BIONEERS: Natural Magic - Permaculture Workshop and Biodiversity Gardens Post Conference Tour - OAEC

Date: Monday, October 19, 2009

Time: 9 am - 5 pm

Presenter: Brock Dolman and other OAEC Staff

Location: Program begins at Embassy Suites Hotel. Meet in front of the hotel at 7:30am. Buses depart for the tour promptly at 8am.

Cost: $150 members / $175 non-member. Go to www.bioneers.org to register for this event.

An organic lunch--created on-site using OAEC and local farm produce--is included.

A magical field trip to a legendary permaculture community! Come see what a truly restorative, sustainable, land-based community looks like. Join us on an eye-opening workshop and tour of the Occidental Arts and Ecology Center (OAEC) and its renowned 80-acre organic farm and wildlands preserve in western Sonoma County.

Brock Dolman and selected OAEC staff will lead us through the 35-year-old biointensive organic gardens and orchards, showing and explaining their: solar PV and hot water systems; micro-hydro energy set-up; innovative stormwater, roof water harvesting and graywater systems; chicken tractors; milk goats; and eco-forestry, fire management and erosion control techniques; and lots more.

They will also discuss the model of their residential intentional community (Sowing Circle LLC). The Occidental Arts and Ecology Center (OAEC) is a nonprofit organizing and education center and organic farm founded in 1994 by a group of biologists, horticulturists, educators, activists and artists seeking innovative and practical approaches to pressing environmental and economic crises.

Much of the Center’s work addresses the challenges of creating democratic communities that are ecologically, economically and culturally sustainable in an increasingly privatized and corporatized economy and culture. OAEC’s programs combine research, demonstration, education and organizing to develop collaborative, community-based strategies for positive social change and effective environmental stewardship.