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A New Pond Brings Water Security to Aprovecho
by Tao Orion

An award of $5,000 from PINA’s 2018 Design Contest enabled my husband Abel Kloster and me to build out a large pond at Aprovecho Institute near Cottage Grove, Oregon.

The vision for this major earthwork started around 12 years ago, soon after we arrived here in the summer of 2006. We were excited to put into practice the design skills and techniques we’d learned over the years since then in a series of Permaculture earthworks courses with Max Lindegger, Geoff Lawton, Darren Doherty, and Hazel (Tom Ward).

In 2007, we built the first in a series of ponds at Aprovecho. We had heard from former residents and helpers that it was impossible to build ponds on the site – the land was too steep, the soils wouldn’t hold water. We were told that an early attempt to build a pond involved two dynamite charges – one blasted a hole, and the second blasted the blown-out soil right back into the hole. We’re not sure about the veracity of this last story, which has the ring of an urban (rural) legend. However, at the time we arrived at Aprovecho, there was only one small pond for soaking mushroom logs plus a dugout area for the ducks which filled in the winter and could be refilled in the summer with a hose from the well.