Direction for a budding permaculturist?

Hi everyone,

I'm 25 years old, have a degree in plant biology, and spent a year running a small organic farm by the seat of my pants.  I've spent a little time around the Bullocks Brother's during my two-ish years (non-contiguous) living on Orcas Island.  I love working with plants and learning more about them.

I would like to get to a place where I have a much deeper practical knowledge of permaculture, edible forestry, and the likes. 

I have NOT done a PDC.

Basically, what are my options for more long-term educational opportunities?  Permaculture schools?  Internships?  Universities?  A program that includes a PDC but goes much deeper?  I've thought about the Bullock's internship, but its a long waiting list and I'm more drawn to desert and sub-arid environments.  Sort of.

I've spent a ton of time googling these topics, but I need more direction...

Any info would be much appreciated!

Thanks!

Do you know about WWOOF?  Do a google.  There are other organizations that do the same thing, but they are the oldest and the biggest.

Eventually, I'd like to open my place up to an extended intership program that would be both a WWOOF-type internship and a PDC class with a lot of extras.  That will not happen until next year at the earliest, and probably not until the year after next.

homesteadpaul wrote:
Do you know about WWOOF?  Do a google.  There are other organizations that do the same thing, but they are the oldest and the biggest.

Eventually, I'd like to open my place up to an extended intership program that would be both a WWOOF-type internship and a PDC class with a lot of extras.  That will not happen until next year at the earliest, and probably not until the year after next.

Looking for something a little more long-term and defined than a WWOOF program.

If you're more interested in arid areas or desert, you might want to take a look at things going on in Arizona or New Mexico. Some of the permies are from these places.

I ask this question just for the sake of argument: is a school the best place to gain the knowledge you seek?  Maybe a better place would be on a farm somewhere.  The Southwest needs people like you to help with the desperate water situation, and I've always been of the opinion that one year of experience can be as valuable as five years in the classroom.

I like what Mark Shepherd says about internships--he calls them a form of modern slavery.  He believes they should be calculated into the energy input of a modern organic farm, and I agree. 

willy_k you say the south west needs people like this young person, presumibly to teach them how to manage with less water. If he is to teach in the south west then the question he needs to ask is how to learn to get peoples attention and get them to want to listen to him. Also, then a teaching course maybe a good way then he can then  say I am a certifified teacher in this. as it would take him a while to be in sepp holzszers position of saying look how sucessfully i do this. Maybe to teach he needs to do a leadership course. agri rose macaskie. 

Here's an option I've considered...landscape architecture is a wide ranging field that does/can include the design of permaculture systems.  A masters degree in landscape architecture would give a permaculturist a professional badge that would also, in effect, legitimize permaculture to people skeptical or unaware.  I'd be able to choose a thesis that was very specific (IE urban edible forest gardening with children) and come out with the design and implementation skills of a professional architect.

I'm not set on going further down the road of standard academia.  It's an option that I've considered.  But I'm trying to evaluate all of my potential paths right now. 

I want to develop my skills primarily, but also legitimacy.

Well, if you like arid climes, you might want to check out the Flowering Tree Permaculture Institute. I've never visited it myself, but I've heard good things about it. Here's the link: http://www.floweringtreepermaculture.org

Here's another group that might help in the right direction:  http://www.sonoranpermaculture.org/

  Advertising firms use psychologists or psychiatrists dont they? I like the social issues permaculture mentions, i like the idea of encouraging community as long as people dont use it for permaculture bible bashing, and I like the idea of getting all the people of communities to work together so that the poor man can contemplate doing somthing that normall only the rich man would dare, the building a big pond, swales and berms with all his neighbors helping him and then returning the work on another day. I like these social bits of permaculture but when it comes to the purely agricultural bits of permaculture, I am so mad about the idea of healthy soil everywhere and groundcover everywhere, to absorb carbon dioxide and stop the earth from being heated by the suns rays and so to reduce global warming and about producing more and healthier food and it seems to me that permaculter teaches all of the design skills needed for that end, that i would do anything to further these ends, like becoming a psychiatrist to better argue the permaculture arguements or paying for one. Mind you the time it would take and the difficulties in finding the right teachers mean it seems too hard an undertaking for me so i dont really push myself to do it. ibrakeforalgea, become a psychiatrist so as to know what is the best way to make people consider permaculture strategies. Brain storming is meant to border on the extravagant isn't it? agri rose macaskie.