Community Resilience Workshop Series
Together, we face a multitude of social, economic, and environmental challenges that call us to rethink how we relate to one another and the land, and to develop skills for mutual aid and community resilience. The Community Resilience Workshops facilitate inclusive learning opportunities while fostering local partnerships for climate change adaptation and emergency preparedness. In collaboration with other community-based organizations, these workshops offer hands-on practice in topics such as regenerative agriculture, wildfire mitigation, disaster preparedness, first aid training, ecological conservation, community governance, and off-grid systems. We recognize that the communities most impacted by climate change are also those who often do not have equitable access to these resources, so these offerings are donation-based. We welcome donations from participants who have the means and wish to support our effort to offer free learning opportunities to the community.
These workshops are supported by funding we received from the Oregon Health Authority. Thank you, OHA!
We are continuing to add workshops to this schedule through 2025! Please see workshop details below to register, and contact admissions@lostvalley.org to inquire about other scholarship opportunities. Please note that registration is required in order to attend all workshops.
2025 Schedule
See below for more information. More workshops coming soon!
Prescribed Grazing 101
Dreaming of sheep mowing your lawn for you? Or goats tackling that blackberry bramble you can no longer see over? Wondering about how to restore a camas meadow AND produce a yield? Through the thoughtful management of grazers, you can reduce wildfire risk, improve pasture and rangelands, and restore many native habitats.
Join Lost Valley Education Center in hosting Drew Thomas of Calico Creek Grazing Collective and the Center for Rural Livelihoods for a live workshop to introduce you to the who, what, why, and how of Rx grazing while observing a flock at work.
Participants will leave with an inspired mind and an understanding of the questions to ask when determining where to graze, which livestock, how many, what seasons, and for how long.
For questions, please contact drew@rurallivelihoods.org
Land Stewardship Series
Healthy ecosystems are foundational to community resilience - for the human and more-than-human world. Vibrant forests, healthy, year-round waterways, diverse and fire resilient landscapes that provide abundant habitat, are critical to our health, safety, and well-being. Land stewardship is more than land management - it’s a practice that invites us to learn about the places we call home and the critical roles that humans play in enhancing the complex web of relationships that act in service to life.
Our Land Stewardship Series offers participants the opportunity to learn practices for land tending that are specific to the Willamette Valley, for forest health, wildfire mitigation, and oak savanna restoration. Join us every Tuesday to learn from Lost Valley Land Steward and Permaculture Design Teacher, Brian Byers, about agroforestry, invasive species management, and sustainable timber harvest, while visiting our 87-acre living permaculture site.
Permaculture Gardening Series
Join us every Thursday to learn from Lost Valley Garden Steward, Kelson Gorman, to learn about cultivating regenerative food systems. The industrialized food system relies upon socially and ecologically destructive methods for mass production and distribution that undermine the health of our communities, ecosystems, and our ability to access nutritious food. Our Permaculture Gardening Series offers participants the opportunity to learn permaculture techniques for working with nature to grow food for our families and communities that build food sovereignty and ecological regeneration. Join us to learn about climate adapted gardening for our bioregion, food preservation and seed saving for future resilience, and methods to improve yields, soil health, and biodiversity.
Decolonizing Permaculture
Join us on Saturday July 5 for a free workshop with Anishinabe Elder, Dan Wahpepah, to learn how to challenge colonial mindsets, honor traditional wisdom, and create more inclusive, regenerative systems.
This workshop is part of our summer Permaculture Design Course (PDC), and will be taught by Dan Wahpepah, who has been an instructor in the Lost Valley PDC for several years. Dan teaches from his perspective as an Anishinabe Elder, focusing on decolonization, healthy thinking, and “returning to being a human being.” He grew up immersed in American Indian Movement (AIM) culture and his traditional ways. His father is a spiritual leader and his uncle founded West Coast AIM.
