Permaculture Superhero - Inspiring Land Mangement

"I’d like to introduce you to Sepp Holzer, a man who not only produces food in a very unlikely location, at a high and frigid altitude in Austria, but is also growing very unlikely crops there as well — and all without the use of chemicals, and with minimal input of human labour.

I guess you could call him a European counterpart of people like Bill Mollison and Masanobu Fukuoka — as all three independently discovered ways of working with nature that save money and labour and that don’t degrade the environment, but actually improve it. In Holzer’s case, he was effectively running a permaculture farm for more than two decades before he even realised his unconventional approach could be termed ‘permaculture’." -from the Permaculture Research Institute of Australia

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Time to Change This Community Earth

Props to Jake for creating the blog and thanks for the invitation to contribute. Now that I'm here, I guess an introduction is in order. I live in San Jose CA and have been working for the last 5+ years on soil food web restoration, with the goal of growing healthy landscape and food plants without the use of synthetic fertilizers or toxic garden or agricultural chemicals. The results still amaze me. True soil fertility, not fertilizer is the way of the future.

I am the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Bay-Friendly Landscaping and Gardening Coalition. The BF Coalition is working on spreading the Bay-Friendly Landscaping and Gardening methods and philosophy throughout all the counties around San Francisco Bay. I'm also a Master Composter in Santa Clara County.

In the course of my work, it has become apparent the landscaping industry is at the center of the movement to solve the environmental crises of the world. This may sound grandiose, but it's true. Our industry has tremendous impact on soil quality, air quality, water quality and use, energy use, and human health. How many other industries intersect with so many of the critical elements of human existence? We have the ability to change the world for the better. I look forward to the conversation.

Water World

Thanks Jake for inviting me to the blog! It looks like we're just getting out of the starting gate here, so I'll say a bit about what I'm up to. I'm looking forward to see who else jumps on. I am involved with a number of water-related projects and activities. I am involved with various groups working with rainwater catchment and greywater systems. I have a calendar and site that I put a lot of time and energy into at http://www.wiserearth.org/group/arcsanorcal We are loosely organized as the Northern California chapter of the American Rainwater Catchment Systems Association (ARCSA), but we are essentially autonomous.

I am also working on design of greywater and rainwater catchment systems, bioswales, raingardens and low impact design water infrastructure. I am working with Brent Bucknum's Hyphae Design Labs in West Oakland. http://www.hyphae.net/

Another project I am working with is promoting the use of floating islands for water treatment and wave mitigation applications. The company is BioHaven Floating Islands and you can read about the applications and technology here. http://www.floatingislandinternational.com/index.php

So that is a glimpse at my Water World. I am a California Professional Civil Engineer (P.E.) and I am interested in getting involved in more projects. I'm looking forward to see who else gets on this blog. Please contact me if you are interested in collaboration on projects.

Have a good one,

Eric F. Olson
ericfordolson@gmail.com

p.s. there is a great permaculture activist and designer up in Sebastopol named Erik Ohlsen and although we are involved in similar work, we are two different people!

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