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| <back | home SHORTS Following are short vignettes that disturb, en-lighten, inspire, congratulate, and help activists network with other organizations throughout the tri-county area. If you have some news, websites or summaries that you would like to be included here, please jot us an email at info@hopedance.org. THE EIGHT PRINCIPLES OF SUCCESSFUL RAINWATER HARVESTING From Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands, Volume 1 Guiding Principles to Welcome Rain into Your Life and Landscape By Brad Lancaster www.HarvestingRainwater.com 1. Begin with long and thoughtful observation. Use all your senses to see where the water flows and how. What is working, what is not? Build on what works. 2. Start at the top (highpoint) of your watershed and work your way down. Water travels downhill, so collect water at your high points for more immediate infiltration and easy gravity-fed distribution. Start at the top where there is less volume and velocity of water. 3. Start small and simple. Work at the human scale so you can build and repair everything. Many small strategies are far more effective than one big one when you are trying to infiltrate water into the soil. 4. Spread and infiltrate the flow of water. Rather than having water erosively runoff the land’s surface, encourage it to stick around, “walk” around, and infiltrate into the soil. Slow it, spread it, sink it. 5. Always plan an overflow route, and manage that overflow as a resource. Always have an overflow route for the water in times of extra heavy rains, and when possible, use that overflow as a resource. 6. Maximize living and organic groundcover. Create a living sponge so the harvested water is used to create more resources, while the soil’s ability to infiltrate and hold water steadily improves. 7. Maximize beneficial relationships and efficiency by “stacking functions. Get your water harvesting strategies to do more than hold water. Berms can double as high and dry raised paths. Plantings can be placed to cool buildings. Vegetation can be selected to provide food. 8. Continually reassess your system: the “feedback loop. Observe how your work affects the site beginning again with the first principle Make any needed changes, using the principles to guide you. Excerpt from Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands Volume 1, Guiding Principles to Welcome Rain Into Your Life 2006 www.harvestingrainwater.com. Brad will be on a Book Signing Tour and Talk March in Arizona and New Mexico in California from Monday April 17-Sunday April 30. See Permaculture and Natural Building Calendar for details of the tour. There will also be one workshop in Santa Barbara April 22 with Art Ludwig 10-2pm. ecoLogical Home Ideas ecoLogical Home Ideas announces that High Noon Productions, producers of the HGTV series Dream House, is searching the country for families building green homes to appear in future episodes. To be eligible, you must break ground on the Dream Green House in late 2005 or the first half of 2006 and be willing to have camera crews follow your home’s construction from start to finish. Both new builds and extreme renovations are acceptable, especially unique designs, inspiring styles, and outgoing personalities willing to share the challenges and rewards of building green. Interested families, contractors or architects may send an email to DreamHouse@invisibleinkpublishing.com with a brief description of the home and some of its green features. Feel free to pass this information along to your members! Monica Marsicek Publisher, ecoLogical Home Ideas mmarsicek@invisibleinkpublishing.com Creating a Sustainable Economy and Future On Our Planet The San Diego/Tijuana Region: A Case Study by Jim Bell Basically, the book is a plan for the San Diego/Tijuana Region based on the economic and security benefits of making the region self-sufficient in renewable energy, water and food – focusing initially on renewable energy. As a case study, the book walks the reader through a fact-finding and decision-making process that can be applied to create a prosperous and sustainable life-support economy and way of life anywhere on our planet. On a deeper level, the book is about people working together to ensure that our descendents are born into a healthy, secure, prosperous and sustainable life-supporting world. Please give it a read and let me know what you think and feel. If you feel I’m on the right track, let others know about the free book offer. To read or print, go to www.jimbell.com, click on Jim’s New Book, then click here in the box under the book’s title. For people who don’t have access to a computer or those who have a dial-up Internet connection, it may be difficult to download or print the book. For a print version, send $6 for postage and handling with your typed address and a follow-up phone number to: ELSI 4862 Voltaire St. San Diego, CA 92107 The Natural Building Network (NBN) is a non-profit organization providing support through a website and personal phone contact. At NaturalBuildingNetwork.org Natural Builders gather to share ideas and announce events and opportunities. The public can find skilled help and accurate and up-to-date information. For many years Natural Builders have been working together to advance knowledge of Natural Building and share it with others. Since 1994, the Natural Building Colloquium, usually a week-long event, has been held in North America to provide a place to collaborate, share information, present ideas, build things and have a great time. Regional events are also being organized to support the growing community of Natural Builders. With great distances between us, getting together, building relationships and keeping up-to-date can be difficult to do; we have needed a place to meet year-round. The NBN meets that need. Soon NBN will be able to provide the most comprehensive resources on Natural Building available in one place. With your help, we will have tools available to help the public find a free listing of trained builders, contractors, teachers, workshops or skilled volunteers near them with whom to build, learn or collaborate. Our intent is to help facilitate Natural Building Guilds throughout the US and Canada, offer technical data for engineers, architects, contractors and subcontractors, and to dedicate a portion of our funding to support low income projects and builders. We will help builders connect and mobilize in the event of natural disaster; work to improve relationships between Natural Builders, building officials and policymakers; and we will organize and administer Natural Building Colloquia. NBN is a non-profit company