2021
Inland
Northwest
Permaculture
Guild
Convergence

Save the Date!

Sept. 10, 11, 12

 We'll hold this year's Convergence once again at Ken Casler's beautiful farm and retreat center,
Casler Farm
1266 Mosquito Creek Rd.
Clark Fork, ID

Watch our website for details.

 You can pre-order plants from Friends of the Trees for pick-up at this sale by visiting:
https://friendsofthetrees.square.site/

Have questions about the plant sale or being a vendor?
Email Us

Medicinal Herb Micro-Farming Workshop - Spokane, WA

with Michael Pilarski / Friends of the Trees Society

Saturday April 17, 2021

10:00am – 4:00pm

Followed by the Plant Sale and Garden Exchange

Register Here
Starts at $70

Location:
Backyard Herb Garden
7213 N. Regal St
Spokane, WA 99217
View Map

This workshop will be geared towards small-scale, commercial production and will include hands-on activities and tool demonstrations. Useful for those already growing herbs as well as beginners. Topics Include: Design, planting, species, harvesting, irrigation, weeding, marketing and so much more. We will look at examples of rhizomatous bed crops, annuals, biennials, 4-year root crops, long-term perennials, sub-shrubs, trees, etc. We will discus how to start new plots using a tractor or hand tools. How to achieve good production starting in year one and every year thereafter.
We will be touring an established herb and vegetable garden as part of the workshop.
Bring:
Brown bag lunch
Water bottle / Thermos
Garden gloves
Come prepared for the weather
Folding Chair
Umbrella if rainy, so you have a dry place to take notes
Notebook and Pen
This is an outside event. Masks are optional with social distancing.
About the instructor:
Michael Pilarski "Skeeter" is a farmer, educator, author and permaculture instructor who has devoted his life to studying and teaching how people can live sustainably on this Earth.  He grows a diversity of medicinal and food plants in complex, agroforestry systems.  Blending permaculture, restorative ecology and ethnobotany to enhance restorative land practices. His Herb Farm, Friends of the Trees Botanicals, has grown a wide diversity of crops in permaculture and agroforestry systems since 1972. He has been farming medicinal plants for the last 34 years in Eastern and Western Washington with a focus on small-scale and low capitalization. Pilarski’s 1/4 acre micro-farm in Chimacum, WA grossed $45,000 in 2020 (year 3).
Website: FriendsoftheTrees.net

Hello Spokane Friends and Allies

It has been a tough year for many folks.  One silver lining is that more people are growing gardens and planting trees.  The land can sustain us physically, mentally and spiritually; and we can help sustain the land. We need symbiotic relationships with the land and with each other.  I am happy to be coming back to Spokane this month to share more information on how to do this.

Recently added: Talking With the Land

April 18, Sunday 6:00pm – 8:00pm: Talking With the Land. All indigenous people talked to the lands and waters, the creatures, the plants.  Some people still do this today.  Michael is the founder of the Fairy & Human Relations Congress. By donation. Venue to be announced.  Email me if you want to be notified. 

Michael Skeeter Pilarski
friendsofthetrees@yahoo.com

Plant Walk & Wildcrafting / Foraging Workshop - Spokane, WA

with Michael Pilarski / Friends of the Trees Society

Sunday April 18, 2021

10:00am – 4:00pm

Register Here

Location:
Dishman Hills Natural Area - Camp Carol Parking Lot
698 South Sargent Road
Spokane Valley, WA 99212
View Map

We are surrounded by useful plants wherever we go. Native and non-native plants. Food, medicine, seeds, fibers, craft materials, building materials & more.
We we will be walking trails and talking about the plants we meet. The information will be useful for wildcrafting for home use as well as commercially. We will introduce the main medicinal plants found in Eastern Washington with optimum timing of harvest, collecting techniques, tools, processing, drying and sustainable wildcrafting guidelines.
Bring:
Brown bag lunch
Water bottle / Thermos
Come prepared for the weather
Umbrella if rainy
This is an outside event. Masks are optional with social distancing.
About the instructor:
Michael Pilarski "Skeeter" is a farmer, educator, author and permaculture instructor who has devoted his life to studying and teaching how people can live sustainably on this Earth.  He grows a diversity of medicinal and food plants in complex, agroforestry systems.  Blending permaculture, restorative ecology and ethnobotany to enhance restorative land practices. His Herb Farm, Friends of the Trees Botanicals, has grown a wide diversity of crops in permaculture and agroforestry systems since 1972. He has been farming medicinal plants for the last 34 years in Eastern and Western Washington with a focus on small-scale and low capitalization. He is the author of “Ethnobotany and Ethnoecology Resource Guide” and “Growing & Wildcrafting Medicinal Plants in the Pacific Northwest”.
Website: FriendsoftheTrees.net

The Indigenous Traditional Use of Fire

In this video, Dr, Melodi Wynne of the Spokane Tribal Network talks about the Spokane Tribal Food Sovereignty Project. They had a gathering on April 1 to inaugurate  their new tribal community garden at Little Falls on the Spokane River near Wellpinit, WA. They had planned to have a cultural burn to prepare the site in the afternoon, but windy conditions necessitated that to be postponed to a later date.

