2025 Spokane Permaculture Symposium
Outcome of Breakout Sessions
Also see: 2025 Spokane Permaculture Symposium Follow-up Bioregional Organizing
Would you like to help us plan for the 2026 Symposium? Contact Us!
So, we had breakout groups on various subjects. On Saturday we had folks stick colored dots on the breakout session big paper note pads. On Sunday we had to leave the venue too early for doing the dots. Mary Bishop was kind enough to compile the following synopsis.
Feel free to leave comments (see bottom of page)
Dots Key: 🔴 Red is 'Yes! Yes! Yes!'
🟢 Green and 🔵 Blue dots are good and
🟡 Yellow is 'not so much.'
Increased Local Food Production
Need:
2 Green dots 🟢🟢Grocery Stores to buy/sell local
Transport to stay local area
Link boxes
Education: nutrition, local food, teachings, seasonal foods
Water (better utilize and store in soil rather than dams)
Energy production $$$
Pollution/road & tire debris for roadway
Where has this been successful? (Syracuse, NY)
Need:
2 Red Dots 🔴🔴 Connect Farmers with helpers
Connect produce to local consumers
Change food consumed to seasonality
2 Red Dots 🔴🔴Farmer (local) education
Group/communal processing/tools
Energy comes from somewhere$$$
Small scale solar, WA State Uni offers free
Permaculture and Regeneration
7 Green 🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢🟢 1 red 🔴 PFAS ('forever chemicals')- Possible for AFB not to deploy?
Willing to do some public Ed?
How can Permaculture Comm help mitigate? Paul Stamets fungi
1 Red 🔴Bringing in/Increasing biodiversity
How to encourage native growth
Spotted Knapweed problem toxic to goats
Controlled burning? Seeds are burn resistant
Look to where its native
Kapweed Beetle (Weevil) Fly
Keep it under control
1 Red 🔴What are Permaculture Solutions?
2 Reds 🔴🔴 1 Blue 🔵Going out with someone who knows invasives. (Michael Pilarski)
1 Green 🟢 1 Red 🔴Many useful medicinal plants growing near you
1 Green 🟢 Research what you have
1 Red 🔴 1 Blue 🔵Soil Regeneration (guano, alpaca manure)
Disaster Preparation
Craig, John, Claudia, Phil, Skeeter, Denise, and Michael
1 Blue dot 🔵How to stop fire
3 Red dots 🔴🔴🔴Ponds, fire road around perimeter of property, Limb up - 1 acre a year
Firewise & dire dept & DOE
1 Green dot 🟢, 1 blue 🔵Crater gardens - 1 mile - Bentonite for sealing
Hugelkulturs
Bullock Bros video
2 Red dots 🔴🔴John 10 acres - Insurance green lawn
8th inch mesh
1 Blue dot Quonset hut -metal bldg
1 Blue dot 🔵, 1 red dot 🔴New tech - Sound to put out fire
2 Green dot 🟢, 2 red dot 🔴🔴Good fire - vol 2 Feb 25- Red Bird Collective
1 Green dot 🟢, 1 red 🔴 Vegetation least burnable
1 Red dot 🔴Firewise
Community Gardens and Food Forest
8 Red 🔴🔴🔴🔴🔴🔴🔴🔴 1 Green 🟢 2 Blue 🔵🔵 5 Yellow 🟡🟡🟡🟡🟡City land (Latah 100 acres) Hatch Road DNR
2 Green 🟢🟢 1 Red 🔴Self-sustaining-ish
4 Red 🔴🔴🔴🔴 2 Green 🟢🟢 Smart Water Usage
1 Green 🟢 1 Red 🔴Neighborhood Counsels
2 Red 🔴🔴 and 1 Blue 🔵Land Back
2 Red 🔴🔴 1 Blue 🔵 1 Yellow 🟡 1 Green 🟢 Helping the older generation garden
Soil Health
Simple: Research what soil is needed for what you want then add soil amendments and organic matter
Large Scale: Protecting soil, Keeping plants growing at all times
Definition:
-Life system-diversity and abundance of organisms fungi, nematode, bacteria, arthropods
-Connection with the rest of the ecosystem-watershed, animals, etc.
-Structure/textures for different potentials
Feeding microbes
-different types of compost
-Adding organic matter
-Cover cropping-divisified rather than monoculture (5+families of plant ideally)
-tilling in covercrop to add N
-Biochar
-Red wrigglers
-Compost tea (must be aerobic)
-Layering compost and mulch (such as bark or cardboard)
Develop a goal for the soil-What do we want to do with it?
Factors: texture, moisture content, content of organisms, some soils work better in different situations.
Facts:
-Too much carbon-microorganisms will feed on all the nitrogen, leaving none for plants so carbon/nitrogen ration is important for this reason!
-Fungal inoculated woodchips (myccorhizae or saprotrophic endo vs. ectomyccorhizae
-Starting a garden from a lawn by laying cardboard and adding manure, organic materials, willow leaves, wood chips on top. Round hay bale.
1 Red dot 🔴Book-Braiding Sweet Grass by Robin Wall Kimmerer
If you do something to a “weed” may make roots go deeper?
Know what’s on your land
1 Green dot 🟢 Milk Thistle-cultivate? Harvest for medicinal use
“Weeds” can be edible, can use apps to identify
3 Green dots 1 red 🔴Good soil effects taste
3 Green dots 🟢🟢🟢, 1 Red 🔴, 1 Blue 🔵Know your soil what’s in it, what it’s lacking: critters, minerals, composition
Biochar
Is there a way to know your soil? (Kathryn)
2 Blue dots 🔵🔵Educating about soil, what resources are available.?
Understanding what the land wants (water flow, sun)
Access to Land
Ag parks, incubators, on-farm
Lacking in Spokane area
Collective Efforts
Veterans outreach
Land Grabs-Legislation, Lobbying, advocacy
Prevent public land sales to private parties
Raise cain at public hearings transfer to public benefit
Focus on Local Economies and agriculture
Be prepared for collapse and land transfers
Education for small to mid sized farms
Engage with conservation district: They are friends but not well funded now
Capital Collectives to fund co-op projects
Bioregional Planning
Bioregional reserved guide
“Cascadia
Diversify Perspectives: Priority for indigenous naming-research group-outreach
-Permaculture fits-Spokane Permaculture
-Promoting regional food shed
-Study indigenous food ways
-Native land-ca (map)
-Tribal connections
Watershed: regional watershed councils
-Hazel Ward
-Social Forestry
-Forest bathing
Governmental Agencies-reviewing concepts
Bioregionalism (pending collapse)
Media Plan(?) Inlander (e.g. substack versatility)
Write articles
R3.0-Action Plan-website 15th Conference (Convergence?)
Confluence Event
-Olympic Group
-Spokane
Phil, Lori, Ryan, Caelan, Maurice Robinette
Goal(s) together, attend free
Contact:stephanie.nicole.watson@gmail.com
