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Columbia Basin Permaculture

Details

Commenced:	01/09/2010
Submitted:	04/02/2011
Last updated:	06/04/2016
Location:	1986 E Harder Rd, Ritzville, WA, US
Climate zone:	Cool Temperate

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Columbia Basin Permaculture

Project Type

Rural, Residential, Educational

Project Summary

Columbia Basin Permaculture is exploring Permaculture designs and techniques uniquely applicable to cold winter/hot summer dryland environments (Koppen-Geiger BSK).

Project Description

The CBP property consists of a twenty one acre piece of a early 1900's farmstead/ranch with many outbuildings and some rocky pasture land. In the 1990's a previous owner installed a motorcycle motocross track but it has since fallen into disrepair. The climate is very dry with between 9 and 15 inches of precipitation yearly, consistent drying winds, and a prairie ecosystem based on grasses, sagebrush, and mice/voles (and their predators).

The local agriculture is dryland wheat and beef cattle, with some more recent deep wells (>1000 ft) circular irrigation of field corn, potatoes, and hay. These areas are frequently sprayed with herbicides, insecticides, and fertilizers. Because the dryland wheat fields are left fallow with no cover crop for a year between plantings (to recharge the soil with water), there are often dust storms blowing away the soil during windy periods.

The goals of this Permaculture experiment are especially oriented to identify and implement strategies to restore the area disturbed by motorcycle track, identify and plant sustainable windbreak vegetation, increase the diversity of trees and shrubs, implement a variety of water catchment techniques, capture and store the solar and wind energies in abundance here.

Updates

Eden in Hell, Practicing permaculture in dry climates

Posted over 8 years ago (0 comments)

CBP Property Plant Database

We are creating an oasis in the middle of a biological wasteland. Surrounded by dry wheat monoculture - here is our tree & shrub inventory - the beginnings of a small forest.

Posted over 10 years ago (0 comments)

Rebuilding Arched Roof Root Cellar - Part II

Steam-bending new truss arches

Posted almost 14 years ago (2 comments)

Rebuilding Arched Roof Root Cellar - First Steps

Rebuilding a unique arched roof for an underground root cellar

Posted almost 14 years ago (0 comments)

Lay of the Land

Photos to put the Columbia Basin Permaculture project in context

Posted almost 14 years ago (1 comments)

Courses Taught Here!

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