As the basis of permaculture is beneficial design, it can be added to all other ethical training and skills, and has the potential of taking a place in all human endeavors. In the broad landscape, however, permaculture concentrates on already-settled areas and agricultural lands. Almost all of these need drastic rehabilitation and re-thinking. One certain result of using our skills to integrate food supply and settlement, to catch water from our roof areas, and to place nearby a zone of fuel forest which receives wastes and supplies energy, will be to free most of the area of the globe for the rehabilitation of natural systems. These need never be looked upon as “of use to people”, except in the very broad sense of global health.

The real difference between a cultivated (designed) ecosystem, and a natural system is that the great majority of species (and biomass) in the cultivated ecology is intended for the use of humans or their livestock. We are only a small part of the total primeval or natural species assembly, and only a small part of its yields are directly available to us. But in our own gardens, almost every plant is selected to provide or support some direct yield for people. Household design relates principally to the needs of people; it is thus human-centered (anthropocentric).

This is a valid aim for settlement design, but we also need a nature-centered ethic for wilderness conservation. We cannot, however, do much for nature if we do not govern our greed, and if we do not supply our needs from our existing settlements. If we can achieve this aim, we can withdraw from much of the agricultural landscape, and allow natural systems to flourish.

Recycling of nutrients and energy in nature is a function of many species. In our gardens, it is our own responsibility to return wastes (via compost or mulch) to the soil and plants. We actively create soil in our gardens, whereas in nature many other species carry out that function. Around our homes we can catch water for garden use, but we rely on natural forested landscapes to provide the condenser leaves and clouds to keep rivers running with clean water, to maintain the global atmosphere, and to lock up our gaseous pollutants. Thus, even anthropocentric people would be well-advised to pay close attention to, and to assist in, conservation of existing forests and to assist in, the conservation of all existing species and allow them a place to live.

We have abused the land and laid waste to systems we never need have disturbed had we attended to our home gardens and settlements. If we need to state a set of ethics on natural systems, then let it be thus:

• Implacable and uncompromising opposition to further disturbance of any remaining natural forests, where most species are still in balance;
• Vigorous rehabilitation of degraded and damaged natural systems to stable states;
• Establishment of plant systems for our own use on the least amount of land we can use for our existence; and
• Establishment of plant and animal refuges for rare or threatened species.

Permaculture as a design system deals primarily with the third statement above, but all people who act responsibly in fact subscribe to the first and second statements. We believe should use all the species we need or can find to use in our own settlement designs, providing they are not locally rampant and invasive.

The 72 hr design course will be conducted in the internationally accepted manner. The 72 hours of course work required to receive a Permaculture Design Certificate, will be covered over a 10- 16 day period, mixing hands-on with plenty of  classroom studies. All students are required to be present for the full course if they wish to receive the certificate.

Permaculture courses are fairly standardized as far as content. We will cover every major topic in Bill Mollisons: Permaculture: a Designers Manual.( Unless otherwise stated for bioregional focus)  So quickly what that includes is the following:

1. Philosophies and Ethics underlying permaculture.

2. Basic permaculture principals and how they shape things in general

3. Patterns in Nature, and how to use that in design

4. Methods of design. How to go from a damaged piece of land to having an idea for how to move forward with it.

5. Climactic factors. We will cover all the major climates and how to work with them.

6. Trees, forests, and why we want to mimic their systems.

7. Water: catchment, usage, importance, and conservation. Also waste treatment.

8. Soil, minerals, microorganisms, building new soil, and preventing erosion

9. Earthworks: How to shape the land to help it acheive the goals we are aiming for.

10. Aquaculture

11. Natural Building

12. Alternative systems: community living, and other ways of choosing to live differently that works well for people and the planet.

Each of these categories has subcategories and each teacher also has their own additions and certain topics that are stressed over others.

What to expect from the course:
This course is a certified 72-hour Permaculture Design Course (PDC).  This course has a preset curriculum based off of the content of Bill Mollison's Permaculture: A Designers Manual.(Unless otherwise stated due to bioregional focus)  During the course, we will touch on every major topic in the book, and will go into various amounts of detail depending on both the desires of the students as well as the expertise of the instructors. 

Upon completing the course you will receive a Permaculture Certificate which entitles you to use the word permaculture in your endeavors as well as to teach the course, or work as a permaculture consultant if you are so inclined.

The Permaculture course lessons are split between dynamic lecture-storytelling and hands-on practicums.  As this is a design course we work on group designs regularly throughout the course leading up to a more substantial design project that students will work on in teams.  By the end of the course each person will have been involved in a complete, integrated permaculture design of a selected site.  This is one of the requirements of the Permaculture certification, as well as one of the most valuable learning tools of the course.  It is our aim that all students leave confident in how to apply Permaculture Design to any area of their lives.

What can you do to prepare for the course:
 
This course is intended for the beginner, who may have just heard about Permaculture for the first time, as well as for those with some experience, who may be practicing Permaculture already, but are interested in learning the theoretical framework behind it.  You are not expected to have any specific knowledge or skills upon arrival.  We do think it is helpful to start thinking about ecological systems, and permaculture design in advance.  Read!  Find a book about design, about organic gardening, about integrated systems, about ecology, about solution based exploration of our world's problems.  All of these subjects will provide you with some context to the lessons of the course.  Or, if you have a specific piece of property or ecological area that you are primarily interested in applying Permaculture principals to, sit and observe it, map it, read about it, or talk to others who are working in similar environments. Most of all, be excited to learn and be ready to soak up the information of the course.