Episode 97: Social Forestry with Tomi Hazel Vaarde and Morag Gamble

How do we tend to land and culture at the same time?

This episode was a conversation of hope for me, exploring the concept and practice social forestry with Tomi Hazel Vaarde - everything from ancient indigenous knowledge to stories of forests. Also Tomi reflects on design - avoiding it being an imposition, but something that emerges from connection with place and community  - an incredibly important distinction for a permaculture designer.

Social forestry is the Tomi's big picture thinking, their frame of reference for engaging in local and bioregional restoration. "Social forestry is tending the land as people of place. How do we cooperate with each other to do useful things in these places? It's always site specific, and it's always culturally specific."

Tomi Hazel Vaarde is a long-term resident of Southern Oregon and is deeply situated in place and permaculture. He's a prolific permaculturist - advising farms, stewarding forests and teaching environmental sciences for more than 50 years, even helping Bill Mollison in the first PDC on the West Coast.

Tomi's latest book (published April 2023 by Synergetic Press) is Social Forestry: Tending the Land as People and Place - an acclaimed guide of practical placemaking advice and ancient lore - a must-have for anyone wanting to have a reciprocating relationship with their communities, themselves, and most importantly their awe-inspiring forests and landscapes. 

In this conversation, we also discuss this book and the many projects that have informed its emergence.

Enjoy!

This podcast is an initiative of the Permaculture Education Institute.

Our way of sharing our love for this planet and for life, is by teaching permaculture teachers who are locally adapting this around the world - finding ways to apply the planet care ethics of earth care, people care and fair share. We host global conversations and learning communities on 6 continents.

We teach permaculture teachers, host permaculture courses, host Our Permaculture Life YouTube, and offer free monthly film club and masterclass.

We broadcast from a solar powered studio in the midst of a permaculture ecovillage food forest on beautiful Gubbi Gubbi country. I acknowledge this is and always will be Aboriginal land, pay my respects to elders past and present, and extend my respect to indigenous cultures and knowledge systems across the planet.

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