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MLT Newsletter

March, 1990



It's March 13th and 72 degrees! The driveway has turned into a river of sludge and the melting snow has exposed all the little dead things that the dog and cat have been dragging up to the back dcor since last December.
     
Today is a good day to head over to the crumbling one-room school-house and dig up a few sugar maple saplings that have come up from under the old trees that line the school yard.  I've been absconding with 10 to 20 saplings every year for the past five years—the place is overrun with 1000's of them.  I know I'll never live to see the day when my plantings are tapped for syrup, but some day someone will.

The dairy farmer around the corner says that the guy who owns the schoolhouse wants to sell and is asking a lot for the property.The farmer made an offer in the hopes of extending his adjacent pastures but was turned down.  The building is on the verge of collapse.  When it does, and the debris is hauled away and the undergrowth bulldozed, the lot will become a charming site for one of those country-style tract houses.  That's probably why the guy thinks he can get $5,000 for a quarter-acre in an area zoned agricultural.  Fortunately, it is right next door to the dairy farm.  And on those days when the manure is scooped out of the loafing sheds, and spread over the fields, and a gentle breeze blows from out of the west, the air over by the schoolhouse gets real ripe.  In fact, I've even suggested to the dairy farmer that he keep his spreader hitched and loaded should the need arise to impress a prospective land owner.

In retrospect, perhaps I was being too provincial when I made the suggestion.  After all, here I sit with my family--suburban refugees and recent transplants to the soft white underbelly of rural Porter Township.  It should be all right with me if someone follows suit and builds a tract house over where the dilapidated schoolhouse now sits and rots.  And if the new neighbors can remain civil when they get a whiff of that manure when it hits the fields we'll all probably get along just fine.

--Michael Phillips

PERMACULTURE IN A NUTSHELL—A BIBLIOGRAPHY
--Jon Towne and Michael Phillips

Introduction
Permaculture is both an ancient and modern concept.  It is certain that many hunting and gathering  societies consciously managed their environment to enhance food production.  For example, some pre-Columbian cultures developed agrosystems that could sustain relatively high population densities using purely renewable inputs based upon perennial plant species.  The present experiment, agriculture based on the use of linear thinking and too much fossil fuel, can and will be deemed a failure both culturally and ecologically.  Understanding that our developing ethic of reverence for the earth and all life is in our best interest, we are at a point of building from the ground up new agro-ecosystems and permacultures.  Therefore, food and resource production will be based on a postulate that cooperation (synergy) is more powerful and useful than competition (waste producing).  This can happen quickly, there can be no doubt, because of our advances in hard and soft technologies, and in information transfer.

At this point it is appropriate to wrap-up this introduction and transfer information concerning where to get access to tools for sustainable living.  The following annotated bibliography of 13 books and periodicals is meant to moisten the palate of both those newly freed from the mind set of the quick techno-fix, and those who have been delving into aforementioned ideas for many cycles.  Read on!

Foundation

One Straw Revolution—an Introduction to Natural Farming by Masanobu Fukuaka.  Copyright 1978 by Rodale Press. A Japanese approach that considers the philosophy and practicality of a "do nothing" agriculture by being in tune with species succession and other natural processes.

Tree Crops by J. Russel Smith.  An optimistic portrayal of the need for, and use, of trees for livestock forage and food.  Covers many varieties of tree crops and their applications.

New Roots for Agriculture by Wes Jackson.  Copyright 1980 by Wes Jackson.  Addresses sustainable plant  production through the prairie model--that is, a non-woody perennial polyculture.

Aqroecology, the Scientific Basis of Alternative Agriculture by Miguel Altieri.  Copy right 1983 by the University of California. This is a treatise on alternative farming systems through an  ecological understanding of agriculture and agroecosystems. It also approaches sustainability by understanding some traditional farming systems.  Includes much practical information on organic farming as agroforestry.

Forest Farming.  Towards a Solution to Problems of World Hunger and Conservation by J. Sholto Douglas and Robert. A. Hart.  Copyright 1978 by Rodale Press. A complete pre-Mollison view of what a broad scale perma-
culture would look like, especially for third world and impoverished landscapes.  Includes much on elements of design, choice of species, system establishment, and more detail on forest farming in waste areas of temperate uplands and in deserts.

Tools—permaculture for farms, backyards, and commons

Permaculture I and Permaculture II by Bill Mollison.  Copyright 1988 by Tagari Publications. Application of broad scale permaculture for the household. Considerations for climate, topography, water, and vegetation in designing susfcainable food and resource systems.  Extensive discussion on priorites for species placement ("zones") and species selection within a permaculture system.  Two very important books.

Permaculture--A Designer's Manual by Bill Mollison.  Copyright 1988 by Tagari Publications. This is a long-awaited gem (568 pages) for use as a reference.  It's expensive, but well worth it for anyone serious about
permaculture.  Chapters cover concepts and themes in design, methods in design, pattern understanding, climatic factors, trees, water, soils, earth workings and earth resources, humid tropics, dryland strategies, humid cool to cold climates, aquaculture, and strategies of an alternative global nation.