"A cultural burn recognizes that fire in the right time, place, intention, intensity and amount is medicine for people, plants, water, animals and the land. It is a low, slow flame in late winter, early spring, late fall or early winter, purposefully lit and tended, for cultural purposes of human recognition, engagement and relationship with the scared element of fire as a creative/destructive force in the seasonal cycle of plant, human, animal and all life.

"A cultural burn is the implementation of fire as a sacred element with power to clear, cleanse, fertilize or signify a new start to use an area for Tribal food sovereignty, re-vegetation of native food and medicine plants or other cultural reasons, resources or significance."

Here are some of the benefits that Spokane Tribal ancestors sought when using fire:

* A reduction of windfall and dead fall;

* Reduction of competing understory vegetation in favor of vegetation that deer and elk like to eat, which draws the animals to a designated area-- "The traditional practice of controlled burning was used to increase the productivity of particular flora ... for browsing ungulates, and most elders could recall their fathers and grandfathers saying, immediately prior to burning an area to encourage the growth of grass, 'I'm giving you food now so later you're my food;'

* Clearing away the understory also improves visibility for hunters;

* Release of seeds from pine cones which need fire temperatures to achieve;

* Reduction of pests like ticks and wasps;

* Prevention of large forest fires.

Other resources:

The art of fire: reviving the Indigenous craft of cultural burning

Fire and Tribal Cultural Resources

Returing Fire to the Land - Celebrating Traditional Knowledge and Fire: Approached for Management and Research

Native Approaches to Fire Management Could Revitalize Communities

Living With Fire: What California Can Learn From Native Burns

Agroforestry on Clearcuts in the Pacific Northwest

By Michael Pilarski, Friends of the Trees Society

Hundreds of thousands of acres are clearcut every year in the Pacific Northwest.

On February 4, 2021, I visited a recent 80-acre clearcut above the Middle Fork Nooksack River.  It was typical of clearcuts in the region.  Yarding logs uphill had disturbed most of the forest soil.  Lots of bare dirt.  Most of the slash had been burned but there was some around along with charred logs and wood.  The site had been aerially sprayed with herbicide to kill off all vegetation after which it was planted with a monoculture of Douglas fir with a narrow genetic diversity.  There were some fingers of residual vegetation along the riparian corridors of seasonal streams, but no trees of any consequence were left on the 80 acres.  This is all perfectly legal of course.  

What will happen next will be relatively predictable.  There will be an explosion of non-native weeds. Already on the site I see bull thistle, St. John’s wort, yellow dock, horseweed, and butterfly bush. A lot of native plants will germinate in the next few years.  Typically the logging company might herbicide the site again after a few years to knock the deciduous vegetation and ground cover back to reduce competition on the Douglas fir.  After 7 to 10 years the Douglas fir will close canopy and shade everything else out.  Likely this would be followed by a pre-commercial thin and then possibly one commercial thin before the entire stand is clear-cut again.  Such are the current forest practices for the most part.  

How can we intervene in this process using agroforestry?  Read my full article on the Friends of the Trees website.

The weekend of April 3 - 4, 2021 marked the 40th anniversary of the first of two Northwest Permaculture Conferences hosted by Friends of the Trees Society in collaboration with Tilth and Children of the Green Earth. The Interior Region Conference was held in Sagle, Idaho, April 3-5, 1981, and the Maritime Region Conference was held near Corbett, Oregon the weekend of May 8-10, 1981.
 
The two conferences brought together more than 400 people united by a common desire to heal the earth, learn about permaculture and natural farming, and build a sense of community within our region. We didn't realize it at the time, but the two Northwest conferences were the first major permaculture gatherings in North America and the ripple effects from the events are still being felt throughout our region and across the country.
 
To learn more about the two conferences, read reports on the events, and see a directory of participants, visit the special archive pages created by Mark Musick, Michael "Skeeter" Pilarski and Chrys Ostrander on the Friends of the Trees Society website. If you attended either gathering, from the website you can also send in your reminiscences and any photos you might have.

Footehills Farm Plant Sale

New Date! May 22

7915 E Cooper Ln., Colbert
9am- 4pm

Footehills Farm is a 10-acre smallholding in a pine/fir forest in Colbert, WA where Torie and Thom Foote are creating a sustainable, energy efficient market garden farm using permaculture principles and agroforestry. They raise chickens, native timber, fruit trees, berry bushes, medicinal and culinary herbs and are in the process of building a 3400 sq. ft. "close to net zero" home. Every year they host WWOOFers in a tinyhouse and teach them valuable agrarian skills. In the future, guest houses, including yurts, will be built for visitors.