of friends supporting community locally while networking regionally and nationally. Your membership and financial support strengthen our community connections. Natural Building Network is making the world more renewable and sustainable. Individual memberships are $27; organizational memberships are $47. Send your payment to: Natural Building Network, P.O. Box 372, Cottage Grove, OR 97424. To learn more, please contact Jack or Carrie via the website: NaturalBuildingNetwork.org; or email: mail@naturalbuildingnetwork.org or phone 541-942-8359.. Village Building Convergence May 19 - 28 2006 Portland, Oregon [See ad in the print issue.] The City Repair Project invites you to Portland for VBC6! In its sixth amazing year, the Village Building Convergence has grown to ever broader scales and depths of impact on the social culture of this continent. Come change the world with us this May. It’s time to go way beyond mere ‘sustainability’ and into creative, living culture! For ten days VBC6 will transform the city of Portland, sparking ecological and societal visions into action. At night we will gather and hear from visionary leaders, share food, celebrate, and learn by creating together. During the day, we will build as many as thirty new ecological, creative-cultural gathering places. Come build with us, you makers and seers, be with us when neighborhoods come outside and into the streets to build and laugh, design and dance as they remake their worlds. Permaculture, Natural Building, Public Art,Participatory Democracy, Localization of Economy - There will be more simultaneous ecological place-making during this year’s VBC event than ever before! More information regarding projects, site leaders,and event and workshop schedules will come your way soon. This year, event registration will be only $270 per person for all ten days, which will include on site lunches, dinner at the central venue, access to all sites and events, and accomodations. This amount will increase to $350 after May 1st. To find out more or register to participate in VBC6 just email vbc@cityrepair.org. VBC6 is sponsored by The City Repair Project, SE Uplift Neighborhood Coalition, KBOO 90.7 FM Community Radio, and the City of Portland Office of Sustainable Development. For more information on Village Building Convergence 2006, you can go to City Repair ( http://www.cityrepair.org ), visit the VBC6 web site ( http://www.cityrepair.org/vbc6/ ) or call 503-235-8946. Fabulous presenteers and performers are expected this year. Past presenters and performers have included The Lions of Batucada, Johnathan Rowe, Penny Livingston, March Forth, David Eisenburg, Starhawk, Joseph Kennedy, Becky Bee, Rob Bolman, Amber Wiggett, Tom Bender, Elke Cole, Randy Schmidt, Nala Wala, Kiko Denzer, Janell Kapoor, Lydia Doleman, Stuart Cowan, Sukita Crimmell, and many, many more! [See ad on page 27 of the print issue!] iGreenBuild Recommended Reading from iGreenBuild.com Knowledge is powerful! Greetings iGreenBuild.com Subscriber! At iGreenBuild.com it is our mission to bring important information, helpful resources and unique green products to your desktop. We hope that this service will help you focus more on what you do best and less on hunting for hard to find information. This month we are featuring an excellent new book about ecological design and schools by Sandra Leibowitz and Jerry Yudelson’s popular green marketing book. If you have any questions about these books or would like to place your order by telephone call (714) 279-7933. “TURNING THE TIDE: IMPLEMENTING SUSTAINABLE STRATEGIES” The University of California, Santa Barbara campus is proud to host the 5th annual statewide sustainability conference “TURNING THE TIDE: IMPLEMENTING SUSTAINABLE STRATEGIES” June 25-28th, 2006. Enjoy two days of conference sessions on: Green building Energy Waste Management Sustainable transportation Institutionalizing sustainability LEED and Water Food Systems Procurement Pre and post conference trainings by the US Green Buildings Council An awards banquet celebrating the work of campus staff And more! Participants will come from UC, CSU, community college, and private university campuses, government agencies, contractors, vendors, suppliers, and the general public. Together we will look at best practices and new technologies in all aspects of “greening” campus life, and explore how to meet the challenges of responsible growth with stewardship. Watch www.sustainability.ucsb.edu/conference for program details, registration (starting March 1st), exhibitor and sponsorship information, and more. Registration fees are not set yet as we are working hard to do additional fundraising to keep the registration fee for the conference low. Scholarships will be available for students. To help us in determining the registration fee and needs of participants: PLEASE FILL OUT OUR PARTICIPANT SURVEY at: www.sustainability.ucsb.edu/conference/survey For further questions email: turningthetide@geog.ucsb.edu Earth Day Festival The 2006 South Coast Earth Day Festival will be held on Sunday, April 23, 10 am to 5:30 pm, at the Santa Barbara County Courthouse Sunken Gardens. The festival is located in the heart of Santa Barbara at the Sunken Gardens of the Santa Barbara County Courthouse, 1100 Anacapa Street. The Earth Day festival features a children’s activity area, live music from the solar-powered stage, a community blessing ceremony, a delicious and healthful food court, free bicycle check-ups, an energy village, a Green Car Show and over 130 commercial and non-profit booths. http://www.communityenvironmentalcouncil.org/Events/Earthday/ 3rd Annual California Common Vision FRUIT TREE TOUR 2006 February 20-April 25 Celebrating the transformation of concrete jungles into urban orchards. www.commonvision.org Thirty earth educators from northern California travel to schools from Los Angeles to San Francisco in the largest known vegetable oil-powered caravan: six vehicles, including three busses. The all volunteer crew travels as a nomadic community visiting schools to plant 1000 fruit trees with urban youth. The three month tour is divided into day-long programs at each school featuring cultural story-telling, West African agricultural drumming, earth-conscious hip-hop, and hands-on involvement in the stewardship of the students school yard. WHEN / WHERE: February 20-March 13: Los Angeles Area, March 13-20: Ojai, Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo March 21-26: Santa Cruz Area, March 27-April 1: Alameda County; April 2-9: Bay Area and Hayward April 10-15: Mendocino, April 15-20: Upper Lake, April 21-25: Grass Valley <back | top^
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