Land Stewardship Series
Healthy ecosystems are foundational to community resilience - for the human and more-than-human world. Vibrant forests, healthy, year-round waterways, diverse and fire resilient landscapes that provide abundant habitat, are critical to our health, safety, and well-being. Land stewardship is more than land management - it’s a practice that invites us to learn about the places we call home and the critical roles that humans play in enhancing the complex web of relationships that act in service to life.
Our Land Stewardship Series offers participants the opportunity to learn practices for land tending that are specific to the Willamette Valley, for forest health, wildfire mitigation, and oak savanna restoration. Join us every Tuesday to learn from Lost Valley Land Steward and Permaculture Design Teacher, Brian Byers, about agroforestry, invasive species management, and sustainable timber harvest, while visiting our 87-acre living permaculture site.
Land Stewardship Series
Healthy ecosystems are foundational to community resilience - for the human and more-than-human world. Vibrant forests, healthy, year-round waterways, diverse and fire resilient landscapes that provide abundant habitat, are critical to our health, safety, and well-being. Land stewardship is more than land management - it’s a practice that invites us to learn about the places we call home and the critical roles that humans play in enhancing the complex web of relationships that act in service to life.
Our Land Stewardship Series offers participants the opportunity to learn practices for land tending that are specific to the Willamette Valley, for forest health, wildfire mitigation, and oak savanna restoration. Join us every Tuesday to learn from Lost Valley Land Steward and Permaculture Design Teacher, Brian Byers, about agroforestry, invasive species management, and sustainable timber harvest, while visiting our 87-acre living permaculture site.
Permaculture Gardening Series
Join us every Thursday to learn from Lost Valley Garden Steward, Kelson Gorman, to learn about cultivating regenerative food systems. The industrialized food system relies upon socially and ecologically destructive methods for mass production and distribution that undermine the health of our communities, ecosystems, and our ability to access nutritious food. Our Permaculture Gardening Series offers participants the opportunity to learn permaculture techniques for working with nature to grow food for our families and communities that build food sovereignty and ecological regeneration. Join us to learn about climate adapted gardening for our bioregion, food preservation and seed saving for future resilience, and methods to improve yields, soil health, and biodiversity.
Permaculture Gardening Series
Join us every Thursday to learn from Lost Valley Garden Steward, Kelson Gorman, to learn about cultivating regenerative food systems. The industrialized food system relies upon socially and ecologically destructive methods for mass production and distribution that undermine the health of our communities, ecosystems, and our ability to access nutritious food. Our Permaculture Gardening Series offers participants the opportunity to learn permaculture techniques for working with nature to grow food for our families and communities that build food sovereignty and ecological regeneration. Join us to learn about climate adapted gardening for our bioregion, food preservation and seed saving for future resilience, and methods to improve yields, soil health, and biodiversity.
Animal Integration, Closed-Loop Systems & IPM
Join us at Heart-Culture Farm Community in west Eugene for a workshop with Kara Huntermoon to learn about integrating animals into a permaculture system to enhance biodiversity and overall resilience. Participants will gain insights into the world of animal husbandry, integrated pest management (IPM), the ecological benefits of livestock in a permaculture design, and factors to consider for incorporating animals into a system in our local climate. This workshop includes a tour of Heart-Culture farm where participants will get to observe the impressive permaculture food forest and stewarded ecologies that includes pasture, gardens, wetlands, and a diverse & abundant orchard.
Kara Huntermoon is our bioregional expert in wetlands Permaculture. Her maternal family has lived in Eugene for six generations, inspiring Kara's long-term commitment to place. Kara focused her first decade as the Land Manager at Heart-Culture Farm Community on learning how to integrate livestock into a Permaculture design, and her second decade installing a 3-acre food forest with silvopasture systems. She brings her wealth of hand-on experience and deep relationships to every class she teaches.
Land Stewardship Series
Healthy ecosystems are foundational to community resilience - for the human and more-than-human world. Vibrant forests, healthy, year-round waterways, diverse and fire resilient landscapes that provide abundant habitat, are critical to our health, safety, and well-being. Land stewardship is more than land management - it’s a practice that invites us to learn about the places we call home and the critical roles that humans play in enhancing the complex web of relationships that act in service to life.
