Permaculture Design Certificate Course, February-May 2022

RESTORATION INTENSIVE

Fire, Forests, & Animal Allies

March 28th-April 4th

Join us for an exciting week of hands-on experience with fire, forestry and animals in the beautiful Cazadero Hills of Sonoma County.  Listen to the trees, and learn to care for them with practical work to learn to reduce fire danger, care for forest health, create with forest projects, and learn practical agro-forestry.  You’ll get to meet and learn to care for our cows, goats, sheep, chickens, ducks, and livestock guardian dogs, and there will be time for play, walks, meditation and fun.  As always, we ground our work in spirit, with daily rituals and personal practice. If you’ve taken online courses or read about permaculture, or want to learn practical skills for uncertain times, this is the opportunity to experience it live!

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ABOUT THIS COURSE

Going beyond theory!

This advanced hands-on permaculture course teaches

practical restoration tools and techniques.

Do you feel called as an Earth Healer? This course is for you. 

There’s a quiet revolution going on in the woods, of communities banding together to take responsibility for their forests and grasslands, and create more safety and resilience in the face of climate-intensified wildfire.  This eight-day intensive will immerse you in one such community, focusing on deep listening to the land, hands-on skills for land restoration, and practical tools to mitigate the impacts of climate change. 

We’ll gain experience with many aspects of forest and grassland management—understanding fire ecology, assessing the forest and fire danger, thinning, pruning, limbing up and creating shaded fuel breaks, pile burns, prescribed burns (weather permitting), working with government and other local agencies, making biochar, inoculating mushrooms, and creating other value-added products from the woods. 

Grazing can be one of our key tools for fire prevention and grassland regeneration when done right. In our animal care segments, we’ll have a chance to work with sheep, goats, cows, poultry and livestock guardian and herding dogs, and learn aspects of humane animal care, such as psychology,  training, fencing, and herding.

COURSE FLOW

Earth Activist Training teaches permaculture—ecological design—with a grounding in spirit and a focus on organizing and activism.  We have a strong commitment to social justice, equity and radical inclusion, and these values shape everything we do. Our practical skills are always taught in a context of deep listening, wonder and reverence for nature, and we include ritual, meditation and respect for the natural world as a core part of what we do.

Responding to climate change is not something we can do alone, and wildfire doesn’t stop at your property line.  Community organizing is one of the key regenerative strategies.  So the culmination of our time together will be a community action day that we organize, where we can share some of our new tools with the larger community and celebrate our progress toward resilience.

WHAT TO EXPECT

This workshop builds off the theory presented in the basic Permaculture Design Course and Advanced Permaculture course. The theory presented in those classes will be applied through hands on skills development and practical projects.

The practical tools are important—but to apply them in a healing way, we need both scientific knowledge and guidance from the land itself.  So each day will involve time for ritual, meditation, and listening, to help us open our ears and hearts to what nature is telling us.

This Course Is For You If:

  • You feel anguish or despair about the climate and the state of the environment, and want to renew your spirit while learning positive solutions and practical skills.
  • You want some time outside of the city in a beautiful environment with good food, great people, and a chance to learn new skills.
  • You think you’d like to live on the land—but you aren’t sure, and want to try it out for a time.
  • You live on the land—or hope to some day—and want to learn skills to regenerate it and protect it from devastating wildfire.
  • You’ve learned the theory and taken lots of online courses—and now you want the practical experience.
  • You want to work with animals to help heal the landscape.
  • You want to improve your skills at animal management.
  • You want a career in caring for the environment, forestry, fire protection or a related field.
  • You want a career in nature education or to incorporate more nature awareness into teaching other subjects..
  • You are a climate activist who fears getting burned out—and want the tools to make a positive impact.
  • You want to learn practical skills in a context that honors the spirit.
  • You love nature—and want to do something about it.

 

WE ARE ALWAYS HERE TO HELP

Please reach out to our Student Support Team at: support@earthactivisttraining.org.

