Third Transition Update

The Sonnenschein Green Initiative, Transition Committee held a meeting Wednesday, March 4, with 27 people in attendance. Here are the highlights:

OUTREACH EDUCATION: Jennifer Dauksha-English presented the details for our Summer Permaculture Certification Series, and our 3-day Regional Sustainability Forum, which will be held June 5-7. The group spent 20 minutes reviewing Jennifer's 8-page newly developed Green Guide for Lewis County, TN. The group is trying to raise $800 by asking local businesses and organizations to join the initiative and get their names listed in the Green Guide. The Guide will hopefully be posted in a few weeks.

YOUTH EDUCATION: Debbie Landers again introduced the four students from the General Assembly Academy. The students started a blog - to view their blog click here. They also wrote a letter to the editor about the Sonnenschein Green Initiative - to read letter click here. Debbie shared the students curriculum that they helped design. Click here to view curriculum.

GREEN PROCLAMATION: Debbie Landers and Connie Sharp reported on the progress of the Proclamation. The group decided that the Proclamation would be brought before the City and County in the month of April instead of March, so that we have more time to speak with the City Council Memebrs and Couty Commisisoners. By postponing we will have more time to educate them on the initiative before they vote. Connie Sharp made photocopies of all the Commisioners contact information and passed this out to our group so that the group can make calls over the next weeks.

Food and Farming Working Group also held a meeting Wednesday, March 4. The group is organizing the next Green Evening Cafe' on March 24, 6-8:30 pm at the Emporium in downtown Hohenwald. The Food and Farming Group spent time figuring out the itinerary for the Green Evening. Presentors during the evening will include: Matthew English and Cliff Davis of Ecological Artisans and Casandra Warner of Cane Creek Nature Works Farm. We will also have a cafe conversation (for details on world cafe click here) on food and farming in Lewis County. There will be a seed and plant exchange as part of the event.

After the event planning session we split into three breakout groups: Farmers Market, Community Garden and Community Kitchen. The Farmers Market group noted that the creation of a Farmers Market was being discussed on both the city and county level. One of the members of this group has started communicating with a number of Amish and Menonite in the community to gain their interest in participating. The Community Garden group announced that Buffalo Valley was going to lease the group some land to start a garden this Spring. The lease will be minimal, just enough to cover property taxes. Just after the meeting about 14 people took a field trip to the new garden site. The Community Kitchen group did not have much to report on as this was the first time the topic was discussed since November, 2008. They did identfiy an immediate need for the community kitchen for a potential alternative cheese business. The group came up with a few next steps to contact other operating kitchens.

The next Sonnenschein Green Initiative meeting will be held Wednesday, March 18 from 11:30-1:30 at the Technology Center in Hohenwald. The group meets every other Wednesday. For more details about upcoming meetings and projects contact info@holisticecology.org, 931-796-4874 or 888-878-2434.

Summer Permaculture Certification Series and Demonstration Site

The Center for Holistic Ecology and Ecological Artisans will be offering a summer Permaculture certification series in Hohenwald, Tennessee. This series, as part of the Sonnenschein Green Initiative, will provide local residents with a unique opportunity to receive training and certification in Permaculture at a very reduced price. The organizers of the series anticipate training up at least a dozen locals and hope that the price reduction will enable low-income residents to attend. Aside from receiving this valuable training, participants will partake in the community design and implementation of the local Museum’s new downtown Discovery Center Permaculture site. This training and the development of the new demonstration site will be a first for Hohenwald. In fact, prior to a year a go, there were only a handful of locals in Hohenwald city limits that could identify the term Permaculture. This has changed dramatically since the October 2008 Financial Permaculture Summit and the post-summit outreach efforts.

Permaculture is a design science that takes a whole ecosystem approach to sustainable development. The word Permaculture means permanent agriculture and permanent culture. Permaculture developed in Australia in the late 1970’s by Ecologist David Holmgren and Natural History Professor Bill Mollison and has since spread throughout the world. Leaders of the sustainability movement are applying Permaculture principles and design methodologies to everything from gardens, home sites, village designs, businesses and entire regional economies. The residents of Hohenwald Tennessee are beginning to use Permaculture a primary tool for redesigning their local economy.

The summer series will be taught by local Permaculture Designers: Matthew English, Cliff Davis, Greg Landua, Jennifer Dauksha English, Albert Bates and Adam Turtle.

