Liberation Ecology Project

The Liberation Ecology Project - which has really been just me for the past six years - has finally found a nest. I’m working with a small group of grad students, undergrads, and professionals here in Burlington, to found a new project. We are called the Ecological Learning Institute (ELI for short), and our mission is to do ecological design, research, and education, in partnership with grassroots community projects. Our mission is social justice, and our toolbox is ecological design. The Liberation Ecology vision, toolbox, and workshop curriculum, can now be incorporated in a larger collective project. This is what I’ve always been hoping and working for. I feel like the real work can begin now!

Our website is under construction, and in the mean time you can find us here, on Facebook.
We are based in Burlington, Vermont currently, but not for long. We will be relocating in the next year to a major city in the northeast. We’re not sure which one yet! We’re doing outreach and research to find our way to a place that the local leadership, the need, and the potential for change are strong. We won’t land anywhere without an invitation.

We’ve just formed over the past 10 months, but we’ve been busy…
• Design and installation of a gorgeous raised bed garden at a Burlington grade school (see picture above).
• Facilitating a community-driven design process of an ecological master plan, for the landscape of that same school (and supporting a Masters thesis at the same time).
• Running an ecological design / social design workshop curriculum on campus here.
• Managing field trials on the effects of biochar on organic vegetable production.
• Mentoring a dozen or so undergraduate interns through various service learning projects.

And lately, as a part of Ecological Learning Institute, I’ve been working with the flagship urban agriculture project, Growing Power, out of Milwaukee, WI, to incorporate mushroom production with their integrated urban ag model. If you don’t know their work already, check them out. Their combination of sophisticated ecological design and a grounded, inspiring, community development model will blow your mind. I’m so excited to be working with them. Check out a post on the Growing Power blog about the first (of five) workshops here.

I’ll post more soon, I promise.