Telluride’s TNCC: Permaculture for local sustainabilty

01 Jul Telluride’s TNCC: Permaculture for local sustainabilty

[click “Play” to hear Kris Holstrom on permaculture]

Cooperation, coordination, community. The words resonate for Kris Holstrom on two fronts: at work as Sustainability Coordinator of Telluride’s The New Community Coalition and at home on the Tomten Farm.

Cooperation, coordination and community certainly are key drivers for moving the region into a sustainable future, but how do they function on her family farm? The answer is simple yet complex: they merge into a design system known as “permaculture.”

Permaculture is a word coined years ago by Bill Mollison and David Holmgren to capture the idea of combining “permanent agriculture” with “permanent culture”.

Permaculture asks us to look at our human living situations as a system we can design for maximum productivity, diversity, and beauty, at the same time incorporating a strong sense of ethics for the earth. On Tomten Farm, permaculture means mimicking natural systems while purposefully considering how plants cooperate within plant communities and co-evolve into something greater than the whole.

In Telluride,  an example of permaculture is reflected in a mini site outside the Silver Belle building on Pacific Street,  the new home of the Telluride Academy.

For further information and exploration of permaculture design techniques, Kris Holstrom and Robyn Wilson of University Centers of the San Miguel are co-teaching an introductory course the week of July 20 in Telluride and in Nucla/Naturita, combining forces on two field trips for the final weekend, July 25 – July 26.