Our first grant-funded project addresses climate change and wildfires. The Fire Ecology Restoration Program (FERP) brings permaculture principles such as Integrate, Don’t Segregate and The Problem is the Solution to bear on land regeneration. It works with indigenous knowledge of controlled burns to create fire resistance and accelerate recovery in dryland forests.

The Fire Ecology project trained an initial group of forestry workers in a restorative methodology that uses biochar to sequester carbon, and bolsters water retention and forest health. We are researching best practices, and doing cost assessment analysis on this innovative protocol. In June, we held a workshop on these techniques in Colorado, and have produced a video about the project, “Restoring Forests with Fire.” PINA hosted a webinar to help others replicate these efforts, which is available to all members, and can be purchased here.

PINA has helped build networks and impacted projects through members connecting and working together:

• Facilitated a $300,000+ grant through the Huffington Foundation for the Urban Harvest in Houston, Texas, a long term permaculturist-run project that has educated thousands of people to garden regeneratively and is now developing curriculum for high school students 
• Design engagement in University of Toronto Scarborough Public Realm and Landscape Master Plan, impacting the university’s 300+ acres – https://www.hoffmannhayes.com/projects/
• Designer engagement in community projects in Florida, Texas, Oregon, New York, Minnesota, Michigan, California, Pennsylvania, Ontario
• Promoted permaculture educational offerings and resources, for example
  • Permaculture Water Summit
  • Permaculture Association of the Northeast
    • Unlawnful series discussions and resources on how to rewild your lawn
    • Uprooting and Unearthing conversations and resources around working with ecological, social, and political upheaval as designers, community organizers, and leaders
  • Verge Permaculture Summit, bringing thousands of permaculture designers and interested community members together.
• Referred a number of inquiries to PINA’s professional network for local experts

The North American Leadership Summit (NALS) was a co-creative learning process culminating in a unique event that helped define the next steps in our evolution as continental leaders of Turtle Island. We aim to build a great people’s movement that can regenerate climate, land, and communities across the continent. Recordings of the Summit are available for purchase and include lifetime access. We forged new connections between indigenous leadership, youth, the Divine Feminine, ethnic luminaries, and leading-edge knowledge carriers. Building on the efforts of preliminary working groups, the Summit blended these gifts and experiences to forge meaningful and lasting connections. Outcomes included planning for future summits that will continue to build beneficial connections and capacity aimed at deploying those strengths to change public policy and private action in all regions.

PINA’s Fund for Regeneration supports on-the-ground implementation of projects that repair land, mitigate climate stress, and build resilient communities. PINA does this through regular Design Contests with multiple awards in various categories. Additionally, PINA helps launch promising new projects from our member-partners through development support and grant administration.

This year we continued our successful programs and expanded into new territory. Learn more here. 

PINA continues its Design Contest tradition to fund worthy permaculture designs and projects in North America in 2022. The winner of the contest was the design for a community park on First Nations land by Jasmine Oberste, incorporating a food forest, playground, sweat lodge, and community center on Vancouver Island.

Runners up include a mutual aid project to create edible roadside food forests in Orlando, designed by Caitlin Fogarty; a design from Ben Schaffer in BC that facilitates climate mitigation and income for youth; a project based around low-cost hempcrete structures by Christina Goodvin on the Alberta Front Range, and a design for a native edible community landscape by Donna Pellegrin near Cincinnati.

The quality of these designs and their imaginative presentations inspire us to continue support for designers from all over North America.

We are growing our current network of allied organizations, now numbering over three dozen, as well as partnering with three regional hub organizations representing permaculture to a quarter of the US population. We just welcomed the Climate Change Permaculture Project and the Permaculture Association of the Northeast (“PAN”) as Allied Organizations.

The mission of Climate Change Permaculture Project (CCPP) is to help to create a critical mass of farmers who will adopt regenerative farming practices, embodied in the principles of permaculture, in order to begin to reverse the effects of climate change AND, at the same time, help to address food insecurity. CCPP’s main activity is the Permaculture Incubator Program (PIP)—like a small business incubator, only for regenerative agriculture.

PAN is a long term successful permaculture network in the NE US that offers support to both professionals and those just starting out.

Increased connectivity

Community engagement and relationship building

Along with continuing to work with the groups we’re already engaged with, one of our major themes for 2023 will be increasing connectivity. PINA recognizes that there are many people in the field and at the table doing important regenerative work. We’d like to collaborate.

Through 2023, we’ll center these permaculture principles:

• Apply Regulation and Accept Feedback
• Integrate Rather than Segregate
• Design from Patterns to Details

We are making the North American Leadership Summit recordings available to all members and providing access to Lev Friedman’s webinar on Mutual Aid. Link to come shortly.

PINA is expanding our member services with your input. We are developing a series of Online Live Events: Welcome Events for New Members and Diploma Candidates, Interviews and Q&As with experts, Panel Discussions on community topics, Webinars covering technical information and a multi-day Summit. Members will have access to recordings through the Pina.in login.

Also To Come: The 2023 Design Contest!