PERMACULTURE’S GIFT TO ALDEA
PERMACULTURE’S GIFT TO ALDEA
Successful Eco-Community Permaculture Initiatives typically create regeneratively-sustainable landscape ecosystem solutions called Food Forests in a manner that builds fertile live soil and provides sustainable living with a healthier ecologically-balanced succession of mostly native and naturalized plants.
These solutions regeneratively feed themselves and the surrounding ecosystem. Permaculture Food forests can also combine native and naturalized species with fruit trees, nut trees, herbs, vegetables and beneficial companion plants to provide an abundance of regeneratively-sustainable organic human food and related community based food security. Passively irrigated with storm water harvested from the landscape and storm sewer systems, Permaculture solutions use non-invasive on-contour earth swale basins to naturally collect, slow, spread and soak storm water into the ground where it can hydrate live soil that perpetually feeds the thriving landscape.
This productive alternative also eliminates the destructive erosion and related HOA maintenance expense that is routinely caused by monsoon storms at Aldea. Conceptually, the same crew effort can be more productively applied to regeneratively-sustainable landscape solutions, proven to increase property values, long-term quality of life, and landscape health in communities like the very successful Village Homes community in Davis, California.
205 acres of Aldea’s landscape are forever maintained as perpetual open space occupied mostly by a naturalized semi-arid Pinon/Juniper Woodland guild, composed of Pinon trees, Juniper trees and a variety of companion support species such as native shrubs, cacti, perennials and grasses. Aldea’s woodland also has emerging native and naturalized deciduous trees located mostly within arroyo areas that share examples of how our environment naturally creates beneficial bio-diversity through ecological succession.
Successful Permaculture Science based solutions emulate and encourage this natural process to achieve regeneratively-sustainable ecosystem abundance, resilience and stability throughout the community’s open space environment. While Aldea’s picturesque Pinon/Juniper woodland covered hillsides are and will remain one of our community’s primary attractions, the health of this prevailing woodland has suffered over the years due mostly to rising temperatures, draught and the fact that this is not the preferred climate for Pinon trees. Many draught stressed Pinon trees have died, often from a twig beetle infestation brought on by the lack of the hard freeze needed to kill off the infectious beetle larva in draught stressed trees.
Concerned about the long-term health and welfare of the Aldea common open space landscape, a growing number of Aldea Owners are working together with the GaiaQuest Center for Global Health and Well-Being to help introduce and promote a more regeneratively-sustainable Permaculture based landscape solution for the Aldea community. In an effort to help rally this support, GaiaQuest provided an introductory Permaculture class for interested members of the Aldea community who have informally become the founding members of the Aldea Permaculture Group. Applying lessons successfully learned by many other communities around the world, the Aldea Permaculture Group is now exploring time-tested Permaculture Science based solutions and practices primarily as a means of fixing Aldea’s failed commercial plaza and restoring Aldea’s coveted Pinon/Juniper woodland eco-system into a much healthier sustainable state.
To learn more about what Permaculture can offer to our Aldea community, interested Aldea residents and owners are encouraged to join the Aldea Permaculture Group by sending an email request to gaia@gaiaquest.com or by visiting GaiQuest at 19 Plaza Nueva or www.gaiaquest.com.