Stephanie recently returned to her Northeast homeland after receiving a Masters in Environmental Management from Western Colorado University, managing a farm to food pantry program in Snohomish County, Washington, and spending time working on food policy in New Orleans. She helped to coordinate the Southwest Seed Library, A Farm to Table Conference in Colorado’s Gunnison Valley, and led a multi-day collaborative design process for the developing headquarters of the Coldharbour Institute. . She received her PDC back when PAN was PINE, while simultaneously lifting Plymouth Permaculture Project off the ground at her alma mater of Plymouth State University in New Hampshire. She recently signed on to work in her hometown of Nashua, New Hampshire to further develop programming for Grow Nashua. She also works as a field teacher at Prescott Farm Environmental Education Center. Her passion is to increase access to Permaculture education and she hopes to expand this collective work in the Northeast.
News & Announcements
2019 Winter Board Retreat
On a frigid weekend in January, our board
members gathered to review our past year and plan for the next. There are very
few times we see other board members in person at all, and this yearly retreat
is the only time we everyone all in one place. We have monthly group phone
calls and update each other over email chains, but face to face communication,
commiseration and contemplation yield far richer results.
Our meeting place was D Acres, the 20 years established educational homestead
and hostel run by Josh Trought and his dedicated team in Dorchester, NH. As we
arrived one by one that evening, traveling from near and far, we were welcomed
by a raging hot fire and a bottomless vat of homegrown herbal tea. Josh’s
vision and fruition of this place is really something special. There are quotes
and art up everywhere to remind us the mission of skilling ourselves to the end
of sustainable living and right relationship with the environment. The root
cellar is well stocked with preserved produce and animal products from seasons
past. The library is overwhelmingly abundant with every book you could ask to
turn to to learn how we might live in harmony with the natural world.
As the sun set on that day of arrival, we received word that one of us had to
stay home and care for a child, and then another of us had the flu would be
missed as well, and then yet another had car trouble and was going to arrive
much later than expected. So it turned out to be a smaller portion of us than
intended, and the mood was a bit deflated. Our two longest serving and most
hardworking board members got to talking late that night about the efforts
they’d exerted up to this point that had left them quite beleaguered and
questioning the future relevance of our work. This didn’t seem like the best
foot to start off with as we arrived to an important weekend of effort in our
mission, but it was noted, and fresher minds instructed them to have a drink
and exert themselves at a game of ping pong instead.
In the morning, we were truly able to arrive and be there fully thanks to a
great night’s sleep and a big breakfast by Josh and his right hand man, Will.
Patty led us through a presentation on being a better board which was inspiring
and also instigated thoughts on how this information could assist other groups
working in similar fashion. We reviewed our financials and identified avenues
which didn’t suit our mission anymore and those that we will be putting more
effort into sharing in the future. Mainly, on the downside, we realized we are
not great purveyors of t-shirts. On the upside, our capability to provide
fiscal sponsorship to groups aligned with our values serves the stacked
function of mutual benefit to all. As we went through everything we had done
over the past year such as webinars, the educator’s pledge, and new
partnerships, those who had expressed fatigue the night before were suddenly
shown how much had been accomplished. Well-deserved pride and a sense of
accomplishment began to shine through their eyes, and slowly a wave of enthusiasm
for the future swelled to a crest.
“The problem is the solution!” we exclaimed as we realized the fragmentation of
permaculture in our region was both our undoing and our strength! Through the
power of personal connection, we had all been led to this earth-changing work.
We experienced that connection within our PDC’s, and were here reminded again
that it is by our relationships with one another and the inspiring leaders who
came before us that we are empowered to collectively problem solve and move forward
on this work we feel called to do.
The culmination enunciated itself as a call for Convergence. We will host a
planning retreat this autumn, to bring together those from around the northeast
who wish to help plan the summer of 2020 regional Permaculture Convergence,
which we’ve lacked since 2014. The hope is that all our smaller, locally acting
permaculture partners will find their way to us for a weekend of fun and
function. Meeting each other face to face, realizing common goals and finding
paths to support each other will connect us and grow our movement. Our region
is geologically diverse, resource rich, and full of strong-willed hardy
northerners who aren’t giving up any time soon. The power to create the kind of
world we want to live in lies in our hands, so we hope you’ll join us and stay
connected, reach out and add your unique voice. Please stay tuned to our newsletters, webinars, course listings, allies, and Facebook updates so you can be a part of this
ongoing effort, we can’t do it without you!
PAN 2018 Annual Report
| The PAN Board is happy to share with you our 2018 Annual Report which includes highlights of work and activities completed in 2018 and our vision for 2019. Even though we have undergone several evolutions here at PAN, we continue to find innovative ways to address and support the needs of our network. Read our Annual Report Here |
October Webinar Comin’ Up on 10/26
Registration is open…Look for all of the details here
PAN Fiscal Sponsorship in Action: Ben and Jerry’s Community Action Grant
Ben and Jerry’s Community Action Grant
written by Jessica Rubin, PAN Member
We were grateful to receive fiscal sponsorship from PAN in order to apply for a Ben and Jerry’s Community Action grant. Vermont Myconode is an inspired local offshoot of the greater Radical Mycology movement. As a network of friends, colleagues, mentors, scientists, amateur mycologists, ecological restorationists, educators, students, earth workers, and mentees, we cultivate mushrooms, ideas, and strategies to apply the healing power of the 5th Queendom (Fungi) for food and medicine as well as for remediating human – caused pollution to restore ecological balance in Vermont.
