Kerrville Festivals

Note: This document is an abbreviated version of the plan that was prepared by the above authors. Deleted material is believed to be immaterial to Permaculture plans and issues on Quiet Valley Ranch. For the complete document, contact the above authors. This document has not been approved by Kerrville Folk Festival, Inc, or Quiet Valley Ranch, Inc.

g. Create Permanent Systems for Food, Water, and Waste Management

h. Increase Native and Well-Adapted Biodiversity

i. Create a Master Plan for 50 Acres

j. Budget and Schedule Projects

k. Initiate Greenbuilding Concepts in Current and Future Construction

Introduction:

Based on the principals of Permaculture, this plan describes the following improvements to Quiet Valley Ranch.

Mission Statement / Goals: To integrate the best land management practices and best design system for a sustainable and living festival grounds and ranch. To instill beauty and care on the ranch through sponsor, volunteer, and staff contributions of time and resources. These goals must be harmonized with the requirements that the ranch is a festival site and campground 4 weeks a year.

Initial and Ongoing Objectives

Build Community

One of the most important reasons for using the lexicon of Permaculture is to build long-term (perma-) social relationships. The Permaculture Practice, or framework, uses broad-minded concepts in every step of the land management discussion. The Practice is open to input in planning and carrying out the work. Everyone’s part matters. Permaculture provides a solid, community-centered approach to thinking about community challenges, and best practices reinforce community spirit within every action. Think Nature’s Seventh Generation and you will have in mind Permaculture.

Beautify the Grounds

All of the systems proposed herein will add beauty. Briefly, this section of the plan describes some of the issues around beautification and some of the visual benefits of successful Permaculture systems. Why should we lose any topsoil to the creek? Why not build that soil by several feet? Why should we carefully plan any tree work? What can we do to stop Oak Wilt and why should we prune dead limbs before they break off and rip healthy tree bark? Why lay a solid foundation for a house? The answers and implications are hopefully obvious, and the effect of poorly planned work is unfortunately evident on the QV Ranch. We have unnecessary levels of erosion and healthy Live Oaks, covered with dead limbs (I.e. Council Tree). We have the literal and the figurative “dusty corners” where no one can camp or walk; where there is no vegetation thriving. These corners would benefit from erosion control, and erosion safeguards will be implemented simply and beautifully. All of the systems that we propose will beautify the QV Ranch. Even a big rain catch cistern will add a curvilinear visual effect, and the rain catch systems, as well as all other Permaculture improvements, will add deeper layers of beauty. We believe that beauty will come from staff and visitors knowing that the Ranch practices sustainability.

Some ways that Permaculture focuses on beauty includes: live and rock terraces, gardens, rain catch and irrigation systems, swales, 48-hour detention ponds and weirs, re-vegetation, diversion ditches, tree maintenance, and orchards.

Specifically, cut-out and built-up terraces provide level camping areas and support increased biodiversity by retaining precious water below a dry surface. This near surface water table allows for plantings along the terrace edge and adds more rainwater to the well. The plantings create additional erosion control and add beauty.

Production gardens provide herbs, seeds, nuts, leafy greens, fruits and vegetables with minimal irrigation to key areas. Gardens are discussed later in more detail, but we want to underscore here the added beauty that gardens bring to the QV Ranch. Permaculture gardens are designed with companion plantings to control insects and attract beneficials: like butterflies and birds. Besides visual beauty, gardens also add a pleasant aromas and fresh tastes. The gardens are planted in a way that excludes weeds naturally and produces many layers of food in a dense area.

