Permaculture Design Course and Ecovillage Living Practicum--SUMMERSubmitted by admin on Tue, 01/20/2009 - 03:03The Lost Valley Difference
The Permaculture Design Course and Ecovillage Living Practicum is intended for those with an academic, professional or personal interest in learning sustainable design and community life. These lessons can apply from eco-villages to urban neighborhoods and anything in between. The 8 week long Camassia Institute Permaculture and Community Course explores what it means to live as an individual and a community in a way that is sustainable for the planet Earth. The course covers introductory material and there are no pre-requisites required, while also providing opportunites for people with more knowledge in these subjects to go into greater depth.
 Lost Valley is located in Lane County Oregon, a beautiful, lush, forested region that is sunny in the summer, and has many resources in sustainable thinking and living. As one of the oldest permaculture sites in North America, Lost Valley provides a "living laboratory" and case study for your educational experience, demonstrating advanced permaculture design practices that have been in place for twenty plus years. Founded in 1990 with an ecovillage vision before the term ecovillage had come into use, Lost Valley provides the opportunity to analyze, observe and experience a developing ecovillage and established community.
This course, founded in 2004, was one of the first Ecovillage oriented courses in North America. It includes lessons and opportunities for direct experience in village scale site design and the social aspects of sustainability that are not included in other permaculture design courses.
The course is taught by a greater number of instructors and guest instructors, with a greater diversity of knowledge areas than a typical permaculture design course. This provides access to a diverse array of content and teaching styles. The longer length of this course, compared to a typical two week permaculture course, allows for much more hands-on and experiential activities, and more opportunity for integrating or "digesting" the course content on various levels.
In addition to the Camassia Programs and community, the summer season is Oregon’s cultural height, with many different festivals, local attractions, and opportunities for hiking, camping and other off site summer activities. Nearby Eugene offers all of the amenities of a mid-size college town. Course sessions are scheduled primarily Monday through Friday during the day, leaving time off in the evenings and weekends for relaxing at Lost Valley, exploring the local area or larger region, or doing addition independant studies in areas of your particular interest.
Lost Valley Educational Center is the site and community for the Camassia Institute Programs,
Learn More About the Lost Valley Educational Center Learn More About the Camassia Institute located at Lost Valley
The Curriculum
The holistic curriculum of the course integrates the intellectual, physical and personal so that participants gain a deep understanding of the topic. Teaching methods of the course include lectures, small-group discussions, design projects, hands-on projects and other kinetic demonstrations of the material, as well as field trips to urban, rural, and suburban permaculture sites and communities. Participants who complete the course will receive two certifications, Permaculture Design Certificate, and the Ecovillage Design Education Certificate. The course integrates four main elements:
 Permaculture Design Certificate
The curriculum of this certificate teaches: appropriate technology, growing soil, harvesting local/wild food and other resources, “invisible structures” and social sustainability, natural building and retrofitting, permaculture ethics, principles, & philosophy, producing food in our yards/neighborhoods/communities, reading the landscape, pattern language and recognition, rural, urban, and suburban applications, sustainable economics, transportation and sustainability, “waste” as resources, water on the land: catching, storing, and using rainwater. The Permaculture Design Certificate (PDC) is standard curriculum that is recognized worldwide and is the first step in practicing permaculture. Having the PDC certificate allows one to use the word "permaculture" in a professional context, such as part of a resume, in a business name, or in advertising teaching services.
Permaculture Design ProjectWoven throughout the course, this hands-on Design Project provides an opportunity for participants to learn how to choose a site and, working with a team, design and install an appropriate and bountiful permaculture system. Designed to mesh with the Lost Valley eco-system, many of these projects will have a lasting effect on our community. The lessons of this project will be applicable in most any environment or locale.
Ecovillage Design Education Certificate
Developed by an international team of ecovillage pioneers through the Global Ecovillage Network, this curriculum examines the creation of sustainable communities through four aspects of life: the social, the economic, the ecological, and worldview. This curriculum is endorsed by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization as part of the Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (You can read the whole EDE curriculum here.) The course at Lost Valley is one of only a few EDE certified courses in North America, and only a handful globally. This curriculum provides a global standard for ecovillage education, which will make holders of this certificate better positioned to work in the growing number of ecovillages around the world, as well as providing a great basis for working towards sustainability in more conventional settings in existing neighborhoods and cities.
 Community Living Experience
Participants in this program are not just staying on a campus, they are members of the Lost Valley community. This immersive experience cannot be duplicated by book or classroom and is integral to understanding sustainable development as the rest of the curriculum. As part of the educational experience, students will live as one of the community, experiencing various aspects of the social dimension of sustainable development. These lessons can be helpful in a variety of social contexts from the personal to the professional.
The Instructors
Our programs bring together a variety of great primary and guest instructors, some of whom live at Lost Valley, others from the local area, and some who come great distances to facilitate learning in this program. Our programs are taught by some of the most experienced permaculture teachers in the United States.
Listed below are many of the primary, visiting, and guest instructors who have taught in a number of our recent courses. Accommodations and Meals
As the connection between the students and nature is an integral component of this program, participants will camp in the beautiful Lost Valley Meadow for the length of this course. So please be prepared to bring camping equipment, such as tent and other outdoor living needs. Kitchen and bathroom facilities will be provided on site. If you feel that you will require alternate accommodations please contact the registrar. The cost of these courses includes fresh organic meals prepared three times daily Monday through Friday, combing locally purchased food, food grown on the site in our permaculture gardens, and even some wild fare picked from our land. Though the café is closed on the weekends organic food supplies are provided on the weekends for students to cook with.
Course Dates:
This course runs from June 16, 2009 - August 6, 2009.
Participants are expected to arrive Monday, June 15, 2009 and are expected to depart the Friday August 7, 2009. Application Fee:An application fee of $200 is required for all Camassia Institute courses. It will reserve a place in the course with the remaining tuition due before course start date. Tuition Fee Sample course schedules
To download the schedule for the 2008 fall course, keeping in mind that in 2009 much of the material on communities will be moved to the Creating Community course and that the fall Permaculture & Community course will have a little more time for breadth of material and hands-on activities.
Course Date:
06/16/2009 - 08/06/2009
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