In this dynamic presentation, Brad Lancaster will share patterns and strategies to harvest, integrate, and enliven free local resources — rainwater, graywater, stormwater; sun, wind, shade, soil fertility, wild foods, and community fun — in a way that generates far more potential than the sum of their parts. Scarcity is revisioned into abundance simply through creative cycling and using what is already at hand. Costly and consuming habits and infrastructure, currently disconnected from their surroundings, are reoriented and reconnected to maximize enriching opportunities. You’ll see many examples of such transformation:

• How once-dying wetlands and creek flows are being regenerated with simple hand-built structures made of on-site materials
• How ancient sun- and shade-harvesting sites are informing passively heated, cooled, and powered modern homes and retrofits
• How once-blighted, overheated neighborhood streets are being rejuvenated into thriving greenbelts of water, people, wildlife, art, food, and celebration by planting once-drained stormwater, seed, and yard prunings

This talk is both an invitation to engage with your natural surroundings and community and a treasure map showing you the way — by planting the rain, dancing with the sun, growing fertile shade, and more to live as one of your community’s inspirational sparks!
FMI: www.willowbendcenter.org