Water for Every Farm, Using the Keyline Plan by P. A. Yeomans. Copyright 1981 by Second Back Row Press:  Pfcy Limited, 50 Govetfc Street, Katcomba 2780, Australia. This book addresses the real importance of scarce water
resources in broad scale agriculture.  The philosophy is to store water first in the soil, and then in ponds-keeping it high on the landscape to maintain its usefulness.  This contradicts conventional thinking, which insists water must be drained when it is in excess and then pumped in from groundwater when it is
depleted.

Edible Landscaping by Rosalind Creasy.  Copyright 1982 by Serra Club Books. Very practical applications for uses of edible ornamentals with an eye towards maintaining and sustaining "our small planet." Provides both an exhaustive plant encyclopedia of edible species and multiple appendices for further references and resources.

Edible Landscaping by Robert Kourik.  Copyright 1984 by Metamorphic Press. General overview of edible North American landscaping with thorough discussion of tree crops.  Includes introduction to botanical characteristics of tree  and plant roots and soils and how species exist within a polyculture.

The International Permaculture Species Yearbook edited by Dan Hemenway.  Available c/o Betsy Keenan, Box 264, Maloy, Iowa 50852. Sporadic periodical with four issues thus far.  Many useful and interesting articles.  Includes TRIP (The Resources of International Permaculture), which is a valuable listing of related organizations and publications.

The International Green Front Report edited by Michael Pilarski. Available c/o Friends of the Trees, P.O. Box 1466, Chelan, Washington 98816. Sporadic periodical with more emphasis on networking.  Last published in 1988.


DRUGGING OURSELVES
--Roger Ulrich

Former UpJohn employee, Merrill Speeter, in a recent letter to the Kalamazoo Gazette "pushes" a pharmaceutical position which labels as criminal studies of drugs in man without prior studies in animals.  In his letter, Mr. Speeter fails to mention the animal distress often involved.  Further, the "humans above all else" ethic fails to acknowledge the data of death imposed upon all life from the toxic chemicals with which Earth is being "shot-up."

Decoyed by politicians calling for life terms for "illegal" pushers, we are pushed into buying "legalized" drugs, thus undermining, often beyond repair, a natural trust in healing herbs, our own positive energy, proper diet, exercise, and faith in the sensibility of moderation.

Led by medicine's behavioral engineers, much of society addictively responds to human discomfort with a chemical warfare mentality.  Adverse side effects from "legal" drugs are down played as are damages from pesticides, herbicides, additives and toxic emissions that routinely invade our food, water and air.  While winking at the havoc wracked upon our ecosystem by this drug trafficking, our government sells drug firms tax abatements and Environmental Protection Agency permission  to continue their polluting habits.

To the extent that we remain blind to over-drugging ourselves with substances legislated "legal," we are diminished as models or those we admonish to "just say no" to over-drugging by the "illegal."

Let us admit that we're at all times "Drugged Lords and Ladies" who hide behind regulations orchestrated via our own democracy Sat allows us to forget Chief Seattles' 1855 message, which we must again remember if we are to survive as a culture:
Whatever happens to animals happens to humans.
Continue to soil your bed and one night you
suffocate in your waste.  We are but one thread in
the web of life.  Whatever we do to it we do to
ourselves.  Whatever befalls the Earth befalls the
children of the Earth.


NOTICES

Michigan Land Trustees co-founder. Sally Kaufman, passed away on March 30, 1990.  Sally will be long remembered by many as a friend, farmer, teacher, activist and community leader.  The MLT Board of Directors wishes to extend its condolences to her family.  Although she will be dearly missed. Sally's works will remain with many of us throughout all our days.

The Gap Mountain Permaculture and School of Living Permaculture Committee present "PERMACULTURE--design for sustainable human communities."  The one month residential course will be offered July 15th through August llth.  Write Gap Mt. Permaculture, 9 Old County Road, Jaffery NH 03452, for more information.

While it's too late to order tree seedlings from county soil conservation districts, often times there are unfilled orders that can be purchased as late as mid-April on a cash and carry basis.  Check with your soil conservation district—virtually every county in Michigan has one-for the availability of coniferous and deciduous seedling species.

The Michigan Land Trustees will be giving away 1000 hardwood seedlings in conjuction with Earth Day observances in Bangor, South Haven and Kalamazoo on the weekend of April 21st.  W& hope to see you there.

The next MLT meeting will be held Sunday, May 6, 1990, at 7 pm, at the MLT Homesteading Farm, County Road 681, Bangor, MI. All are welcome.

The next newsletter will be out in May or June, or maybe even in July.  Your thoughts comments and suggestions are always welcome, as are your poems, essays, book reviews, and personal updates.

--Michael Phillips, Editor

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