Permaculture Design Certificate Course, February-May 2022

Early bird Discount 15% Off Until January 22nd, 2024

RESTORATION INTENSIVE:

Fire, Forests, & Animal Allies

February 23rd- March 3rd

Earth Activist Training’s Restoration Intensive is an in-depth, hands-on course teaching practical land restoration skills. This year’s intensive will focus on fire resilient landscapes, erosion, stream restoration, and integrating livestock as an element of restoration.

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: Golden Rabbit Ranch,Cazadero, California
    • Dates: Feb. 23th – March 3rd, 2024
    • Lodging: Camping
    • Catering: included in tuition 3 daily meals,  vegan, vegetarian, omnivore, and gluten-free options provided. 

Tuition

  • We offer sliding-scale tuition and payment plans to make our courses as accessible as possible.
  • Abundant Tuition: $1,650
  • Standard Tuition: $1,500
  • Resilient Tuition: $1,350
  • Work Trade Tuition $900 (limited spaces)
  • Alumni Tuition: $1,000 to retake this course if you have already taken it.
  • All amounts are in US dollars.
  • Discounts, Payment Plans and Diversity Scholarships available? Yes! Keep reading below.

Typical Daily Schedule

7:30-9:00 am Breakfast
9-9:30—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 pm Evening Session

COVID-19

We follow all current, local health and CDC guidelines regarding vaccination, testing and masking. Due to the changing nature of COVID-19, we ask that all participants abide by the conditions set by teachers and staff. Currently, there are no requirements for masks or vaccines, though testing upon arrival may be required.

QUESTIONS? 

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

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 ten-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 intensive will have two tracks: a Welcome Track for those who are taking this as a stand-alone course, and a Leadership Track for those who are taking this as part of our long-term Regenerative Land Management Program (RLM).  Our RLM students will have opportunities to take leadership on group projects, and present tools and information during our Community Action Day.

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 during Covid—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.

MEET YOUR TEACHERS

Sample Program

Day 1 – Arrive

  • Dinner, welcome, orientation and opening ritual

Day 2 – Fire Prevention and Forestry

  • Each morning will begin with a circle, and time for meditation, deep listening and connection to nature.
  • Morning: Join in community work day—thinning, pruning, limbing up, creating shaded fuel breaks and pile burns.
  • Afternoon: Tour of Golden Rabbit Ranch—Starhawk’s ranch. Stream restoration observation.
  • Evening: Forest Ecology and Fire.

Day 3 – Forestry Techniques

  • Morning ritual: Talking to trees—and more important—listening!
  • Morning: Timber cruising, thinning and pruning, and laying out a transect. Citizen science.
  • Afternoon: Hands-on—trellises, fencing, value added projects, and mushrooms.
  • Evening: Forest management, tree meditation. 

Day 4 – Animals

  • Morning/Afternoon: Goats and sheep- uses, care, history, and training. This includes hands-on hoof trimming, lead training, and other care.
  • Evening: Storytelling

    Day 5 – Dogs on the homestead and Burn Prep

    • Morning ritual: Fire as our Teacher
    • Morning: Prep for prescribed burn
    • Afternoon: Dogs – uses, care, history, and training. This includes herding, hands on grooming and training, and learning how to do vaccinations, treat minor injuries and other basic health care.
    • Evening. Energy-sensing. Slideshow: mushrooms and biochar

    Day 6 – Prescribed Burn

    • Morning Ritual: Listening to the Land
    • Morning/Afternoon: Prescribed burn
    • Evening: Bonfire and celebration, co-created ritual

    Day 7 – Biochar and Livestock

    • Morning Ritual: Releasing and transforming with fire
    • Morning: Biochar, TLUD and pit methods.
    • Afternoon: Animals/ cows and pigs – uses, care, history, training. This includes hands-on grooming, halter and fence training for cows, and pig training.
    • Evening: Sacred Cycles of Birth, Life and Death. Begin prep for community day.

    Day 8- Small Animals

    • Morning Ritual: Seeing through Animal Eyes
    • Morning: Small animals/poultry and rabbits – uses, care, history, training.
    • Afternoon: Hands-on working with poultry, rabbit butchering and prep for community day.
    • Evening: Continue prep for community day.

    Day 9- Community Day

    • All Day: Community work day and presentations/demonstrations, student-led all day celebration

    Day 10- Closing

    • Evaluation and reflections
    • Learning
    • Next steps
    • Closing Ritual and leaving

    SOCIAL PERMACULTURE

    Social Permaculture = RESILIENCE 

    Social permaculture is the Earth Activist Training specialty. It teaches us how to organize our human communities, resolve conflicts, make decisions, work together effectively, and support one another to renew hope and spirit.

    We teach both online and in-person courses in aspects of social permaculture, and it is woven into everything we do.  As Starhawk often says, “The vegetables are the easy part–it’s people that are always the biggest challenge!”  If we can improve the way we interact with one another, we can make all of our efforts more effective.

    Funding Your Education

    Payment Plans

    Our goal is to increase accessibility to our trainings by offering a five-part payment plan.

    If you select a payment plan you will:

    • Pay an initial deposit of $700 and
    • Then four monthly installments of $200 ($1,500 total)
    • Our Student Support Team will assist you in setting up this process

    Sliding Scale Tuition

    We offer sliding scale tuition and payment plans to make our courses as accessible as possible 

    • Abundant Tuition: $1,650
    • Standard Tuition: $1,500
    • Resilient Tuition: $1,350
    • Alumni Tuition: $1,000 For EAT Alumni who have taken this course before
    • All amounts are in US dollars.

    Every Abundant Tuition helps support a Diversity Scholarship.

      Bring a Friend & Group Discounts

      • Bring a Friend (2-5 people) – $200 off each Standard tuition ($1,300 total for each person)
      • Groups of 6 or more people – $300 off each Standard ($1,200 per person)
      • For group discount contact: support@earthactivisttraining.org

        Work Trade

        A limited number of work trade spaces are available. Work traders pay a reduced tuition of $900 and are involved in a range of tasks before, during, and after the course.
        Work traders are generally expected to come several days early for the course. The work involves preparing materials and project sites for the course. Work traders 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 

        • 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.

          Supported by your donations, a select number of pay-what-you-can Diversity Scholarships are available for Indigenous People and People of Color working in environmental and food justice.
        • These scholarships are pay-what-you-can with the recommended value of 50% of standard tuition ($750), but any amount will be accepted and appreciated.

        We are always here to help: Support@EAT-Activist.org

        REGISTER

        YOUR LEARNING JOURNEY

        You may also be interested in our Advanced Permaculture course, Advanced Permaculture. This course is a year-long course broken up into three six-week modules focused on: design, water management, soil care and building, incorporating animals into a system, building food forests, and managing woodlands.

        Regenerative Land Management a multi-year advanced permaculture diploma program, focused on knowledge and skill building for designers, land managers and activists. This program is designed to expand students understanding of regenerative design and build practical skills in land management.

        Have a question?

        OUR CALENDAR

        Check out when our programs and events are taking place.

        Join our announcement list

        Want to be notified of EAT course updates and new program information? Sign up to join our list.

        Skip to content