Now that Dancing Rabbit owns land, we can finally dive into the exciting task of land use planning. But with 280 acres now in the DR Land Trust the possibilities seem endless. Where do we start now with our housing and tree planting to help DR eventually grow into the sustainable town we envision?
Our first step is to spend a week in late October with a permacultural designer who will help us begin developing our land use plan. Permaculture (from "permanent agriculture") is a holistic approach to agriculture and land use that looks at the interactions between all parts of the ecological and human systems striving to create sustainable and harmonious systems. Our goal for the winter is to come up with a plan that will put us on a path towards a DR town, while giving us specific guidance in where to build our first structures this spring.
Our 280 acre parcel's most defining feature is the creek system which flows through the land during the wet season. The creek is lined with underbrush and trees and meanders freely from the northwest part of the property towards the south where it joins a larger creek called the Long Branch. The creek and its tributaries have carved the land into a series of rolling hills. In general the hills were cleared for farming and the draws left in trees to prevent erosion. In this region the tops of the hills provide the flattest ground for gardening and farming leaving many a slope for a south facing building site or a north facing pasture or orchard.
Another defining factor for us comes not from the physical but from the political-economic realm. Just over 200 acres of our land is in a federal program called the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP). In the CRP land owners are paid not to farm ecologically sensitive land, like ours, which is prone to erosion. Our land is just beginning a ten year enrollment with a guaranteed income from the land, but this means we must let the land in the program lie fallow for that time. We do have the option of pulling acreage out at any time during the program, but that would mean returning any payments for that acreage plus a small penalty as well. In some ways we were reluctant to take what sometimes seems like a government handout, but since the land was already enrolled in the program the price was inflated to reflect that guaranteed income. Basically we couldn't have afforded this land if we weren't willing to take the CRP money. Also, having these major restrictions on much of our land may prove a headache but if we plan well it will allow us to use more of our land as the need arises instead of worrying about whether we will be able to buy more nearby in a few years.
Existing structures are also a factor in our design and planning. There is no housing on our land at present, but the old farmstead still has a few barns, sheds, and grain bins. We hope to figure out a way to use these existing structures to our advantage, possibly in their current form, but possibly by converting them to different uses (it's amazing how much a grain bin looks like a metal yurt).
Our planning process will continue throughout the winter and may involve sessions with different experts (alternative energy designers, foresters, architects, soil scientists, engineers, and others) and will involve a lot of group meetings and thought about how to turn our collective vision into a reality on our new land. While we'll have to do a lot of hard thinking as we decide how to direct Dancing Rabbit's growth, it's work that builds the foundation of our ecovillage. And since we've been aiming towards this for years, it's exhilarating to be doing it at last.
Intentional Community Bookstore