Get out your shovels and dance in the rain! That is what Brad Lancaster’s second volume in his trilogy on Rainwater Harvesting will make you want to do. Event flyer is Here.
Join Brad Lancaster on Thursday, August 28, at 7pm, Chaparral Auditorium, as he shares his experiences traveling the world learning about harvesting rainwater---with simple landforms and earthworks---in places like India, Peru, Mexico, Africa and the United States, where impoverished landscapes are turned into oases of life.
Harvesting rainwater was once a worldwide technology, but was replaced by pipes, canals, and sprinklers---inefficient and wasteful strategies that are running dry. In his newly published book Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands and Beyond:Vol 2, Water-Harvesting Earthworks, Brad Lancaster shares techniques for designing landscapes that passively harvest water using brilliant, low-tech, regenerative systems to hydrate the land and maximize the benefit that water brings to plants, animals and people.
Water has been identified as a global crisis in the making. Southern California has one of the most piped landscapes ever designed, relying on water from far away that may not be available in the future. Brad's book encourages individuals and government agencies to redesign landscapes to live sustainably in their watersheds. Earthworks, using
shovels to large earth moving equipment, can be the foundation strategy for sustainable landscapes.
Brad Lancaster is a permaculture teacher, designer, consultant and co-founder of Desert Harvesters (DesertHarvesters.org). Brad has taught programs for the ECOSA Institute, Columbia University, University of Arizona, Prescott College, Audubon Expeditions, and many others. He has helped design integrated water harvesting and permaculture systems for homeowners and gardeners, including the Tucson Audubon Simpson Farm restoration site, the Milagro and Stone Curves co-housing projects.
Comments (2)
It's good to see people in Ojai are taking this seriously now. Ten years ago when we were doing this at our little patch of paradise in the orchards up on Foothill, people made fun of us for being a couple "cheap hippies". After we moved to Pennsylvania, we found out that in the east they call it "sustainable agriculture". This is part of our current water system. Link: http://paintedhandfarm.blogspot.com/2008/06/farming-with-free-stuffwell-amost-free.html For anyone who knew us in Ojai, you'll recognize the 'fish box' as our 'hot tub'. Keep up the good work.
Comment #1 Posted by Sandra Kay Miller | August 13, 2008 10:10 AM
I highly recommend a visit to former Ojai resident Sandra Kay Miller's web site, listed above. I've "visited" her Painted Hand Farm site many times, and each time I learn something new. Check out her water system!
Comment #2 Posted by Suza Francina | October 25, 2008 3:29 PM