Footehills Farm Website
Footehills Farm on Facebook
Questions?
Send them an email.

Friends of the Trees’ Spring 2021 Schedule

Eastern Washington

Plant Sale 4:00pm to 6:00pm - Open to the public.
Pre-order plants online or just show up and shop in person.
April 15, Tonasket: Medicinal Agroforestry Farm Tour and Plant Sale at Edible Acres Farm
Farm Tour 1:00pm to 4:00pm
Edible Acres Farm
29 Alvarado Road Tonasket, WA
Free! Please RSVP

Plant Sale 4:00pm to 6:00pm - Open to the public.
Pre-order plants online or just show up and shop in person.
April 17, Spokane: Medicinal Herb Micro-farming Workshop & Plant Sale
Workshop 10:00am to 4:00pm
Backyard Herb Garden
7213 N. Regal St., Spokane, WA
Register

Plant Sale 4:00pm to 6:00pm - Open to the public.
Pre-order plants online or just show up and shop in person.
The Spokane plant Sale will be held in conjunction with
the Inland Northwest Permaculture Guild's Plant, Seed and Garden Exchange.
Bring plants, seeds, seedlings, gardening tools, books etc. to sell or trade.
Fee for vendors: $10.00
Bring your own table please.
April 18, Spokane: Plant Walk & Wildcrafting / Foraging Workshop
10:00am to 4:00pm
Dishman Hills Natural Area
Camp Carol Parking Lot
698 S. Sargent Rd., Spokane Valley, WA
Register

All of these are outdoor events with social distancing
Friends of the Trees Society put on its first tree sale in 1978. At the height of its career in the late 1980s, its tree sales were held in 24 different towns across northern Washington, north Idaho and Northwest Montana. Some of the tree sales evolved into public plant exchanges. Tonasket and Twisp Washington were two of the most regular tree sales. Over 200 tree sales have been held over the years. Many thousands of our trees, shrubs and plants are still growing throughout the region. Let's keep planting!

The Inland Empire Gardeners Plant Sale

New Date! May 14

Spokane Community College

8am - 5pm

TIEG Website
TIEG on Facebook
Questions?
Send them an email.

There's going to be a private Garden Party
!with Live Music!
near Spokane in the first half of May.

If you haven't received your personal invitation yet, send an email message to Chrys Ostrander to request one.

farmrchrys@gmail.com

The party will be at an outdoor venue in the vicinity of Spokane. Lots of space for distancing.

Music Line-up:

Dustin Busch - Dustin combines a complete mastery of guitar technique in the blues style, as well as a relaxed, nothing-to-prove attitude to make serious music. American roots, country blues and old time.

Steve Schennum - Guitar, mandolin, and fiddle. Folk songs, some jazz standards and some originals. Songs you never hear on the radio, but maybe you should.

Candace Finity and Ted Hensold - Traditional music from the Marmite Isles performed on fiddle and guitar and just maybe harmonica.

Kathlyn Kinney - Kathlyn plays a collection of Classical, Modern and Celtic music on the harp. A consummate professional and an excellent musician, she plays with both outstanding technical facility and genuine feeling.

Brad Keeler - Brad is an award-winning multi-instrumentalist, vocalist, songwriter, composer, and interpreter of Vintage Music. Retro, Roots, Radio, Americana, Acoustic Blues, Folk Revival, Country & Alt County, Bluegrass & Old Time, Standards, Swing & Tin Pan Alley and Originals

The Working Spliffs - This five piece band features a horn section, two bass players, versatile guitar work, and vocal harmonies. Varied set of Reggae, Ska, R and B, Punk, Psychedelic Rock with Jazz leanings. A Spokane-area legend.

NorthWest Vendors Market

6206 E Trent Ste.B.
Open 7 days a week from 10-6pm

We are just in the process of opening a booth at this site for
plants, salves, tinctures, etc. There will be 2 booths after April.
These are places where Guild members could sell things. Those
that do would share in the monthly rent and help arrange/set
up wares they are selling. Talk to Torie if you are interested.
torie.foote@gmail.com

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 This Newsletter is distributed electronically by the Inland Northwest Permaculture Guild Newsletter Service.
Email: zone1@inlandnorthwestpermaculture.com

Please consider donating to the Inland Northwest Permaculture Guild at the amount you can afford.

DONATE

Thank you!

Medicinal Plant Sale in Missoula

Sunday, May 23, 2021 at 9am – 12pm

Now more than ever, we believe people should be growing their own medicinal herbs!

Come to the Annual Medicinal Plant Sale hosted by Green Path Herb School. Are you ready to start an herb garden? Looking for some unusual medicinal plants? Want some culinary herbs for extra delicious and nutritious meals? Looking for some native plants to add to your yard? Or maybe you have some extra seeds or seedlings to share?
.
Located in the parking lot behind Meadowsweet Herbs at 180 S 3rd St W in Missoula.

See the Facebook Event page