Decrease Ongoing Soil Erosion

Using simple engineering, the worst-case scenario, sometimes called the 100-year occurrence, becomes a welcome event. The most torrential rainfall on any given slope only produces a determinable gallon-per-second flow. This flow currently (no pun intended) has its way with the top soil as it skids through unplanned water channels on the property. This rain can be calculated, and the resulting total flows can be either Retained (stopped) sub-terrain, or detained (slowed down) via diversion ditches and weirs, and/or channeled to overflow dry creeks and moved around or even off of the property. Simply put, the rain can be managed to minimize erosion and maximize both well recharge and adaptive use. (many more specific ideas are available for this piece … expand on this)

Create a Permaculture Caretaker Position

We recommend that the QV Ranch hire an organized and focused individual with experience in cooperatively leading work, who is also educated in the principles and practices of Permaculture to oversee education, training, and support of staff Permaculture practices. This individual would also be responsible for overseeing and implementing ongoing projects. From time-to-time, experts from the community should be brought in to lead specific projects (skilled Permaculturists, arborists, engineers, builders, etc.). However, this person would be living the system. An important step to any environmental, sustainable process is moving into the system, and so the Caretaker becomes an invaluable asset to Permaculture and the QV Ranch. Obvious responsibilities would include the gardens – herb, vegetable and flower, nursery, soil building, seeding and grafting.(include potential role in working with others … expand on this)

Educate, Train, and Support Staff and Festival Family in Permaculture Practices

Energy Conservation,

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

Soilbuilding and Erosion Control Projects

Garden Maintenance and Harvest

Tree planting and maintenance

Communication/Education/Demonstration/Publication

Educate, Train, and Certify Designers and Teachers in Permaculture Coursework

Kerrville should develop sustainable systems. These systems are both practical and beautiful. These sustainable systems are also inspirational and instructional. Along that rationale, we propose to continue educating the public at the QV Ranch around growing, managing and augmenting the systems required to efficiently and sustainably run and to beautify the QV Ranch.

The framework of Permaculture is special in that it looks to the future and from the present reality when designing and implementing any plan of action. What do we want the QV Ranch to look and feel like 20 years from now? We recommend a plan for an ongoing and beautiful relationship with the land. Permaculture is the intention of sustainability and beauty, and we propose that this intention should be sown into every system on the land. From these most basic motivations, we propose to naturally build the QV Ranch’s core Permaculture supports by sharing the practice and knowledge with willing students. We will succeed when we reveal our plan and passion for a peaceful community. Community drives Permaculture.

As mentioned earlier, one of the best ways to share knowledge on sustainability is to share ideas, to educate; and in a way, sustainability means building community. Community building is about interpersonal contact. That is why we propose bi-annual certification courses early-Fall and late-Spring.

The courses include local and internationally-renowned experts in sustainable building and Permaculture planning. The courses also create a potential pool of labor for ongoing and special projects.

We propose to continue offering free Ranch tours during festivals and free information at a Permaculture information booth, and we propose expanding our current internet site to include lessons, pictures, and planning notes for Permaculturists anywhere on the planet.

In the future, we might offer creative exchanges with other festivals. This creative exchange might include musicians and Permaculturists from the QV Ranch touring other festivals and acting as goodwill ambassadors. These ambassadors could promote both the Folk Festival and Permaculture to other festivals. ( … expand on this)

Create Permanent Systems for Food, Water, and Waste Management

Again, this plan calls for implementing complete systems to consider every resource and every need. Integrated food systems are a wonderful example of how Permaculture considers every resource and every need. Permaculture gardens consist of permanent food ecosystems. For example, small nut trees can efficiently mature near smaller annual food plants like leafy greens and tomatoes. In this way, gardens become orchards. The various trees will eventually shade-out the annuals garden and will establish an adequate root system in 5-10 years. Simple irrigation systems are always good ways to water gardens, and the water does double duty with these Permaculture practices. Aquaculture and other water features even triple this usage.

Substantial food production can be attained. This added resource will help the QV Ranch support its staff. We envision food production systems providing enough food for a staff of 8-12 and enough dry and fresh herbs for some of the festival staff meals. If we are ambitious, then we can produce a surplus. That surplus may later be sold at a farmer’s market in Kerrville . The income may be used to maintain the gardens and fund projects.

Perennial food sources, plants that return each year, are considered more important than annuals because these sources are permanent. That being said, this plan calls for using annuals by saving seeds, potting starters in a greenhouse preseason, propagating trees and ornamentals from cuttings, runners, and roots.