Our Land Stewardship Series offers participants the opportunity to learn practices for land tending that are specific to the Willamette Valley, for forest health, wildfire mitigation, and oak savanna restoration. Join us every Tuesday to learn from Lost Valley Land Steward and Permaculture Design Teacher, Brian Byers, about agroforestry, invasive species management, and sustainable timber harvest, while visiting our 87-acre living permaculture site.
Permaculture Gardening Series
Join us every Thursday to learn from Lost Valley Garden Steward, Kelson Gorman, to learn about cultivating regenerative food systems. The industrialized food system relies upon socially and ecologically destructive methods for mass production and distribution that undermine the health of our communities, ecosystems, and our ability to access nutritious food. Our Permaculture Gardening Series offers participants the opportunity to learn permaculture techniques for working with nature to grow food for our families and communities that build food sovereignty and ecological regeneration. Join us to learn about climate adapted gardening for our bioregion, food preservation and seed saving for future resilience, and methods to improve yields, soil health, and biodiversity.
Social Forestry and Land Tending
Join us at Lost Valley for an incredible opportunity to learn from Hazel Ward of Siskiyou Permaculture. Hazel is the author of Social Forestry, Tending the Land as people of Place, and originator of the Social Forestry framework. This workshop will be a hands-on, interactive introduction to tending forest ecosystems and cultivating place-based life ways that build cultural connection, ecological health, and skills for rewilding.
Hazel is a long time resident of the Southern Oregon/Mount Shasta bioregion first settling there in the early 70’s, and has been advising farms, stewarding forests, and teaching Environmental Sciences for more than fifty years. Their focus for this 21st century has been Social Forestry, restoring Oak/Pine Savannah in Little Wolf Gulch near Ruch, OR, demonstrating natural building, fuel hazard materials utilization, multiple products woods-crafting, wildlife support and desert forest water management.
Land Stewardship Series
Healthy ecosystems are foundational to community resilience - for the human and more-than-human world. Vibrant forests, healthy, year-round waterways, diverse and fire resilient landscapes that provide abundant habitat, are critical to our health, safety, and well-being. Land stewardship is more than land management - it’s a practice that invites us to learn about the places we call home and the critical roles that humans play in enhancing the complex web of relationships that act in service to life.
Our Land Stewardship Series offers participants the opportunity to learn practices for land tending that are specific to the Willamette Valley, for forest health, wildfire mitigation, and oak savanna restoration. Join us every Tuesday to learn from Lost Valley Land Steward and Permaculture Design Teacher, Brian Byers, about agroforestry, invasive species management, and sustainable timber harvest, while visiting our 87-acre living permaculture site.
Permaculture Gardening Series
Join us every Thursday to learn from Lost Valley Garden Steward, Kelson Gorman, to learn about cultivating regenerative food systems. The industrialized food system relies upon socially and ecologically destructive methods for mass production and distribution that undermine the health of our communities, ecosystems, and our ability to access nutritious food. Our Permaculture Gardening Series offers participants the opportunity to learn permaculture techniques for working with nature to grow food for our families and communities that build food sovereignty and ecological regeneration. Join us to learn about climate adapted gardening for our bioregion, food preservation and seed saving for future resilience, and methods to improve yields, soil health, and biodiversity.
Permaculture Gardening Series
Join us every Thursday to learn from Lost Valley Garden Steward, Kelson Gorman, to learn about cultivating regenerative food systems. The industrialized food system relies upon socially and ecologically destructive methods for mass production and distribution that undermine the health of our communities, ecosystems, and our ability to access nutritious food. Our Permaculture Gardening Series offers participants the opportunity to learn permaculture techniques for working with nature to grow food for our families and communities that build food sovereignty and ecological regeneration. Join us to learn about climate adapted gardening for our bioregion, food preservation and seed saving for future resilience, and methods to improve yields, soil health, and biodiversity.
