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MLT Newsletter

Spring 1983

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Thomas Breznau
Kenneth Dahlberg
Albert Huntoon
Maynard Kaufman
Sally Kaufman
Michael Kruk
Michael Phillips

Take a look—it's spring! The grasses and fields are green, remembered calls of summer birds fill the air, the pussy willows velvety grey overlaid with gold, and the Canada geese fly in V's across the sky. A joyful spring equinox to you all.

The brochures for the summer program at the Land Trust Homesteading Farm are ready to send out. Thorn Phillips and Jan Filonowicz will be there to greet students this summer. If you know of prospective students give them the above address for more information.

The next MLT meeting will be April 22 at the Land Trust Farm, l 1/2 miles north of the blinker light on M43 in Bangor. There will be a potluck at 6 P.M. followed by the meeting at 7. Bring a dish to pass.

*****

ON COMMUNITY LAND TRUSTS

We have been receiving newsletters from the Kansas Land Trust. Formed about a year ago the Trust is looking for land on which to settle a minimum of 12 households, each household to lease an acre or two, and "the balance preserved, farmed, used for community needs such as a community center, or a combination thereof." The plots would have certain environmental restriction similar to our own. "The 99 year renewable leases give long-term land use control and inheritance rights, the same as owned land...we also have visions...of the good life, of helping create a better society, and of harmony, peace, and joy. We want to weave non-violence and love into the social fabric of the CLT." Our best wishes to the KLT in achieving their worthwhile goals.

-Sally Kaufman, Editor


MUSINGS FROM THE CHAIR -Swan Huntoon

When J.T. packs up his belongings, loads up the truck, and drives away from the "love farm" come May a lot of people will be sorry to see him go. I know I will. It seems to me Jon is almost an institution at the Homesteading Farm. I first met him three or four years ago the spring I attended the MLT's homesteading program. It was a warm and memorable experience, and I met many people then who are among my best friends now.

There were ten other students besides myself, and we formed a close little community. I feel that Jon's way of teaching the program had a lot to do with this. He was such an important part of the farm that if you wanted to leam about it you had to ask Jonathan (and if you didn't want to learn about the farm what were you doing there?).

Although Jon is moving on to something new he will still be involved as a board member of the MLT. So I guess we really don't have to say goodbye. Maybe just good luck.


BOOK REVIEWS

Permaculture One and Permaculture Two, Bill Mollison and David Holmgren. Stanley Tasmania, Australia: Tagari Books, 1978 and 1979. Available from Inter-national Tree Crops Institute, Inc., Box 888, Winters, CA 95694   

                                                     -Normon Bober

Actions are derived from ideas. While present agricultural practices are based on the idea of unlimited soil fertility and technological mastery of natural processes, there are other ways. Organic growers have recognized the need to replenish the earth and to work with nature rather than trying to master it. Another concept, that of permaculture, expands the principles of organic growing to holistic level.

Writing in the books, Permaculture One and Permaculture Two, Bill Mollison describes permaculture as "an integrated, evolving system of self-perpetuating plant and animal species that are useful to people." The model is based on the premise of a declining fossil fuel energy base and a view that perennials grown in diverse, yet companionate groupings are healthier and more productive than monoculture techniques. Permaculture uses conscious planning to "maximize functional connections" not only among different plant types but also plant/animal relations.

The idea seems to have developed in Australia but is also consonant with Masanoba Fukuoka's One Straw Revolution, with Native American, and with Australian aboriginal farming practices. The practices require respect for our earth-mother. In practice, it means nourishing, not exploiting. It means caring for the environment so that food can be provided both for present and future generations.

Under this system people become stewards of the land. They develop shelterbelt and crop relations that simulate the edge effect in forest communities. The edge effect is noted for its prolific and diverse plant/animal groups. It is in these areas that Mollison suggests intercropping plants and animals. A ready example is that of tree crops (i.e. honey locust) providing food for foraging animals. In other areas mulberry trees provide seeds for chickens or hogs, or gooseberries grown among orchard trees bring different fruits.

