[Pil-pc-oceania] Peter Andrews

[David Arnold]

Thanks for this review, John.

I agree that Peter Andrews' ideas and methods should be a welcome addition
to a Permaculturists' toolkit.

Peter Andrews seems to be focussing lower in the landscape than Yeomans.
Although Andrews is critical of some of Yeomans' suggestions, I don't think
we permies need to think of them as being contradictory or opposing views.
As Pc designers we are free to work with any elements of their design
suggestions that suit the landscape situation we find.

I have seen his presentation and have his book, which I must confess I have
not yet read.

Dave Arnold


On 28/02/07, Champagne <brogopg at bigpond.net.au> wrote:
>
>
> Hi everyone,
>
> We had some discussion last year on this list about the Natural
> Sequential Farming concept advocated by Peter Andrews. He has now
> released his book, 'Back from the Brink" and encourage permaculture folk
> to read it as it does throw up some challenges for us in terms of what
> we teach on Design Courses about broadcare management systems.
>
> Peter Andrews does not have the overall holistic thinking that
> permaculture adopts however his material on the movement of salt through
> the landscape is new information and quite different for what has been
> accepted as correct and what we teach on PDCs.He also comes to his
> conclusions after 20 years of thoughtful observation and interaction
> which is our Principle 1.
>
> Most of what he says we have no problems with. Use of exotic plants in
> land restoration( especially willows), the value of mulch, seeing weeds
> as indicators and working with them and the use of the contour are all
> PC doctrine. He differs on particular aspects of keyline planning due to
> his understanding of salt movement. He claims that salt moves gradually
> downhill through sand pockets until it reaches the surface somewhere
> lower down the catchment.
>
> In a nutshell,he talks about dams putting pressure on the salt layer and
> forcing it down hill to break out so is not a fan of dams as water
> storage. He builds two contour channels across the landscape only metres
> apart. The top one is for stormwater run off which he keeps clear and
> the second one he puts vegetation in. As water moves downhill from
> these, the clear water from the top channel acts as a lens which keeps
> the salt below it and stops it from breaking to the surface.
>
> I'd be interested in any feedback on this and particularly from
> broadacre designers such as Darren Doherty and David Arnold who have
> placed plenty of keyline systems.
>
> Again, I'd encourage you all the read his book as PC prides itself on
> passing information on the correct science. Science is quickly evolving
> and we need to keep abreast of new scientific understandings.
>
> kind regards
> John Champagne
> Mumbulla Bioregion.
> Far South Coast, NSW.
> _______________________________________________
> Pil-pc-oceania mailing list
> Pil-pc-oceania at lists.permacultureinternational.org
> http://jasper.cmsarchitects.com/mailman/listinfo/pil-pc-oceania
>



-- 
David Arnold
Permaculture Designer
4446 Murchison Rd
Violet Town VIC AUS 3669
03 5798 1679
arnold.vt at gmail.com
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://jasper.cmsarchitects.com/pipermail/pil-pc-oceania/attachments/20070228/d031c090/attachment.html