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New GPS/GIS Site Analysis & Design Services

In the last year we have integrated GPS and GIS tools into our site analysis and design process.  These additions have allowed us to tackle some pretty remarkable projects, and offer a lot of value for our clients with broadacre rural sites or larger urban/suburban properties.

By combining GPS surveying and data collection with the GIS capabilities of our existing Vectorworks Landmark software, we now have the ability to capture almost any type of spatial information (topographical, hydrological, ecological, cultural, etc.), and utilize it to more effectively integrate a client’s needs with the potential of their site.

See below to check out two of the projects we have done utilizing this technology. Please be in touch to find out how your project could benefit from these powerful tools.

(Click images for PDF download)

Client: Big Bend Hot Springs Project (Big Bend, CA)
Description: Site analysis document created as an appendix to a conceptual report for a 120 acre food forest.

Client: Atlan Center
Description: Extensive site analysis document created to inform the master planning of a 142 acre site that will host a residential community of 30-50 individuals and an educational retreat center accommodating groups of up to 100 users.

An Edible Garden at Nike International

In late 2009 we were asked by a group of employees at Nike to facilitate the design of a community garden at their international headquarters in Beaverton, Oregon.  The plan went through many iterations, with the final layout including a total of 140 garden plots ranging in size from 25-100 sq. ft., and shared areas for growing fruit trees and shrubs.

Other exciting features include:

• a communal gathering area
• tool storage
• shared composting facilities
• a perimeter deer fence that will double as more than 300 linear feet of trellis for grapes, kiwis, and espaliered fruit trees.

Future enhancements are likely to include rainwater harvesting, more space for community fruit trees, and additional garden plots to meet the overwhelming interest among the campus’ 5000 employees.

We’re very honored to have worked on such an exciting project, and are confident that it will serve as a model for edible gardens at corporate campuses and workplaces in the future.

If you’re interested in exploring how a community garden could benefit your company or workplace, we are excited to share our lessons learned on this successful project at Nike.

Master Planning for Pacific University

Over the last 4 months, we have worked with Communitecture Architecture and Planning to create a master plan for the nascent Pacific University Center for Sustainability Education, located just outside of Forest Grove, OR.

It has been an amazing and inspiring process, and we had a blast unveiling our designs at Pacific University’s annual faculty conference on Friday, August 21st.

We’re very proud of the work we delivered, and are making a sampling of our presentation boards available in PDF format for viewing. If you would like to see what we’ve been up to, check it out here.

Our Work featured in Gaia’s Garden 2nd Edition!

We are delighted to annouce that Toby Hemenway, one of the foremost permaculture teacherse and writers in the world, has featured our work in the second edition of his book,  Gaia’s Garden: A Home-Scale Guide to Permaculture!

The first edition, which for the last six years has been best-selling book on permaculture in the world, is a phenomenal introduction the subject, especially for North American readers.  The second edition adds a completely new chapter on urban permaculture, a wealth of new insights, and FULL COLOR!

Here are some words of praise for the book:

“The world didn’t come with an operating manual, so it’s a good thing that some wise people have from time to time written them. Gaia’s Garden is one of the more important, a book that will be absolutely necessary in the world ahead.”–Bill McKibben, author of Deep Economy and Hope, Human and Wild

“Toby Hemenway’s Gaia’s Garden will be recorded in history as a milestone for gardeners and landscapers–a fusion of the practical and the visionary–using the natural intelligence of Earth’s symbiotic communities to strengthen and sustain ecosystems in which humans are a partner, not a competitor. An amazing achievement showing how we can and must live in harmony with nature!”–Paul Stamets, author of Mycelium Running: How Mushrooms Can Help Save the World

Get a copy at Powells.com, and be sure to check out page 248!

Legal Graywater in Oregon: Almost There!

Great news! Today, the Oregon House of Representatives voted 45-10 in favor of House Bill 2080 which would legalize the exterior use of household greywater.  You can read the full text of the bill, and stay updated as the bill makes its way through the Oregon Senate, by checking out ReCode Oregon.

For those of you not already familiar with what graywater, I’d encourage you to first check out wikipedia’s entry, and then see the video below in which our friend Trathen Heckman explains the graywater system installed at his home in California (where it is already legal).

If you are interested in integrating greywater recycling into your home landscape, contact us, we can help!

Block Repair: Neighborhood-Scale Permaculture for Urban Revitalization

We are currently looking to partner with committed groups of neighbors to engage in Block Repair.  This process will assess the challenges and opportunities of food production, rainwater harvesting, and community building on the scale of one to several city blocks.  Within this scope we will be able to capitalize on the diversity of community members, ecological niches, and resources not available in any single household.  The resulting design will be an integrated blueprint for growing food, relationships, and hope for bright green future.

Whether you are new to the concepts of permaculture and regenerative design, or have long been a part of the choir, we invite you to take the next step in increasing your self-sufficiency, whatever it may be.  If you would like to find out more about Block Repair, please email inquiries@barrettecological.com for more information, or to schedule a consultation.

It will take our collective intelligence and creativity to look back on this phase as a time when we successfully transitioned away from oil dependence and curbed climate change.  This is both an offering, and a call to action.  We look forward to partnering with you, our community and clients, to engage in creating more vibrant and resilient human environments during the coming years, in Portland and beyond.

Be well, and be in touch.

“What is permaculture?!” Watch this video…

Here’s some classic footage of Bill Mollison from 1990.

Cradle-to-…

Here’s a thoughtful article from a longtime permaculture designer…

Forest Stewardship Council: Green Wood, or Greenwashing?

The other day, I was scouring google for images of environmental destruction for a slideshow.  To my surprise, I came across a website (FSC-Watch) that aggregates information about the poor practices of forestry operations that have been Forest Stewardship Council certified.

For those of you who aren’t familiar with the FSC, it is the largest certifier ‘sustainabily harvested’ timber.  For the past several years, it has been one of the main ‘Green Features’ touted by the timber industry.

While I’ve always approached lumber marketed as ‘sustainably harvested’ with skepticism, I’m finding that the information on FSC-Watch’s website points to significantly greater destruction of ecosystems than I had previously expected from anything with an FSC label.

Measuring Local Organic in ‘Food Feet’

So where’s your next meal coming from? Over the last few years, lots of folks have found out.

In recent memory, we’ve heard about the 500 mile diet and even the 250 mile diet.  But now that we’ve come across the the 50 mile diet, things are really starting to get exciting.  For those of us who live in urban centers, the concept of a 50 mile diet lends some hope to the oft-mentioned vision of returning to foodsheds characterized by small cities with thriving rural hinterlands.  Indeed, for those of us blessed to live in the Willamette Valley, there is much reason to be hopeful.

So what’s next in the quest for ever more local food? ‘Food Feet’!!! Nevermind trying to calculate how far a longhaul trucker might have traveled to deliver your salad greens or eggs, you could be counting the steps from your backdoor.