In planning the permaculture homestead, fencing takes first priority. This is similar to Ken Kern's idea in the Owner Built Homestead. Perimeter plantings are put in place first. The next step then leads to subdividing areas according to potential use. The fencing can be of wire or wood type, or a multiple tier effect of plants growing to varying heights and thickness.

Zoning brings the whole unit together. Activities radiate from the residence and are situated according to frequency of use. Cultivation of animals (vegetables, grains) is done in protected areas and perennials are interspersed in plant groups.

Crop production is intended to be successful not in single item quantity but rather in diversity. A grower might harvest smaller amounts of apples, peaches, plums, pears, and cherries rather than a heavy crop of apples. The quantity comes in diversity. Whether this is a practical consideration is open to question.

Interplanting various types seems to benefit the ecosystem in that it diminishes insect predation and viral diseases. But there are also other considerations that Mollison doesn't mention. One reality is that some plants are not compatible. Black walnut tree roots release auxins that hinder other plant's growth (i.e. tomatoes) By the same token, gooseberries are host to a rust that is harmful to white pines.

The value of the works likes in their holistic approach to working with nature. Permaculture One establishes the theory and Permaculture Two extends it to practical rural and urban applications. Intercropping and increased use of perennials makes sense for people interested in self sufficiency. Neither work provides "how-to" solutions but their application of general principles offer food for thought.


The Community Land Trust Handbook, The Institute for Community Economics. Emmaus.PA
18049: Rodale Press     

                                                                                                    -Maynard Kaufman


As the several authors explain in the preface to the book, it was intended to provide three things: "a general introduction to the CLT (community land trust) model as it is currently implemented, representative samples of existing CLTs, and a reasonably compact guide for people already establishing CLTs and those interested in doing so." The chapters of the book are organized into three sections to fulfill these purposes.

The first two chapters (Section I) review some problems in land tenure in contemporary society and how CLTs can help to cope with them. As land became private property and more people are deprived of it there is a need for institutions which provide access to land. The CLT is one such institution. It is defined as "an organization created to hold land for the benefit of a community and of individuals within the community. It is a democratically structured nonprofit corporation, with an open membership and a board of trustees elected by the membership." (p. 18). Differences between the CLT model and other nonprivate modes of land ownership are discussed, as well as the different forms the CLT may take in various urban or rural contexts. The emphasis in the CLT is on removing land from the speculative market so that access to land and housing is possible for a community.

The second section of the book, which reviews six CLTs and three land trusts with less community emphasis, illustrates the various forms in which the CLT models can be implemented. These chapters, as they describe how representative CLTs originated and developed, reveal some significant characteristics of the CLT model.

It is obvious that many CLTs grew out of the strong humanitarian commitment of their founders, and in many cases this was based on a specific religious vocation. In some cases it took years of disciplined effort by really dedicated persons to get a CLT organized. Even more important in the formation of a CLT is that its organizers must be firmly rooted in a community. Unless this is so it may become, like New Communities in Georgia, a group of directors in search of a community. Although New Communities is one of the oldest CLTs and has the most land, making payments on the land appears to take priority over community development and it appears less socially vital than other CLTs described in the book.

The final section is devoted to practical advice for persons interested in organizing a community land trust. It begins with an emphasis on outreach toward the larger community, especially as the CLT moves from its philanthropic or counter-cultural origins into the main stream of community life. The CLT should work with public agencies as it provides housing for low income people or with environmental organizations for the preservation of lands threatened by development. This is important, and difficult. As land is placed in trust it is "rescued" from being a commodity in the market economy and reinstated as a sustainable resource for the people who live on it. The CLT model does challenge the ideology of the market economy which still prevails in society at large. CLTs are emerging, in fact, because, as the authors acknowledge, "ours is a time in which most people feel helpless before the powerful and often paralyzing economic forces that affect their lives" (p.35). Moreover, although understated in the book, access to land also implies a growth in the household economy as more people can produce for their own use. Thus the market economy loses to the collective economy, on the one hand, and to the household economy, on the other hand.

