

:: 2019 Events

Nov. 24, 2019Fantastic Fungi Film Premiere

Oct. 18–19, 2019Healing Earth: An Ecologist's Journey of Innovation & Environmental Stewardship

June 28, 2019Celebrating Beavers: Climate & Ecosystem Heroes

May 31 – June 1, 2019Reverse Climate Change with Marine Permaculture

Apr. 22, 2019Restore Paradise! Tragedy & Opportunity

Mar. 17, 2019Eco Hero Award honoring John D. Liu

Feb. 22–23, 2019Earth Repair: Ecological Restoration & Bio-Remediation

Jan. 27, 201911th Annual Santa Barbara Community Seed Swap

:: 2018 Events

Nov. 13, 20182nd Annual Building Our Resilient Food System: Cultivating Connections

Aug. 18, 2018What If…We Change Film Series & Talk

May 6, 2018International Permaculture Day

Mar. 8, 2018Evolution of Organic Santa Barbara Film Premiere

Jan. 28, 201810th Annual Santa Barbara Community Seed Swap

:: 2017 Events

Nov. 12, 2017Live Well & Spark A Climate Revolution Booksigning & Talk

Oct. 25, 2017Building Our Resilient Food System: Cultivating Connections

Aug. 12, 20175 Steps to an Abundant Future

July 26, 2017Tomorrow: A Permaculture Inspired Film

May 28, 2017IPC India Crowdfund Campaign Launch Event

Apr. 30, 2017The Carbon Farming Solution Webinar

Apr. 9, 2017A Central Coast Bioneers Film Showcase

Jan. 29, 20179th Annual Santa Barbara Community Seed Swap

:: 2016 Events

Mar. 14, 2016POLYFACES A World of Many Choices

Jan. 31, 20168th AnnualSanta Barbara Community Seed Swap

Jan. 28, 2016Reporting from the Paris Climate Conference…

:: 2015 Events

Oct. 12, 2015A Conversation with Paul Relis & Pico Iyer

Sep. 2, 2015INHABIT Film Screening & Discussion

Sep. 201512th International Permaculture Convergence

May 28, 2015Award-Winning Documentary Film Rebels with a Cause

Jan. 25, 20157th AnnualSanta Barbara Community Seed Swap

Jan. 09-10-11, 2015Dynamic Governance Empowering People & Organizations

:: Archive

EVENTS

Creating Local Resilience with Regenerative Design: Solar Powered Homes, Communities & Gardens with Leif Skogberg

Event Description

Santa Barbara Permaculture Network joins the Santa Barbara I Madonnari Street Chalk Art Festival

Event Description

Beaverland: How One Weird Rodent Made America Talk & Booksigning with Author Leila Philip

Event Description

2nd Annual San Luis Obispo Beaver Festival

Poster

Event Description

Santa Barbara Permaculture Network 4th Annual Eco Hero AwardHonoring Albert K. Bates

Poster

Event Description

Learn More:

16th Annual Santa Barbara Community Seed Swap

Poster

Aug. 7, 2024
Solar Powered Homes, Communities & Gardens

May 25–27, 2024
Santa Barbara I Madonnari Street Chalk Art Festival

Mar. 25, 2024
Beaverland Talk & Booksigning

Mar. 23, 2024
San Luis Obispo Beaver Festival

Feb. 24, 2024
Eco Hero Award honoring Albert K. Bates

Oct. 23 & 24, 2023
16th Annual Santa Barbara Community Seed Swap

Oct. 23 & 24, 2023
Crossings Talks & Booksignings

Oct. 16, 2023
Rachel's Farm Film Premiere with filmmaker Rachel Ward

Apr. 27, 2023
Stewart Udall: The Politic of Beauty Film Premiere

Mar. 17, 2023
Eco Hero Award honoring John & Nancy Todd

Jan. 29, 2023
15th Annual Santa Barbara Community Seed Swap

Jan. 21, 2023
Beavers in the Landscape

Nov. 19, 2022
Gratitude Revealed Film Premiere

Nov. 15, 2022
Water Always Wins Talk & Booksigning

Jun. 17, 2022
Eco Hero Award honoring Paul Stamets & Louie Schwartzberg

Mar. 20, 2022
14th Annual Santa Barbara Community Seed Swap

Nov. 11, 2021
Beavers in the Landscape

Jan. 31 – Feb. 28, 2021
13th Annual Santa Barbara Community Seed Swap

Sep. 21, 2020
Eco Film Night Series: Kiss the Ground Premiere

Aug. 10, 2020
Eco Film Night Series: 2040 Film Premiere

May 23–25, 2020
Santa Barbara I Madonnari Street Chalk Art Festival

Apr. 18, 2020
The Great Work of Our Time Livestream with John D. Liu & Special Guests

Jan. 26, 2020
12th Annual Santa Barbara Community Seed Swap

Nov. 24, 2019
Fantastic Fungi Film Premiere

Oct. 18–19, 2019
Healing Earth: An Ecologist's Journey of Innovation & Environmental Stewardship

June 28, 2019
Celebrating Beavers: Climate & Ecosystem Heroes

May 31 – June 1, 2019
Reverse Climate Change with Marine Permaculture

Apr. 22, 2019
Restore Paradise! Tragedy & Opportunity

Mar. 17, 2019
Eco Hero Award honoring John D. Liu

Feb. 22–23, 2019
Earth Repair: Ecological Restoration & Bio-Remediation

Jan. 27, 2019
11th Annual Santa Barbara Community Seed Swap

Nov. 13, 2018
2nd Annual Building Our Resilient Food System: Cultivating Connections

Aug. 18, 2018
What If…We Change Film Series & Talk

May 6, 2018
International Permaculture Day

Mar. 8, 2018
Evolution of Organic Santa Barbara Film Premiere

Jan. 28, 2018
10th Annual Santa Barbara Community Seed Swap

Nov. 12, 2017
Live Well & Spark A Climate Revolution Booksigning & Talk

Oct. 25, 2017
Building Our Resilient Food System: Cultivating Connections

Aug. 12, 2017
5 Steps to an Abundant Future

July 26, 2017
Tomorrow: A Permaculture Inspired Film

May 28, 2017
IPC India Crowdfund Campaign Launch Event

Apr. 30, 2017
The Carbon Farming Solution Webinar

Apr. 9, 2017
A Central Coast Bioneers Film Showcase

Jan. 29, 2017
9th Annual Santa Barbara Community Seed Swap

Mar. 14, 2016
POLYFACES A World of Many Choices

Jan. 31, 2016
8th AnnualSanta Barbara Community Seed Swap

Jan. 28, 2016
Reporting from the Paris Climate Conference…

Oct. 12, 2015
A Conversation with Paul Relis & Pico Iyer

Sep. 2, 2015
INHABIT Film Screening & Discussion

Sep. 2015
12th International Permaculture Convergence

May 28, 2015
Award-Winning Documentary Film Rebels with a Cause

Jan. 25, 2015
7th AnnualSanta Barbara Community Seed Swap

Jan. 09-10-11, 2015
Dynamic Governance Empowering People & Organizations

Santa Barbara Permaculture Network 4th Annual Eco Hero Award
Honoring Albert K. Bates

Santa Barbara Permaculture Network 3rd Annual Eco Hero Award
Honoring John & Nancy Jack Todd

Santa Barbara Permaculture Network 2nd Annual Eco Hero Award
Honoring Paul Stamets & Louie Schwartzberg