Our mission is applied through a spectrum of activities from inoculating woodchips or logs with spawn, restoring degraded ecosystems to decrease toxic levels in soil & water to non-toxic levels, providing educational workshops, and hosting work parties. In terms of applying mycoremediation to Vermont’s landscape, there is tremendous potential for remediating toxins currently threatening the health of Lake Champlain (Lake Bitawabok, Abenaki call it; translated as ‘Lake Between”) such as: excess phosphorus from fertilizers, hydrocarbons found in pesticides and herbicides and parking lot drains, pathogens from manure runoff, heavy metals in suburban, agricultural, and urban soils, and toxic chemical compounds in nonpoint source runoff.
With these funds and New England Grassroots Fund support we have been able to create a library for our growing collective while helping to provide mycological educational opportunities to our members, create a lab for upcoming projects which the group and two local businesses Infinity Soils and Mycoevolve can access, and purchase inoculation tools which we will use in offering edible and medicinal installation workshops later this summer. Once we fine tune the anteroom, ventilation and electrical systems, we plan to offer an indoor cultivation workshop in our lab and two fungal forays on the surrounding landscape before fall is in full swing.
We 
are dedicated to acknowledging that we are on stolen land of the Abenaki First Nation People who call this land N’dakinna, translated as ‘Dawnland’ and to decolonize ourselves. As we increase access of mycological information to people of all backgrounds, we remain egalitarian, all inclusive; not discriminating on basis of age, gender, ethnicity, religion, mental health status, education, race, culture, sexual orientation, general appearance, income level, living situation, experience in social or mycological work. While we enhance local living systems through appropriate use of technology & well designed mycological systems, we apply mycological information to support the independence and sovereignty of local communities; growing symbiotic bridges between local groups, non-profits, and volunteers through shared mycological skills, knowledge, and insights. As we emphasize the use of local, non-polluting, non-exploitative materials and practices whenever possible in mycological endeavors, we strongly discourage the exploitation of fungi, mycoremediation, and bioremediation by government and corporate interests. We continually acknowledge, harness, and honor the wisdom of our ancestors; human, fungal & beyond with humility, gratitude, and curiosity. Once our systems are a bit more in place we aim to follow up on expressed interest by Abenaki tribal garden folk and inner city garden communities to offer outdoor cultivation workshops before harvest season.
PAN Fiscal Sponsorship in Action: Permaculture Apprenticeship and Cohort (PAC) Pilot Program
PAN Fiscal Sponsorship in Action:
Permaculture Apprenticeship and Cohort (PAC) Pilot Program
written by Stacey Doll, PAN Member
This summer, through the support of the Dorr Foundation grant and fiscal sponsorship provided by the Permaculture Association of the Northeast (PAN), Root to Rise is hosting a Permaculture Apprenticeship and Cohort (PAC) Pilot Program that provides students of permaculture a living classroom to apply their knowledge in the towns of Littleton, Bethlehem and Whitefield. The PAC Program requires students to actively engage with community leaders, organizations, and the general public to understand the practice of permaculture and apply that knowledge to projects that support community resiliency, ecosystem restoration, and strong social connections and bonds.
The students in the PAC program, with the guidance of their mentor, Stacey Doll, founder of Root to Rise, are specifically leading three community permaculture p
rojects: A permaculture design and a series of implementation workshops at a local Brewery in Bethlehem, NH; the development of the Veterans Victory Garden Program with a demonstration garden that begins to explore the positive impact of gardening, earthworks, and food production on the psyche and comradery of veterans; and collaboration with the OAKS organization which provides a support network to promote Organizing Acts of Kindness for Seniors and sees the potential of permaculture projects to grow food and medicinals for our aging population.
In a
ddition to these projects, the students have met with town managers, public works, business leaders, conservation organization, and regional planning commission leadership in an effort to bring permaculture into the conversation of how to revitalize and restore our communities and our natural environment. Root to Rise is very grateful to PAN for providing fiscal sponsorship so that this work could happen.
About Root to Rise: Root to Rise, a new permaculture nonprofit located in the North Country of New Hamsphire, formed with the purpose to provide permaculture education and empowerment programs through hands-on life experiences and training. Root to Rise provides a place for students of permaculture, sustainable agriculture, and environmental studies to practice and lead planning, design and implementation projects in the field. Root to Rise is working with local businesses, organizations and community leaders to identify projects in the field that can become living classrooms for students and organizes workshops and hands-on learning experiences where community and relationship building are at the core of permaculture design and installation. It is Root to Rise’s intent to provide a platform for tomorrow’s leaders and today’s community builders to deeply understand our ecological systems and create solutions to human needs by mimicking these systems.