The market economy has promoted the concentration of wealth and land ownership into fewer hands. The authors worry about this and about the three million acres which are lost to agricultural use each year. This may be an exaggeration; the three million acres include a production loss equal to at least one million acres due to soil erosion. But perhaps one million acres are converted from so-called production agriculture to residential use each year, much of it divided into lots of a few acres or less. Rural CLTs are a small part of this farmland conversion, and instead of worrying so much about the alleged conversion of farmland to residential use, as the authors did, it may be possible to affirm an underlying kinship between those who acquire rural land privately and those who do so as a community. Both are working out possibilities for increased household production instead of depending so totally on the market economy.

Other chapters in the final section offer practical advice on internal organization, land acquisition, financing, land use planning and leasing. For readers seeking technical assistance these are the most valuable chapters in the Community Land Trust Handbook. Now that this book is available it is possible for persons who are committed and rooted in a community to organize a CLT even though they may lack technical or legal expertise. The handbook provides general guidelines and more detailed technical assistance is also available from the Institute for Community Economics as more specific problems arise.

The Handbook includes a helpful 5-page bibliography, an index, and is pleasingly illustrated with woodcuts and photographs. And although it is the result of group cooperation its literary style is consistent and reflects careful editorial coordination.


Toward _a New Land Use Ethic, Piedmont Environmental Council. 28-C Main St., Warrenton, VA 22186              

                                                         -Michael Phillips


The Piedmont Environmental Council is an organization serving the Northern Virginia Piedmont area. Its intention is to "promote effective land use planning and environmental conservation." This effort provided an exploration of values, uses and policies regarding land uses of the Virginia Piedmont. Such inquity can be applicable throughout the country.

What the PEC tries to provide is a cohesive, humanistic view regarding land use in the best public interest. Their underlying precept is that existing land use ethics and values "fail to come to grips with our newly discovered ecological interdependencies and limits." Toward a New Land Use Ethic is a compilation of nine essays specifically solicited from a variety of social scientists. Each discipline represented provides its own unique perspective regarding land use. The council provides the theme but several papers miss the objective. Fortunately, the works are strung together by critical evaluations and commentary following each essay.

The general concensus is that our existing land use ethic is unable to provide for the "common good" of the public. We maintain an anthropocentric view that nature can only be evaluated in relation to its resource value to people. This has resulted in the Virginia Piedmont's (and the continent as a whole) inability to absorb the excesses of industry, commerce and population redistribution.

As environmental degradation abounds, how then do we provide for the common good with regards to land use? This involves a rethinking of land, land as a resource and commodity, and land as private property. The essays are an attempt to address this need.

But one particularly interesting essay was David Little's paper: "Land Use and the 'Common Good:' Religious Backgrounds." Many people are quick to point a finger at traditional American Christian values (i.e. "man's trancendence over nature," Genesis, Calvin, etc.). While religious implications can be labeled as culprit. Little argues that this is not conclusive. What exists is "heritage ambivalence." Those same values can provide "notions" as to what is the common good. If nature is intended to be for the benefit of all human beings, then "to abuse nature by waste of wanton destruction, is at once irreverent and immoral." Little goes as far as to quote Calvin:

Am I worthy that the earth should sustain me when I
wish to obliterate God's grace for my neighbors as
well as myself? Do I deserve to be sustained by nature,
if I do not let nature follow its own course, obey its
rules? If I do not, am I not then a monster? (p. 56)

In the PEC's efforts to provide a humanistic view of land use, they relied on lawyers, economists, a philosopher, religiologist, architects...nine different men. Their efforts were supplemented by the commentaries of five men. The review group included eleven men. It would seem that any interdisciplinary attempt to come to grips with an emerging land ethic would make some reference to feminism and a view of nature as nuturing.

*****

One generation passeth away, and another generation cometh: but the earth abideth forever.

-Ecclestastes


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