“Government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the Earth.” Lincolns Gettysburg address

Bill Mollison explains FDR’s Great Depression program the Civilian Conservation Corps (possibly the most popular such New Deal program) and its permaculture work swaling in dry landscapes. It is a response to a comment on the post”The unemployed should besiege the Obama administration”

As in Transition Towns, Klimaforum09 and other larger-scale permaculture projects, we need to work with governments, or more correctly make government work for us. See Klimaforum’s 10 000 Trees Strategy which will be funded by a 100 Euro/tonne Carbon Tax or watch for Transition Towns Totnes upcoming book on Working with Local Government.

Bill Mollison Father of Permaculture Shares his Wisdom on Dryland Systems, to find out more about Bill and his work please visit; www.tagari.com

Source: Permascience

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was a public work relief program for unemployed men, providing vocational training through the performance of useful work related to conservation and development of natural resources in the United States^[2] from 1933 to 1942. As part of the New Deal legislation proposed by U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR), the CCC was designed to aid relief of the unemployment resulting from the Great Depression while implementing a general natural resource conservation program on federal, state, county and municipal lands in every U.S. state, including the territories of Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

The CCC performed 300 possible types of work projects within ten approved general classifications: 1) Structural Improvements: bridges, fire towers, service buildings; 2) Transportation: truck trails, minor roads, foot trails and airport landing fields; 3) Erosion Control: check dams, terracing and vegetable covering; 4) Flood Control: irrigation, drainage, dams, ditching, channel work, riprapping; 5) Forest Culture: planting trees and shrubs, timber stand improvement, seed collection, nursery work; 6) Forest Protection: fire prevention, fire presuppression, fire fighting, insect and disease control; 7) Landscape and Recreation: public camp and picnic ground development, lake and pond site clearing and development; 8 ) Range: stock driveways, elimination of predatory animals; 9) Wildlife: stream improvement, stocking fish, food and cover planting; 10) Miscellaneous: emergency work, surveys, mosquito control.^[3] The typical so-called CCC enrollee was a U.S. citizen, unmarried, unemployed male, 18–20 years of age. Each enrollee volunteered, and upon passing a physical exam was required to serve a minimum six month period with the option to serve as much as two years. He lived in a work camp, received $30 a month (with a compulsory allotment $22–25 sent to a dependent) as well as food, clothing and medical care.^[4]

The CCC became one of the more popular New Deal programs among the general public, providing economic relief, rehabilitation and training for a total of 3 million men. The CCC also provided a comprehensive work program that combined conservation, renewal, awareness and appreciation of the nation’s natural resources.^[5] The CCC was never considered a permanent program and depended on emergency and temporary legislation for its existence.^[6] On 30 June 1942 Congress voted to terminate funding for the CCC, formally ceasing active operation of the program

Source: Civilian Conservation Corps, Wikipedia

Shenandoah: Not Without the CCC {1}

by Reed Engle, Cultural Resource Specialist

During the President’s brief stop at Camp Nira [S.N.P. CCC Camp #3], he was treated to a brief pageant entitled “The burial of old man depression and fear and the return of happy days.”… two C.C.C. members, one with a banner “C.C.C.” and the other with the symbol “NIRA” [National Industrial Recovery Act], marched toward a covered object labeled “fear.” As the torchbearers set fire to “fear”… The covering destroyed, [and] “Old Man Depression” was revealed in effigy. This too was fired and the President happily commented, “that’s right, burn him up.”…The bugler played “Happy Days Are Here Again” as the President…applauded.{2}

Source: National Parks Service

Permaculture in Konso (African) Schools

Konso is the little area in southern Ethiopia where Strawberry Fields Eco Lodge is based. It has suffered repeated food insecurity over the last 50 years.

Konso land is poor quality and the country is cut up by deep eroded gullies and canyons. Rain is unreliable, increasingly so in recent years. These harsh conditions have bred what some call ‘the toughest farmers in Africa’. Tough, they certainly are. And the Konso are very good farmers. “The major economic base is agriculture (80%) and 20% only is butchery, weaving, pottery, black smithery, petty local brewery trades, tannery and local carpentry.” (Korra Gara, 2008) The most notable feature of their renowned agricultural system is its terracing, constructed over large tracts of the rugged landscape by centuries of communal labour. The terraces reduce erosion and are carefully crafted to balance the competing demands of maximizing water infiltration, with allowing adequate drainage so that the terraces do not collapse in times of heavy rain.

Strawberry Fields Eco Lodge

Strawberry Fields Eco Lodge is a multifaceted project working in the Konso Special Woreda, which integrates an Eco Lodge, model Permaculture farm (the first in Ethiopia) and PC design training centre and consultancy facility. Our resident trainer, Mr Tichafa Makovere from Zimbabwe has practised Permaculture in southern Africa for more than 15 years and is a veteran of the SCOPE (Schools and Colleges Outreach Permaculture Program) which has been tremendously successful in training and implementing Permaculture in schools around southern Africa in the last decades. SFEL, with Tichafa’s help, now seeks to repeat these successes in southern Ethiopia. So far SFEL has given the PDC to 13 school teachers in Konso and begun implementation in 5 Konso schools, working in partnership with Save the Children Finland and other NGOs.

Source: Permalodge
Source: Project Profile, Peace Corps