[Santa Cruz, CA Permaculture] UCSC Common Ground Center Winter Quarter Events

Mon Jan 25 21:29:02 PST 2016

Greetings Santa Cruz Permis!
I run a permaculture center at UC Santa Cruz and would like to invite you to join our mailing list, and come to our upcoming free events. Best, David

Would you like to learn about the UCSC Common Ground Center <http://kresge.ucsc.edu/commonground/index.html>, an organization dedicated to social justice and sustainability? Please sign up for our newsletter here <http://kresge.ucsc.edu/commonground/index.html>, or follow our Facebook page here <https://www.facebook.com/commongroundcenter/>. And here is a list of upcoming events this quarter (all at UCS Kresge Seminar Room #159). 
Every Monday, 5:00 - 7:00pm - The World Cafe: Food, Tea and Conversations That Matter
Tue, Jan 26th, 2:00 - 4:40pm - Beyond the War on Invasive Species: A Permaculture Approach to Ecosystem Restoration with Tao Orion 
Tue, Jan 26th, 6:00 - 7:30pm - Resilient Agriculture: Cultivating Food Systems for a Changing Climate with Laura Lengnick, Ph.D.
Tue, Feb 9th, 6:00 - 7:30pm - Discover Fantastic Fruits for Our New “Weird Weather” with John Valenzuela
Also, we have a Common Ground Center New Member Orientation at at our office (Kresge Room 166, next to STARS) on Thursday, Feb 18th, 11:00am - 12:30pm. Learn how to get involved in the Common Ground Student Board, Jobs and Internships, Kresge Garden, Take Back the Tap, Friends of the Community Agroecology Network, Right Livelihood College, and UCSC Bioneers Conference! 

Lastly, Save the Date for the UCSC Bioneers Conference April 23-24 at Kresge College, a 2-day Conference with Guest Speakers, Workshops, Artistic Performances and More!

Scroll down for more information.

- Common Ground Center students and faculty

Every Monday, 5:00 - 7:00PM
“The World Cafe: Food, Tea, and Conversations that Matter” 
At the Kresge Seminar Room #159
Free event

The World Cafe at UCSC is a weekly potluck of both food and ideas. We aim to bring a diversity of people together to explore whatever topics matter to them. Each night is focused on a different theme, often proposed by a student club or passionate individual wanting to develop their conversational leadership. We savor the inquiry as we savor the food and tea, connect deeply with one another, form friendships, move projects forward, and create actionable knowledge. The World Cafe is a process used around the globe to surface the collective intelligence of groups of all sizes. 

For more information visit our homepage <http://kresge.ucsc.edu/commonground/activities/the-world-cafe.html> or join our Facebook Group <https://www.facebook.com/groups/ucscworldcafe/>. 

Tuesday, January 26th, 2:00 - 4:40PM
“Beyond the War on Invasive Species: A Permaculture Approach to Ecosystem Restoration”
Lecture by Tao Orion
At the Kresge Seminar Room #159
Free event

Invasive species are everywhere, from forests and prairies to mountaintops and river mouths. Concerns that invasive species represent significant threats to global biodiversity and ecological integrity permeate conversations from schoolrooms to board rooms, as citizens grapple with how to rapidly and efficiently manage their populations. These worries have culminated in an ongoing “war on invasive species,” where the arsenal is stocked with bulldozers, chainsaws, and herbicides put to the task of their immediate eradication. Beyond the War on Invasive Species offers a much-needed alternative perspective on invasive species and the best practices for their management based on a holistic, permaculture-inspired framework.

This dynamic workshop will explore managing agro-ecosystems for maximum diversity and productivity. Tao Orion, author of Beyond the War on Invasive Species, will discuss holistic and organic methods of farm-scale invasive species management.

