Finger Lakes Permaculture Institute

The Finger Lakes Permaculture Institute (FLPCI) was founded in 2005 as a response to a growing local need for effective sustainability education. We offer a multitude of opportunities to the community which include short classes, study groups, apprentice programs, and the intensive Permaculture Design Certification Course. 

Steve Gabriel has served as land use manager at Cayuga Nature Center since 2006 and is Program Coordinator for the Finger Lakes Permaculture Institute. His experience draws from a diverse educational and organizational involvement, including studies all over the United States and abroad. He currently teaches several 72-hour Permaculture Design Courses, organizes conferences and large events, and offers private design consultation services. Steve is facilitating the development and implementation of an overall land use plan that will incorporate agriculture, forestry, habitat and interpretive elements for the Cayuga Nature Center. He has a design business that specializes in broadacre systems.

Karryn Olson-Ramanujan loves exploring the world and its cultures--a passion that has taken her from her home state of South Dakota to live in Germany, Ghana, and India. She began studying permaculture in 1997 and has completed certificate courses in both Northern California and India. Karryn and her family moved in 2003 to Ecovillage at Ithaca, where they are learning how to live in community and transforming their back yard into a food forest. Karryn sees her lifework as assisting faith communities to connect their spiritual teachings about nature with permaculture and sustainability.

Michael Burns spent years working in publishing, until he learned permaculture design in Guatemala, while working with Ronaldo Lec Ajcot of the Mesoamerican Permaculture Institute. Now he is building his homestead based on permaculture principles when not devoting his energy to teaching U.S. History or fretting over his small flock of mongrel chickens.

 
Kay McGrenaghan Cafasso has immersed herself in the path of understanding what is sustainable since her permaculture design certification in 2000. Over the last five years she has documented and studied with permaculture practitioners in the temperate northeastern US, in the rainy UK and Ireland, and in the dry land climates of the southwestern US. She has fallen in love with natural structures ~ especially earthen plaster for straw bale buildings. Kay is teaching during our 2006 - 2007 Winter Weekends PDC.


Melissa Madden is a lover of compost and most things creepy, crawly and soil-bound.  She hails from New Mexico, and for the past five years has split her time between that southwestern haven and Ithaca.  She especially loves aiding younger students in their ecological explorations, and has also had the pleasure of working within the Finger Lakes agricultural community.  She hopes to carry the beautiful message of composting wherever she goes.

We partnered with Cayuga Nature Center in 2005. We are currently assisting in the design and implementation of a land use plan for 160+ acres of farm, field, and forest.

 We are active members in the Northeastern Permaculture (NEPC) network. In July of 2007 we hosted the Summer Convergence for NEPC. Find out more about that event . 

Dave Jacke co-wrote Edible Forest Gardens, has been a student of ecology and design since the 1970s, and has run his own ecological design firm—Dynamics Ecological Design—since 1984. Dave is an engaging and passionate teacher of ecological design and permaculture, and a meticulous designer. He has consulted on, designed, built, and planted landscapes, homes, farms, and communities in the many parts of the United States, as well as overseas, but mainly in the Northeast. A cofounder of Land Trust at Gap Mountain in Jaffrey, NH, he homesteaded there for a number of years. He holds a B.A. in Environmental Studies from Simon's Rock College (1980) and a M.A. in Landscape Design from the Conway School of Landscape Design (1984).

Jono Neiger has a diverse background in ecology, environmental research, conservation, restoration, land stewardship, permaculture, and landscape design. Currently he operates Regenerative Design, a permaculture design and consultation firm in Leverett, Massachusetts, which helps individuals, communities and organizations further their goals stewarding their land, becoming more self-sufficient, and integrating with natural ecosystems. Jono has been a Permaculture teacher and designer since 1996. He received his B.S. in Forest Biology, SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry, in 1989. He received his M.A. in Landscape Design from Conway School of Landscape Design in 2003.

Darren Doherty is the principal of Australia Felix Permaculture since 1993, Darren has had extensive experience across the planet in Permaculture project design, development & management, with a focus on retrofitting broadacre agricultural systems, and has been identified by Permaculture Co-Originators Bill Mollison & David Holmgren as a pioneer in this important & often overlooked field. Darren has taught on over 20 Permaculture Design Certificate Courses (PDC's) including co- teaching PDC's with both Bill Mollison & David Holmgren & a range of other quality Permaculture educators. He is a registered teacher with Bill Mollison's The Permaculture Institute (Registration No. 25), a qualified Whole Farm Planner (University of Melbourne), Approved Keyline Design Consultant, & Accredited Permaculture Training (APT) Trainer.

Darren Doherty spoke with A Sustainable World radio program (38 of 60 minutes). They discuss basic ideas of keyline design, the format of his course, the need to make soil rather than conserve, and describe why a hay field could gain inches of soil each year under the keyline ploughing system!

Download cda interview    
 Download mp3 interview  (~10 MB)

Geoff Lawton holds Diplomas of Permaculture Design in Education, Design, Implementation, System Establishment, Administration and Community Development. Since 1985, he has undertaken 1,000s of jobs consulting, designing, teaching and implementing in seventeen different countries around the world. Clients have included private individuals, groups, communities, governments, aid organizations, nongovernmental organizations and multinational companies. Geoff taught the first classes of our first design certification course in November 2005.

Click the above image to view Geoff's great video on ecological restoration on his website.

Andrew Jones has over 10 years international experience in emergency response, post conflict development and rehabilitation work. He resides in Brooklyn, NY and most recently has done teaching and design work in the affected areas of New Orleans.Andrew taught during the August 2006 PDC.

 Steve Sierigk

Ethan Roland

Josh Dolan

Andrew Jones