Permaculture Gardening Series
Come get hands on experience with different topics in gardening; including planting, harvesting, preparing garden beds, and so much more.
Land Stewardship Series
Come get hands on experience with different topics in stewarding the land; including agro forestry, making biochar, removing invasive species, and sustainable timber harvesting.
Permaculture Gardening Series
Come get hands on experience with different topics in gardening; including planting, harvesting, preparing garden beds, and so much more.
Land Stewardship Series
Come get hands on experience with different topics in stewarding the land; including agro forestry, making biochar, removing invasive species, and sustainable timber harvesting.
Permaculture Gardening Series
Come get hands on experience with different topics in gardening; including planting, harvesting, preparing garden beds, and so much more.
Land Stewardship Series
Come get hands on experience with different topics in stewarding the land; including agro forestry, making biochar, removing invasive species, and sustainable timber harvesting.
Permaculture Gardening Series
Come get hands on experience with different topics in gardening; including planting, harvesting, preparing garden beds, and so much more.
Permaculture Gardening Series
Come get hands on experience with different topics in gardening; including planting, harvesting, preparing garden beds, and so much more.
Land Stewardship Series
Come get hands on experience with different topics in stewarding the land; including agro forestry, making biochar, removing invasive species, and sustainable timber harvesting.
DIY Solar Mower Conversion: Turn Gas Power into Green Power
Every year, countless riding mowers are discarded while still structurally sound. With a few off-the-shelf parts and an electric motor, these machines can be given a second life—as solar-powered mobile generators.
Not only can they be charged by the sun, they’re also simple to operate, require far less maintenance than gas engines, and can even serve as backup power during outages. It’s a creative, practical way to reduce waste and build resilience.
Permaculture Gardening Series
Come get hands on experience with different topics in gardening; including planting, harvesting, preparing garden beds, and so much more.
Land Stewardship Series
Come get hands on experience with different topics in stewarding the land; including agro forestry, making biochar, removing invasive species, and sustainable timber harvesting.
Introduction to gardening in the Willamette Valley
Come and learn about growing plants from seed to table with local experts Allen Adesse and Holde Fink. Class will cover site evaluation (water, soil, chemistry, sunlight, existing plantings), movement/layout, seed starting/planting, transplanting/dividing, soil mixes and direct sowing, greenhouse/indoor starting, seedling care and handling
Allen Adesse:
Studied Natural Resources management-, Forestry Technician, Started first business doing wild crafting medicinals/florals/mushrooms, Field manager Peace Seeds in Corvallis 1989-1993. Started my first organic farm in 1991, growing seeds and medicinal herbs until 2020. Contracted seed growing with companies--Seeds of Change, Botanical Interests, Abundant Life, High Mowing, JL Hudson, Orange Pippens, Johnny's Select, Territorial, Fedco,Southern Exposure. Semiretired, teaching about seeds growing and herb gathering.
Holde Fink
Operated Native and Urban Gardens in Eugene OR for 26 years. His interest in gardening began at a very early age picking green tomatoes, washing them and being seriously disappointed to find they could not be reattached and grown on. After further study he has expanded his interest to include native plants, edible gardens, and the conversation between gardens as an art form and their role as biodiversity reserves. Holde is excited to share his knowledge for current and future gardeners.
Permaculture Gardening Series
Come get hands on experience with different topics in gardening; including planting, harvesting, preparing garden beds, and so much more.
Natural Building
This workshop teaches natural building techniques using sustainable materials like clay, straw, and stone. Participants will learn hands-on skills for creating eco-friendly structures that are energy-efficient and in harmony with the environment.
Land Stewardship Series
Come get hands on experience with different topics in stewarding the land; including agro forestry, making biochar, removing invasive species, and sustainable timber harvesting.
Working With Solar and Batteries
This class is for anyone and everyone. We welcome people with any experience whether it’s a new beginner trying to get concepts or advanced people interested in getting a better well rounded understanding of what it takes to achieve certain solutions.