Class Schedule

Friday, March 28

  • Arrival; Introductions; Ritual; Slide Show

Saturday, March 29th

  • Forestry- Tools; Thinning and Limbing; Working with Logs

Sunday, March 30

  • Plant Management- Scotch Broom, Transects, Timber Cruise

Monday, March 31

  • Grazing and Browsing for Land Management in Forest and Field

Tuesday, April 1

  • Using Forestry Byproducts- Dead Hedges, Fencing, Biochar, Hurdles

Wednesday, April 2

  • Prescribed Burns; Small Animal Management

Thursday, April 3

  • Food and Pasture Management- Mushroom Propagating; Hardwood Propagating; Pasture Seeding; Pruning

Friday, April 4

  • Evaluations; Closing Ritual: Clean Up

*Schedule is subject to change

MEET YOUR TEACHERS

Starhawk (she/her) is the co-founder and executive director of Earth Activist Training. One of the foremost voices in Earth-based spirituality, Starhawk is an author, activist, and permaculture teacher and designer. Her 12 books include such beloved reads as The Spiral Dance, The Earth Path, and The Fifth Sacred Thing. Starhawk drew from 30 years of living collectively to write The Empowerment Manual, which is the basis for her social permaculture course, Empowering Collaborative Groups.

Starhawk has been recognized by the Permaculture Institute of North America (PINA) as a leading figure in permaculture and has been awarded dual diplomas for excellence in education and permaculture site design.

Best known as an articulate voice in the revival of Earth-based spirituality and Goddess religion, Starhawk is the co-founder of the Reclaiming movement, an activist branch of the modern Pagan religion. In partnership with Donna Read, Starhawk is the co-founder of Belili Productions film company, whose most well-known project was a trio of popular films on the Goddess religion.

Starhawk’s work in progressive activism has spanned generations and geographies. As a global justice and peace activist, Starhawk co-founded RANT: Root Activists’ Network of Trainers, and has taught non-violent direct action across North and South America, Europe, and the Middle East. She has been on the front lines of anti-nuclear actions at Diablo Canyon, Livermore Weapons Lab, Vandenberg Air Force Base, and the Nevada Test Site. She has been a witness for peace in conflict zones across the world, including Nicaragua, El Salvador, and Palestine and Israel.

As a teacher of magical activism and permaculture education, Starhawk’s life work takes her across the globe. She currently lives part-time in San Francisco in a collective house with her partner and friends, and part-time in a little hut in the woods in Cazadero, California, where she practices permaculture in her extensive gardens and writes. Her website is http://starhawk.org.

Delyla Wilson (she/her) engaged Grr-Parent and resilience visionary, began her journey into resilient living as an environmental, social justice, and animal rights activist. Her path includes farmstead learning and living, community street medicine, disaster preparedness, permaculture, and decades of animal management experience with a special focus on all things dogs. Delyla acquired an Earth Activism Training Permaculture Design Certificate; developed and directed the Skills for a New Millennium Tour (a three-year traveling resilience education tour), and earned a Masters in Interdisciplinary Studies focused on Resilience Education for Disaster Preparedness.

Delyla’s energy is focused on resilience education both as a teacher and life-long student. Delyla seeks to weave resilience into every system throughout the web. Delyla currently is developing lines of homestead working dogs, and keeps cows, goats, chickens, and sheep for land management, soil building, carbon sequestering, and dinner.

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW

Who is this course for?

Everyone!

We firmly believe that everyone can benefit from learning how to apply  the tools and insights of permaculture toward the broad goal of earth regeneration. This course is for anyone who is looking to build practical land-based skills in earth healing.  There is a place for everyone no matter your physical ability, background or cultural narrative about who can do this work.

Course Information

  • Location: Sonoma County , California
  • Dates: March 28th-April 4th
  • Instructors: Starhawk and Delyla Wilson
  • Lodging: Camping and and some indoor sleeping space available
  • Catering:  3 daily meals are included in tuition. Vegan, vegetarian, omnivore, and gluten-free options provided. 

