Guest Blogger: CommuniTea Garden Coordinator, USU & USDA Intern Claire Core

USU Extension Sustainability is working to help everyday people live more healthy, happy and sustainable lives. This is the nineteenth of a series of posts that features real people who are making real changes in their lives to be more sustainable.

This month we are featuring USU Moab student, USDA NIFA and USU Extension Sustainability intern, and permaculture teacher Claire Core. Discover Claire's thoughts about her internship, next steps, what interests her about permaculture, what visitors to a Moab permaculture garden can expect, and more! 

Please tell us a little about yourself. Where are you from? What are your interests? What are you majoring in?

I've lived in Moab for 4.5 years, which has been an amazing experience full of wonderfully weird people and outrageously beautiful surroundings. Before Moab, I lived in Iowa, where I was born and raised. My Iowa memories are full of lush gardens, safe communities, interesting antique artifacts, and yes, cornfields, but also the prairie that is full of tall grasses and wildflowers that grow between the highways and tucked away in preserves.

I have been specifically called to art, sociology, anthropology, geography, and environmental studies. Outside of the university realm, I've studied or dabbled in herbalism, permaculture, teaching, and natural building. Both of my parents were teachers, my dad a political science and sociology high school teacher and my mom was an elementary art teacher. They encouraged creativity, sensitivity, and broad-mindedness. 

I'm currently a student at Utah State University-Moab in the College of Natural Resources, and I am hoping to create an interdisciplinary major that would combine ecology, systems thinking, and community development. 

You recently completed an internship with USU Extension Sustainability. What did you work on? What was the experience like?

In the fall of 2014, I was granted the opportunity to be the permaculture intern through USU’s Extension Sustainability. This was a life-changing appointment that opened so many doors and helped to grow exponentially as a person. 

The permaculture internship was extended to two years and in that time, I worked most closely with a group called the Bee Inspired Gardens Initiative, which USU Extension Sustainability has been partnering with to bring increased visibility about the importance of pollinators in the Moab community.

The Bee Inspired Gardens (BIG) has the mission: “To inspire efforts toward pollinator health, water conservation, and food and forage systems using gardens, workshops and resources in a way that benefits our community and ecosystems.” With this mission in mind, and while representing USU Extension Sustainability’s goal of bringing increased awareness and behavior change regarding sustainability, I was able to facilitate many community events that were often hands-on, engaging and educational. For instance, I collaborated with the Moab Charter School to install a Bee Inspired Garden in their school grounds. This process included a long series of building trust and understanding and then input and investment. I met with the principles and staff many times to gauge their interest and needs. Then a survey was sent home to the parents to understand their desires for their children’s outdoor learning experience. Then, we built understanding and engagement with the students and community by hosting a Pollinator Party that celebrated all things pollinator while also having the opportunity for people to learn about the new garden that was being planned. At the Pollinator Party, the students made flower and bee-themed arts, recited a bee poem, were able to taste different types of honey from different regions, play games and color, see a real live observation hive, learn about worm composting and more. There was also a “sponsor-a-plant-drive”, where we had all the desired plants for the garden on display which their associated price next to them. Attendees were able to sponsor a plant by paying the price for the plant, putting it it the donation jar and putting a “sold” sticker with their name on it, on the plant’s container. This turned out to be very successful and all of the plants were purchased for the garden that evening!

A few other great experiences during this internship include helping put on multiple community events to learn about, design, and implement permaculture-designed pollinator gardens. One major project was the installation of a BIG at a local hotel, the Aarchway Inn. We brought in Jeff Adams to teach introduction to permaculture workshops, lead a design charette, and then install the garden with the help of many community volunteers, USU Logan alternative spring break students, and employees at the hotel.

All told, I helped facilitate the creation of gardens at Canyonlands Field Institute, Aarchway Inn, Moab Charter School and Wabi Sabi. These gardens brought in over 100 volunteers at more than ten different workshops. I also was able to work on BIG’s website, speak about our work on the radio, and create our BIG Foundational Document. 

This internship helped me hone my communication skills by creating written documents, appearing on the radio for interviews, leading classes and workshops, and facilitating meetings. The internship gave me so many opportunities for amazing collaborative projects, helped me develop as a person, and working with my mentor, Dr. Ros Brain, was inspiring and so fun. 

What are your next steps now that the internship is complete? 

At this point in time, I’m finishing up writing a peer-reviewed article about the process of working with the Moab Charter School and the Bee Inspired Gardens Initiative and when I’m done with that, I’m going to transplant some yarrow.

I am also working on a project called The CommuniTea Garden which is in the works to become a permaculture park and community gathering place. I have been working on this project with Jeff Adams and a large group of interested community members. We will be exhibiting many innovative water harvesting techniques, such as creating rock-lined swales that will move water through the site slowly like a sinuous stream, before it sinks into the soil, helping to grow the many trees, flowers and grasses that will be planted there. There will also be a nice seating area made of natural materials, such as cob and mud plaster, where people can play music, exhibit their art, drink tea, and converse.

I’m also starting a new internship with Ros! This time, I’ll be working on creating a database of sustainability programs happening at university extension offices all across the country. This will be a great way to realize how many programs are currently active in every state and to help show the collective inspiration that is paving new pathways towards resiliency and healthy, happy communities. 

What got you first interested in permaculture?

At the time of discovering permaculture, I was feeling overwhelmed by the weight of the problems we are facing in this world. With permaculture, I was finally given the word to associate with the many ideas, solutions and communities of people who weren't giving up, who are using the wisdom of nature to inform our decision-making and design processes.  