Summer Saturday Series (click here for full itinerary)
June 13 - Permaculture and Systems Thinking
- Evidence, ethics, principles and design science
June 20 - Natural Systems - Forest, Trees and Climates
- Tour different forest ecoregions in Tennessee
June 27 - Natural Systems - Water and Soils
- Principles of bioregion repair to restore water and soil sheds for productivity
(water storage, conservation, and soil food web)
July 11 - Domestic Systems
- Alternative energy, natural home building and landscape design
July 18 - Cultivated Ecologies - Gardens
- Gardening, mulching, companion planting and composting
July 25 - Cultivated Ecologies - Agroforestry
- Orchards, forest gardens, propagation, aquaculture, bamboo, mushrooms and domestic animals
August 1 - Community Design and Infrastructure
- Business 101, financial ecosystems, regional currencies and strategies for earning a living
August 8 - Broad Scale Permaculture
- Urban design, village scale, ecovillages, transition towns, green ways, bioregionalism and carbon farming
August 15 - Elements of Practical Design
- Tools for site analysis (including zones and sectors), mapping exercises and conducting client interviews
August 22 - Design Day
- Tools for project management, giving presentations, costing and drawing
August 29 - Design Presentations (Open to the public)

COST of SERIES
$150 Lewis County Students
$250 Lewis County Residents or Chamber Members
$500-full series or $75/day for Non-Residents
Event Location - Downtown Discovery Center, Hohenwald

The event will be held in downtown Hohenwald. Meals, lodging and course books are not included in the course price. Classes will be taught at the Strand Theatre and Lewis County Museum Depot. In February of 2009 Directors from the Museum and Lewis County Historical Society approached the Sonnenschein Green Initiative Permaculture Team, requesting that the group design the Museum’s Discovery Center into a Permaculture demonstration site. Participants of the summer Permaculture training series will partake in the community design and implementation of this new downtown Permaculture site. The full implementation of the site may take many years to complete. The design will likely include: interactive Permaculture and soil food web areas, forest gardens, wetlands, water harvesting features and riparian zones, and a Native American and pioneer historical settlements with naturally built dwellings.

See picture of preliminary site drawing above right.

To register or to receive further details about the Permaculture training contact info@holisticecology.org or call 888-878-2434x5. For details about the Discovery Center project contact tonyturnbow@bellsouth.net. The Museum and Historical Society are accepting donations and volunteers to complete the development of the Discovery Center.

Transition Update

The Sonnenschein Green Initiative's Transition Committee held a meeting Wednesday, February 4. There were 22 people in attendance.

Highlights:
DOWNTOWN PERMACUTLURE DEMONSTRATION AREA: Connie Sharp gave a report on the Lewis County Museum's Discovery Center project. A group of local Permaculture designers, Tony Turnbow, Sam Davis and others began work this week on a design to turn the Discovery Center into a Permaculture and natural history demonstration area.

SUMMER PERMACULTURE CERTIFICATION PROGRAM: Jennifer Dauksha-English gave a report on the +72 hour summer Permaculture Certification Program being offered in Hohenwald, every Saturday June through August. The Discovery Center will be the site for the summer training. The training will be offered by the Center for Holistic Ecology, the Sonnenschein Green Initiative and Ecological Artisans. Scholarships and deep discounts on the training are available for Lewis County Residents and youth ages 14-18.

GREEN PLANS FOR NEW SEWAGE TREATMENT FACILITY: Patrick Gibbs and Jennifer English reported on a meeting they and others had with the city regarding applying Permaculture to the design of the cities new sewage treatment facility. The new design will stack green filtration on top of creating a natural viewing area and energy production (such as ethanol and biochar) to make the new facility a productive part of the community.

GREEN PROCLAMATION: Debbie Landers read from a drafted resolution and proclamation that will be presented to the people of Hohenwald and Lewis County to ensure our commitment to local sustainability, and doing all in our power to become known as a TRANSITION TOWN by promoting sincere efforts to local food, energy, goods and services production and responsible waste management in our schools, businesses, homes, local government, media, and community groups.

UPCOMING GREEN EVENTS: The group spent time discussing logistics and marketing for the Thursday, February 19 Green Evening Cafe which will be held from 6-8:30 pm at the Emporium Cafe in downtown Hohenwald. The Green Evening Series will be held once each month. Plans for the June 5-7 Sonnenschein Sustainability Forum were also discussed.

NEW GREEN WORKING GROUPS: For the final half hour of the meeting, the participants split into two working groups. The first group, Food and Farming, met about the value of creating a local Farmers Market. The second group, Green Business Development, discussed the need for a green incubator and a green development park, and scheduled a later meeting to discuss complimentary currencies.

The next Sonnenschein Green Initiative meeting will be held Wednesday, February 18 from 11:30-1:30 at the Career Center in Hohenwald. The group meets every other Wednesday. For more details about upcoming meetings and projects contact 931-796-4874 or 888-878-2434.