Rebuilding Yarnell with Permaculture Principles

I think Governor Jan Brewer should be made aware of Greening of the Desert-type permaculture techniques to more quickly re-establish "life", both plant and animal, in the new Ground Zero of Yarnell Hill. We need to convince Governor Brewer what huge brownie points she'd be gaining for backing something with the current buzz-word "sustainability" in it. What an opportunity to introduce the masses (or at least Arizonans) to permaculture and logical water use practices. May the spirits of the 19 Hotshots who lost their lives battling this wildfire see this dream to fruition. I loved this charming little town in the granite boulder-strewn transition zone above the Sonoran Desert.

This is a great idea. I used to live in Yarnell and had similar thoughts when I lived there, before the fire. The main problem with the town was that there were a few older people that basically owned everything in town and they wanted out but they wouldn't settle for anything less that pre-bubble sized lumps of cash in hand. We actually proposed the idea of setting up a fair trade coffee shop/brewery/gallery there with the hopes of attracting younger people to the area but the land owners just wanted to cash out or let their town die while trying. Hopefully, something positive comes out of that fire and the town decides to wake up to new possibilities! I can just see Glen Ilah being rebuilt with cool little green homes propped up between the rocks!

What a beautiful area as you climb out of the desert. On a cross country bicycle trip (28 years ago) from San Diego with 2 cyclists I met (Mark Ray and Ed Wilcox(?) we were treated very, very well in that town. Ed needed time to recover from an injury and we spent 2 or 3 days their.

So sad that they lost a generation of their bravest.