Permaculture came into my life in 2009 while taking an Environmental Studies class at Kirkwood Community College in Iowa City, Iowa. Our exuberant instructor explained rain gardens and local food and how this term permaculture was tied to both of them. Soon thereafter, my dad sent me a video link to the work of Sepp Holzer, a german natural agriculturists and permaculture practitioner.

I kept permaculture in mind as I left school, and went traveling in the summer of 2011, when I worked on a permaculture farm in Eastern Wisconsin. This was a great hands-on introduction to the practice. I had intended on going to a permaculture design certification course in Canada, however, when I showed up to the border on my bicycle, the mounties would not let me in, because they thought I would “bike into the woods and never come back”. 

Luckily, there were more opportunities for practicing permaculture, and the following spring I was in Moab, interning with Community Rebuilds, a nonprofit that teaches interns how to build strawbale houses. During this internship, there was a permaculture intensive with Joel Glanzberg. Joel is an acclaimed teacher of permaculture and tracking. I loved his philosophic and story-teller style of communicating permaculture and knew that permaculture was something I wanted to pursue. The next summer, in 2013, I took the two-week permaculture design certification class with Owen Hablutzel and Cathe Fish in Boulder Utah at the Boulder Mountain Guest Ranch. 

When I returned home, I began applying permaculture to gardening and began seeing clients who wanted a permaculture-informed landscape. I have been hooked on the innovative, solutions-oriented nature of permaculture ever since and see it more as a lifestyle than anytime else. I don’t think I changed my lifestyle to match the philosophies of permaculture, but rather, was relieved to know that there are thousands of people around the world who strive to live their lives lightly on the earth, seek to live in beautiful and functional communities, people who love this earth and its people, and people who want to play and be happy. That’s one way of looking at permaculture. Plus it holds so many amazing tools and innovations that are just so interesting to learn about and potentially apply them to your life.

What can people expect when they visit a permaculture garden? How is this any different from a traditional garden?

Well, a Moab permaculture garden is going to be different than one anywhere else. Permaculture is place-based and seeks to align with its unique surroundings. Every permaculture garden will be different because of this aspect. In Moab, we live in the high desert, a land of little cumulative rainfall, hot summers and cold winters. We also live in a valley that descends from a giving mountain range, which provides our valley with water and nutrients. There is also a unique set of plants, animals and people who live in this valley. All of these things, and more, are considered in the creation of a permaculture garden in Moab. To address these pieces, many of the gardens, collect water in one or more ways. Various strategies include running an accumulated source of water such as rainwater runoff from roofs, sidewalks or parking lots, into indented basins or swales in the garden. This exemplifies the saying of “slow it, spread it, sink it”, with regards to what we want to do with water, especially in the desert where water can often come quickly and forcefully after long periods of dryness. Instead of seeing water as detrimental, we want to help the soil and plants absorb the water, turning the water into a blessed resource.

You will also see many native plants in the permaculture gardens, but that’s not all. Permaculture sees the importance of finding other appropriate plants to suit the needs of  the environment. Permaculture includes humans as a vital piece in the garden along with wildlife and pollinators. Because of  this, you will also find plants that are productive and appropriate to our environment such as fruit trees, herbs, and berries. These gardens will have a wide variety of plants which will all serve multiple functions. A plant may be fixing nitrogen, providing wildlife with forage, giving nectar to a bee, stabilizing the soil, adding organic material to the soil and providing shade. This is what we are going for in the selection of plants.

You will also see that the ground is covered with mulch. Woodchip mulch is important because it helps the soil from becoming scorched by our intense desert sun. Mulch also biodegrades into soil eventually, it helps suppress weeds, it acts as a sponge when it rains by slowly release the rainwater into the soil below, and it require much less maintenance than a traditional lawn. 

You will also see people interacting with the landscape. The land is place where people should walk through, enjoy, and tend. This connections benefits the human inhabitants as well as the land which are both being stewarded and tended in a positive and productive way.

With our busy lifestyles, why should anyone care about permaculture or sustainability? 

I’ve found that I’m happier and more fulfilled when I bike to work, garden and eat good quality, organic food (ideally grown locally). Those are a few aspects of living sustainably that are good for our environment, our communities and for ourselves.

Life is easier when we work with nature instead of against it. I believe that you will feel stress melt away as you act proactively for a better world. Getting your hands dirty and connect with the earth is a relief. When I’m frazzled, I like to take off my shoes and connect to the earth. It works for me. It might for you too.

Why is living sustainably important to you, personally?

I didn’t think this is how my life would be when I was growing up. I wanted to be a dolphin trainer or a fashion designer when I was little. That’s certainly not what I am doing these days, but I still care about animals, love to swim and I bring creativity into the work that I do today. This is what my generation is faced with… major changes happening in our biosphere as well as major social upheavals, and that is scary and overwhelming. It’s an all-hands-on-deck kind of situation but we can’t be overly stressed. You can chose to ignore the changes, you can go against the changes, or you can shift your perspective and try to see the opportunities in all things. We can all bring our skills and unique abilities into working towards a greater good. In permaculture there’s the principle of People Care. That involves yourself. You’ve got to feed your body and soul if you are going to do good work in the world. I try to keep that dynamic balance.

It turns out that my life is better than I could have imagined as a kid, even with the uncertainty of the future. I never imagined when I was little that what I would actually get to do when I grew up was bike miles and miles, grow big gardens, make parks, play dress up whenever I want to, express myself fully, sleep outside in paradise, have diverse amazing friends, learn from wise teachers, and so much more. Sustainability is good for the planet and good for me. I’m going to stick with it.