Another important part of the food production cycle is composting. We plan to continue organizing compost details for the kitchens during both festivals to reuse this remarkable renewable resource. We also will provide composting opportunities for year-round staff. This plan calls for revamping and beautifying the current food composting systems above staff kitchen to accommodate more participation and to accommodate faster turnover (pun intended) of compost materials for use in gardens and orchards.

However, Permaculture systems are capable of handling Festival sewage in a clean and responsible manner. As an example of we might consider doing, the Creedmore Landfill in Austin converts all of the human waste in Austin into rich compost that is bagged and sold. An excellent personal contact with the Creedmore Landfill’s soils manager exists, and that contact could help the QV Ranch accomplish in house waste management. These systems may be expensive at first, but the cost may be offset by the high cost of removing human waste during the festival.

Another use for humanure is in methane production. A methane “digester” could generate fuels for lights and heating water. Methane production is “do-able” now.

A Watson Wick can easily be incorporated into the new Staff Showers backstage and the Handicap Flush Toilets in the Kerrtry/Threadgill area. It is not believed that this system has use during festival, but may be an educational project that is capable of treating water during off season times.

The plan also calls for catching and purifying rain water from several central buildings for various water uses year-round. Rainwater can be utilized for flush water for toilets, for road watering during fest, and for plant and tree watering year around.

Increase Native and Well-Adapted Biodiversity

This is simple. In fact, everything about Permaculture is simple on some level. It just makes sense that the festival displays the local beauty, and what better way to display that beauty than with the local flowers. The plan recommends natives over adapted species when possible, and the plan will recommend many plants that look their best during the festivals. Plants will be used to control erosion in places and to beautify.

Natives are the obvious choice because they are well-adapted to the region. Some Natives are pushed out over time by invasive species or by over grazing and other land management practices. This can remove vital food sources for certain species, but bringing back Natives has proven to re-attract native wildlife.

Create a Master Plan for 50 Acres

This plan suggests commissioning a detailed master site plan for the entire QV Ranch. The site plan can show up to 256 CAD overlays of every line and every system (electrical, plumbing). This plan can show outlines of buildings and the paths of all utility lines below and above ground. This plan would likely end up being a bundle of 50-100 pages including perspective CAD drawings of specific areas of interest. An accurate survey done by volunteers with existing infrastructure and elevation contours accurate to 1’ is not complete.

·        Write/Draw Physical History of Ranch - Vegetation, Contour Changes, Infrastructure, GPS, Aerial, Soil, Infrared, Climate Maps

·        Survey available resources and tools

·        Create Visual Rendering - Scale Model, Elevations, Contours, Site Plan

Budget and Schedule Projects

Some of the items needed for the work include the following:

Soils for plants
Greenhouse or coldframes
Propagation tables
Irrigation systems
Plant materials
Seeding materials
Rock and gravel
Green sand
Granite sand
Boulders
Rainwater Collection Systems

( … expand on this to include actual costs)

Establish Time Cycles/Time Lines

The Current Estimates for the Top Four Projects are as follows:

Order	Cost	Project	Completion Date
1	$ 15,000.00	Conservation Terraces	Dec. 21
2 or 3	$ 7,000.00	Irrigation and Trees / Fencing	Feb. 14
2 or 3	$ 18,000.00	Rainwater Collection	Big Folk
?	$ 7,000.00	Site Plan	Big Folk
TOTAL	$ 47,000.00

(This chart can be filled in later and will be more accurate with actual dimensions from the field and from a site plan.)

Initiate Greenbuilding Concepts in Current and Future Construction

There are many innovative building methods that use “green materials” – materials that are created from recycled waste. When possible, construct buildings that demonstrate Natural Building concepts and fill functional needs on the ranch.

Suggestion for Sudden River as it turns and broadens out along the old Rock Fence. The first Silt Trap would divert over the rock wall and collect soil and gravel in the lower meadow.