Solar can be daunting at times and with my real world experience of what is and isn’t possible, our instructor John Loomis would like to offer his expertise to anyone willing to listen.
John has been doing electrical work off and on over the past 14 years and started diving into the world of solar and batteries 10 years ago when he lived off grid for a few years. He brings that expertise to work, and helps people get more energy independence every week.
Permaculture Gardening Series
Come get hands on experience with different topics in gardening; including planting, harvesting, preparing garden beds, and so much more.
No-Till Farming Workshop
This workshop will introduce no-till farming practices, focusing on techniques that reduce soil disturbance and improve long-term soil health. Come get your hands in the soil and learn how no-till methods enhance water retention, reduce erosion, and boost crop yields sustainably.
Wet/Dry Orchards: Swales and Mounds for managing seasonal water in the Willamette Valley
Kara Huntermoon, local expert in wetlands Permaculture, will teach a 4-hour class on managing seasonally wet soil in the Willamette Valley. Tour her 3-acre wet-meadow orchard, and hear "tricks of the trade" for growing "impossible" fruit trees in flooded soil. Learn to use an A-frame level to find contour on slopes, and see how swale-building practices in low flatlands differ from swales on slopes. Discover how to protect roots during the wet season, while storing water in the soil to reduce drought in the long dry summers. This class includes hands-on swale digging with shovels; participants may self-select to their body's capacity.
Land Stewardship Series
Come get hands on experience with different topics in stewarding the land; including agro forestry, making biochar, removing invasive species, and sustainable timber harvesting.
Renewable Trees: Resprout Forestry
Kara Huntermoon will lead an exploration of coppicing and pollarding, two ancient forestry techniques that take advantage of trees' ability to regrow from their stumps. Cultures all over the world have managed their timber production sustainably through post-harvest sprouting from the same roots, with proven ecological benefits. Tools, methods, timing, and appropriate species will be discussed, along with benefits for humans, livestock, and the wider ecology. Resprout Forestry requires us to reinhabit a place with commitment, and regain long-term relationships with other species; as such, it is a method of Social Forestry.
INTRO TO ANIMAL FIBER ALCHEMY & HANDSPINNING
Join us for a hands-on fiber arts workshop! Bring your own projects and learn about fiber processing, dyeing, storage, and safety in a one-hour lecture. After a break, explore demo stations with tools like hand cards, a drum carder, drop spindles, and spinning wheels. Practice spinning, plying, and handpicking fibers, with guidance on safety and body awareness. Andra will provide all materials, including raw fibers, spinning wheels, books, and examples. Perfect for all skill levels!
Andra Vltavín (they/them) is the co-founder and co-director of Ethical Yarn Community, a member-owned cooperative that focuses on sustainability, tending to animals in partnership, and education. They have been handspinning for more than five years and delight in opportunities to connect somatic practices with land-based projects.
Permaculture Gardening Series
Come get hands on experience with different topics in gardening; including planting, harvesting, preparing garden beds, and so much more.
Water in Permaculture
This workshop focuses on water management in permaculture, teaching techniques for capturing, storing, and efficiently using water in sustainable systems. Participants will learn about rainwater harvesting, swales, ponds, and other methods to enhance water retention, reduce runoff, and support healthy ecosystems.
Land Stewardship Series
Come get hands on experience with different topics in stewarding the land; including agro forestry, making biochar, removing invasive species, and sustainable timber harvesting.
Fire ecology and Biochar Production Workshop
This workshop will explore the dynamic relationship between fire ecology and biochar, focusing on how fire influences forest ecosystems and soil health. Participants will learn about the role of fire in shaping landscapes, the science behind biochar production, and its potential benefits for carbon sequestration, soil fertility, and wildfire resilience.
Permaculture Gardening Series
Come get hands on experience with different topics in gardening; including planting, harvesting, preparing garden beds, and so much more.
Fruit Pruning Workshop
Learn how to prune trees for better health and higher fruit yield, covering techniques, tools, and timing. It includes hands-on practice with expert guidance.