Tuition

We are dedicated to making our courses as accessible as possible by offering:

  • Early Bird tuition: $1200
  • Sliding-scale tuition: $1500-$1650
  • Four-part payment plans: $700 at registration with 4-monthly payments of $200
  • Work Trade Tuition: $900 (limited spaces)
  • Alumni tuition: $1000 to retake this course
  • Diversity Scholarships available: See below
  • Group Discounts: See below

All amounts are in US dollars. See below for more details.

    Typical Daily Schedule

    7:30-9:00 Breakfast
    9:00-9:30 Morning Circle and Ritual
    9:30-12:30 Morning Session
    12:30-1:30 Lunch
    2:00-4:30 Afternoon Session
    4:30-6:30 Break
    6:00-7:00 Dinner
    7:30-9:00 Evening Session

    QUESTIONS? 

    We are here for you. Please reach out at: support@earthactivisttraining.org

    Wellness Protocol

    Earth Activist Training practices community health and safety protocols. Because we have elders and immuno-compromised folks in our community, we ask for your support in keeping them safe. Please stay home if you are feeling sick. We require participants to bring an unopened COVID test and test upon arrival. Currently, there are no requirements for masks or vaccinations. We ask that all participants be willing to abide by the conditions set by the teachers and staff.

    Funding Your Education

    Payment options

    Sliding Scale Tuition

    • Early Bird Tuition: $1200
    • Standard Tuition: $1500
    • Abundant Tuition: $1650
    • Every Abundant Tuition helps support a Diversity Scholarship.

    Alumni Price

    • Alumni Tuition $1000
    • For those who want a refresher, you need to have taken this course with us before.

     

    *all amounts in US dolars

    PAYMENT PLAN

    • Payment of $700 when you register.
    • Four monthly installments of $200 ($1500 total).
    • Our Student Support Team will assist you in setting this up.

    GROUP DISCOUNTS 

    • Groups of 2-5 people – Discount of $200 off each ($1300 for each person)
    • Organizations of 6+ people – contact support@eat-activist.org for special group rates
    • Must indicate who is in your group at registration.

      Work Trade

      A limited number of work trade spaces are available. Work trade students pay a reduced tuition of $900 and contribute around 24 hours of work, and are involved in a range of tasks before, during, and after the course.

      Work trade students are generally expected to come 2-3 days early for the course. The work involves preparing materials and project sites for the course. Work trade students are also expected to work during the course. This may include help in the kitchen, cleaning, organizing tools and materials for class, or other activities.

      Diversity Scholarships

      DIVERSITY SCHOLARSHIPS

      • Earth Activist Training is committed to increasing the diversity of global permaculture and regenerative land movements.
      • We recognize the history of this land called the United States and Canada, and seek to do what we can to rectify the deep injustices and systems of inequity that formed and continue to shape society today.
      • Diversity Scholarships are available for Indigenous Peoples and People of Color working in or wanting to work in environmental or social justice.
      • Diversity Scholarships are pay-what-you-can. We urge people to pay half the standard price ($750). We try to give scholarships to as many people as possible, and any little bit you can contribute will allow us to give scholarships to more people.
      • To apply, select “Diversity Scholarship” in the payment section of  the registration form below.
      • Earth Activist Training’s Diversity Scholarship fund is supported by donations. Visit our Diversity Fund page if you wish to support our Scholarship program.

      If you have any questions, we are always here to help: support@earthactivisttraining.org

      REGISTER

      What Comes Next?

      Are you ready for the next step of your learning journey?

      Your Learning Journey

      Regenerative Land Management (RLM) is a multi-year advanced permaculture diploma program designed to further your permaculture practice and provide a deep comprehensive training that will enable you to apply regenerative skills in your life!

      Go beyond a basic PDC with our Advanced Permaculture course. This year-long course, taught in four modules, covers key design topics:

      Other classes with Starhawk 2025

      OUR NETWORK

      A core component of this course – and every Earth Activist Training course – is our private forum: Earth Activist Training Online network. This platform is where you will find course resources, your homework, and a network to connect with classmates and other Earth Activist students.

      Recordings of each class will be available to you as a resource. You will have access to the course for a year after the course ends should you want to deepen your understanding of the material.

      Have a question?

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      Check out the full schedule to find out when our programs and events are taking place.

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