Tao Orion is a permaculture designer, teacher, homesteader, and mother living in the southern Willamette Valley of Oregon. She teaches permaculture design at Oregon State University and at Aprovecho, a 40-acre nonprofit sustainable-living educational organization. Tao consults on holistic farm, forest, and restoration planning through Resilience Permaculture Design, LLC. She holds a degree in agroecology and sustainable agriculture from UC Santa Cruz, and her interest in restoration was piqued when studying botany, wildcrafting, and herbalism at the Columbines School of Botanical Studies in Eugene, Oregon. She has a keen interest in integrating the disciplines of organic agriculture, sustainable land-use planning, ethnobotany, and ecosystem restoration in order to create beneficial social, economic, and ecological outcomes. When she is not writing, she is busy keeping up with her toddler and wrangling a diverse array of plants and animals on her 6.5-acre homestead, Viriditas Farm. - See more at: http://www.chelseagreen.com/beyond-the-war-on-invasive-species <http://www.chelseagreen.com/beyond-the-war-on-invasive-species#sthash.hlgZxvZy.dpuf>
Join the Facebook Page for more info!  <https://www.facebook.com/events/873631106089213/>

Tuesday, January 26th, 6:00 - 7:30PM
“Resilient Agriculture: Cultivating Food Systems for A Changing Climate”
Lecture by Laura Lengnick, Ph.D
At the Kresge Seminar Room #159
Free Event

Climate change is upon us and agriculture is inextricably involved. Fundamental to our identity as a species, crucial to the health and well-being of our communities, the way that we eat fuels the 21st century challenges that threaten our way of life. Author, scientist, educator and farmer, Laura Lengnick weaves the practical lessons learned by some of America’s best sustainable farmers and ranchers with the latest climate science and resilience theory to explore the potential of nature-based climate change adaptation strategies to enhance the resilience of U.S. farming and food systems.

Laura Lengnick has explored agriculture and food system sustainability and resilience through more than 30 years of work as a researcher, policy-maker, educator and farmer. Her work in soil quality and sustainable farming systems was nationally-recognized with a USDA Secretary’s Honor award in 2002 and she contributed to the 3rd National Climate Assessment as a lead author of the 2012 USDA report Climate Change and U.S. Agriculture: Effects and Adaptation. After more than a decade leading the academic program in sustainable agriculture at Warren Wilson College, Laura left the college in 2014 to launch Cultivating Resilience, LLC a private firm offering climate risk management services. Laura is member of the North Carolina Agriculture and Forestry Adaptation Work Group, is an affiliated researcher with the Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Project’s Local Food Research Center, and holds an adjunct faculty position in the Horticulture Department at North Carolina State University. Laura’s new book, Resilient Agriculture: Cultivating Food Systems for a Changing Climate was released in May 2015 by New Society Publishers.

Join the Facebook Page for more info!  <https://www.facebook.com/events/873631106089213/>

Tuesday, February 9th, 6:00 - 7:30PM
“Discover Fantastic Fruits for Our New “Weird Weather”
Lecture by John Valenzuela
Free Event

You can grow wonderful fruit in spite of our recent drought and warm winters. John Valenzuela will share simple and effective growing strategies and techniques, with water wisdom and microclimate magic. He will also discuss fantastic fruit species and varieties adapted to our ever changing climate.”

With the unusually dry and warm winters we have had lately, many people have had problems with their fruit trees becoming sadly unproductive. Through discussion and slide show, explore strategies to deal with drought and lack of winter chill, with specific techniques to manage water, and optimize microclimate effects for better fruit production. We will also describe successful drought tolerant and low chill species and varieties. The workshop will culminate in an interactive process to co–create a list of “climate resilient fruit” appropriate for various climates, which you can share with your community back home. There will be fruits to sample. Please bring some of your own home grown and foraged fruit to share!

John Valenzuela is a horticulturist, consultant, and permaculture educator. Living in Hawai'i for 15 years, he studied and practiced tropical permaculture while teaching throughout the Islands to a wide range of people — children, students, professionals, farmers, displaced sugar workers, owners and renters.

He has been a lead permaculture design course teacher at the Bullock Family Homestead in Orcas Island, Washington, for 10 years, also having taught in Costa Rica and throughout urban and rural California. His special interests are home gardens, plant propagation, rare fruit, food forests, agroforestry, ethnobotany, and native ecosystems. 

He is now based in his original home state of California, where he maintains ornamental and edible landscapes and a small nursery, while sharing his passion for plants. John has served as the chairperson for the Golden Gate Chapter of the California Rare Fruit Growers Association.

Join the Facebook Page for more info!  <https://www.facebook.com/events/538396706335045/>

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