Rhonda Baird – Sheltering Hills Design
Rhonda Baird works for the health of the Earth and all her peoples. She spends some of her time teaching permaculture design, doing design work, and editing “Permaculture Design” magazine. She has helped to organize many groups over the past two decades around social issues (labor, urban, homelessness, domestic violence and sexual assault) to forest protection and cooperative work. In this she has been able to travel over much of North America and some of Central America, but her focus has been on her home watersheds in the Ohio River Valley. She serves with groups to promote local food security in her home town, coordinates a regional permaculture organization–Great Rivers and Lakes Permaculture Institute, has helped to coordinate North American Permaculture Convergences, and serves on the diploma committee for Permaculture Institute of North America.
Bloomington, Indiana
USA
(812) 929-3296
Website: http://www.shelteringhills.net
Social Media:
Sheltering Hills Design (Facebook)
Permaculture Design Magazine (Facebook)
Workshop(s)
Workshop 1: Valley Restoration Pattern Languages
The need for Earth repair is more acute in some areas than in others, though it is present everywhere. Rhonda Baird presented her research and projects findings on pattern languages for valley–or watershed-based repair of landscapes and communities. Given challenges such as: climate change, war, economic disruptions, and cultural shifts, how could a watershed or valley rehabilitate itself. This presentation looked specifically at spaces in northern Syria, California and the midwest USA, and draws on the the concepts and models of bioregionalism, community inventory processes, earth repair camps, and island patterns including developments in Puerto Rico over the past year.
Workshop 2: Developing Networks of Support
This was an open, facilitated discussion among attendees on how to increase networks of support for projects. The discussion covered: identifying projects and stakeholders, getting stakeholder buy-in, attracting the 8 forms of capital to your project, developing long-term vision, and responding responsibly over the long-term to emergent opportunities. Ideally, we will all leave inspired and with tools in hand to do the work of Earth Repair.
Rhonda Baird is an experienced organizer and facilitator excited to learn along with everyone through this discussion whether there are 5 or 150. She will draw on liberating structures, sociocratic method, and other tools to support our workshop.
