Now enrolling for Spring 2025

weekend permaculture design course

march 8 - may 24 2025

Weekend permaculture design course

Curriculum Overview and Schedule

We offer weekend permaculture design courses in the spring and fall of each year, providing a flexible, accessible way to gain permaculture knowledge, without having to take two straight weeks off work to do it (like most permaculture design courses). The extended learning period also helps with knowledge integration and discernment of one’s future path. Our in-person permaculture design courses follow the established international standard of 72 hours of contact time with experienced instructors, including a final group design project that weaves together everything the students have learned. The course is held in person each Saturday for three months using the Permaculture Institute of North America Core Curriculum.

Spring 2025 PERMACULTURE DESIGN COURSE
Saturdays, march 8 – may 24, 2025

10:00 am – 6:00 pm, with a 1-hour break for lunch.
Optional Land & Garden projects: Sundays, March 16 - May 18 from 10:00 am - 1:00 pm

Course Schedule

• Week 1 – Ethics & Principles & the Local Ecosystem

• Week 2 – Patterns, Reading the Landscape & Natural Building

• Week 3 – Design Process, Keyline Design, Biogeography & Microclimates

• Week 4 – Water: Cycle, Harvesting, Retention & Aquaculture

• Week 5 – Trees, Forest Ecology, Fire & Regenerative Forestry

• Week 6 – Plants, Cultivated Ecologies, Earthworks, Soils & Microbiology

• Week 7 – Social Permaculture, Animal Integration & Closed Loop Systems

• Week 8 – Decolonizing Permaculture and Access to Land

• Week 9 – Designing for Catastrophe, Waste & Bioremediation

• Week 10 – Permaculture Economics & Suburban Permaculture

• Week 11 – Designing for Other Ecosystems & Client Relationships

• Week 12 – Presentations, Planning for the Future and Community Celebration!

Why Study at Lost Valley?

• LOST VALLEY is an 87-acre, living permaculture-inspired site, with over 30 years of experimenting with solutions.

• The diverse set of permaculture instructors are experienced in their areas and have been teaching for years. Some are onsite residents, some live nearby. (See below for instructor bios, photos, and videos.)

• The schedule suits local working people

• Approved for academic credit through Humboldt State University.

• Great price — Daily commuters aren't required to pay for food or lodging.

• Just 30 minutes from Eugene/Springfield, it’s easy to reach, yet a peaceful escape.

• Other onsite learning opportunities (such as in the gardens) and connections with residents and students.

 Meet your permaculture Instructors

Our local resident land manager Brian Byers and our local resident garden manager Khyla Allis will be teaming up as our lead instructors. Though the majority of our class time will be in-person, outside, and in the field, we will also be bringing in some of the most skilled and experienced teachers nationally and internationally via zoom! Additional guest instructors include:

• David Holmgren * – Best known as the co-originator with Bill Mollison of the permaculture concept following the publication of Permaculture One in 1978. Since then, he has developed three permaculture properties, consulted and supervised in urban and rural projects, and presented lectures, workshops and courses at a wide variety of events and venues in Australia and around the world. Author of Permaculture: Principles and Pathways Beyond Sustainability.

• Dan Wahpepah – Dan teaches from the Indigenous perspective, focusing on decolonization, healthy thinking, and “returning to being a human being.” He grew up immersed in American Indian Movement culture and his traditional ways. His father is a spiritual leader and his uncle founded West Coast AIM.

• Monica Ibacache * – New York based community organizer, sustainability educator, and ecological designer committed to social and environmental justice. Monica has dedicated her life to working with diverse and marginalized communities in education and local development in the U.S. and abroad.

• Andrew Millison * –Andrew has been studying, teaching and practicing Permaculture since he took his first design course in 1996. He started teaching Permaculture at the college level in 2001, and has been an instructor at OSU in the Horticulture Department since 2009. Andrew’s popular permaculture videos have several million views and are highly recommended.

• Tao Orion – 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. Author of Beyond the War on Invasive Species.

• Abel Kloster – Abel is the co-owner of Resilience Permaculture Design, a whole systems design and installation firm specializing in farm and forestry planning and ecological restoration. Abel is a consulting forester with the Oregon Department of Forestry, a Technical Service Provider with the Natural Resource Conservation Service, and writes comprehensive stewardship plans for landowners seeking to develop and regenerate their properties.

• Kara Huntermoon – Kara is the Southern Willamette Valley’s local expert on wetlands Permaculture. One of seven co-owners of Heart-Culture Farm Community in the Long Tom Watershed, she manages the 33-acre integrated Permaculture community farm, breeds livestock and vegetable varieties, experiments with grafting on noncommercial rootstock, and teaches WWOOFers and apprentices.

* Will appear over Zoom

MEAL OPTIONS*

You’ll have the option to bring your own meals or to join us for organic, vegan, gluten-free lunches made with locally-sourced produce from our land and gardens and neighboring farms. Focusing on infusing seasonal veggies with international flare, meals are flavorful and deeply nourishing. Our chef likes to include fermented and probiotic elements like kraut, kimchi, and pickled vegetables with each meal. *Meal options to be determined closer to the start date of each course

Pricing

Tiered Pricing

As a 501(c)3 environmental non-profit education center we are deeply committed to the work that we do! For decades, our stewards, staff and teachers have worked well below market rate and volunteered countless hours of community service, including organizing and hosting our education courses, to further our vision and mission of bringing us all into deeper relationship with one another and the more-than-human world. We are honored to support those with limited financial resources in accessing the unique educational opportunities we offer here at Lost Valley. As the economy shifts and our expenses increase, we are hopeful that those who have the means will help move our non-profit to a place of greater economic abundance, so we can meet our most basic needs and continue to invest in the upkeep of critical infrastructure and accessible education for our greater community.

Community Supported $1395 - ($1570 Honors) This tier is offered in recognition that our dominant economic system often neglects to provide a living wage to those of us who are most deeply invested in serving our communities. We the staff and stewards of Lost Valley want to acknowledge that we are all in this together. We will continue to provide accessible quality education offerings to all those who are truly dedicated to the path of mutual upliftment.

Community Sustaining $1595- ($1770 Honors) This tier provides a more equitable exchange of financial support for the hardworking stewards of our land and community and allows us to continue to bring in exceptional outside teachers, while still covering our most basic institutional costs of operation.

Community Regenerative $1895 - ($2070 Honors) This tier helps support our staff and teachers and allows us to invest more into the regeneration of our land and education center, as well as to help cover the cost for more economically marginalized participants. We are deeply grateful for any additional financial support to help us further the mission and goals of our Education Center.

More information about further financial assistance and a link to the application can be found on the Financial Aid page

 For students interested in gaining deeper experience with community living, consider the Summer Holistic Sustainability Semester (HSS). Graduates of the HSS course will gain ten weeks of community experience, three certifications AND a strong knowledge base in permaculture principles and practices!

PDC CANCELLATION POLICY

If a student withdraws from the course for any reason: 

Full refund up until 14 days before the course start date, minus $200 reservation fee

75 % refund 0 - 14 days prior to course start date, minus $200 reservation fee

50 % refund any time during the first 6 weeks of the course, minus $200 reservation fee

No refund after 6 weeks into the course 

For questions please email admissions@lostvalley.org

Thanks for being a part of this necessary global change!