Permaculture in Schools

Hi everybody,

For a little over a month now, I've been working on creating a permaculture project at Jasper PLace High School in Edmonton, Alberta Canada. The schools has a greenhouse on the roof and some unused land so I'm pretty optimistic about the project. We're currently trying to create an edible food forest/ecosystem in one of the schools courtyards with plans to use any of the harvest in the culinary program.

It is my biggest belief, however, that greatest measure of the programs success is the number of connections that it can make not only within the school, but in the larger education system and greater community. I guess, what I'm wondering is, if anyone else has any advice, or knows of anyone who might also be interested in this kind of permaculture initiative? Perhaps, you have some knowledge or a particular skill that you'd be interested in sharing or maybe you're starting up your own school garden; I'd love to share resources.

A journal of the Jasper Place program can be found at the following link:

http://permaculture.jasperplace.ca

Thanks everyone,

Dustin Bajer
dustin.bajer@gmail.com

see if you can get in touch with Michael Becker at the Hood River Middle School in Hood River, Oregon.   been doing great stuff there since 2005, I believe, and elsewhere before that.  teaches as much of his science curriculum as possible in the permaculture garden that students built, food from the garden is in the lunchroom during the school year and in the farmers market over the summer, et cetera.  I'm sure he's a busy guy, but give it a shot.

You might contact Novella Carpenter. She has roots in the PNW, and visits occasionally on book tours. She has been in the loop with City Slicker Farms' efforts in the Oakland school system.