Our Permaculture Design Certification course kicked off over February 12, 13 and 14. Eleven students jumped in at the deep end for a rollicking, packed three-days that left our head spinning with new information and ideas for making change.

Over the three days, Andrew Faust, our teacher, presented a marathon class that started with the history of the world from the beginning of time! Yes, he covered several million years in a few hours to bring us up to the present time. A rush through prehistoric eras and the ascent of man combined with geological, climatological and anthropological sciences gave us a background to where we are as a human species and a planet today. That sets the stage for the rest of the course - now we move into applying scientific principles from all disciplines as we learn how to design sustainable human living environments and, most importantly, provide ourselves with food, fiber and shelter.

Permaculture presents a new way of seeing the world - using passive and biological work to provide human needs on a local scale. A bioregional scale. A culture of bioregionalism is what we need to overcome the problems that the global corporate culture has inflicted on the planet. Permaculture is not opposed to business or entrepreneurial activity, but not the out-of-control type we have witnessed.

We spent a lot of time discussing ways that a Permaculture approach can turn problems into solutions - designing new business models to use wastes from one industry as resources for other businesses.

After the general background information we switched gears and got into the specifics of designing with Permaculture practices in mind. First off, we covered site analysis, which in itself is a huge topic that includes water, trees, topography, geology and soil, and climates - both macro and micro.

We watched slides of agricultural practices around the world throughout history and discussed ancient civilizations that knew how to conserve their soil and water for sustainable agriculture and societies, and those civilizations that didn't. The latter resulting in complete loss of soil followed by climate change and societal failure. We then compared this to modern day events such as the Dust Bowl in the US which contributed to the suffering of the depression years in the early 20th century.

We went outside and looked at the site here at the Center for Sustainable Living and compared the different microenvironments, the trees, analyzed past uses of the land and the succession of forest and plant growth and what the impacts have been.

Exhausted and exhilerated, we parted company on Sunday afternoon with our heads buzzing and a reading list as long as our arms. We're ready for this weekend coming up for more training and learning with Andrew Faust and guest speakers, including yours truly for a session on soils.