Bioregional Lifeways Network

Flagstaff

Edible Landscape Initiative
Bioregional Lifeways Network

2007 Project Proposal (PDF)

2006 Project Report (PDF)

Brett Ramey, Bioregional Coordinator is Baxoje (Ioway) originally from the Ozarks region of southwest Missouri.  A recent transplant from the Midwest, he has spent the last 6 years working to reclaim the knowledge and skills that sustain his people.  Brett has worked as an environmental educator in Colorado, California, and most frequently in Lawrence, Kansas where he demonstrates traditional uses of plants and educates on sacred land issues at the Haskell/Baker Wetlands.  Most recently Brett worked as a horticulturist at the Arboretum at Flagstaff.

Mission: Transforming our communities into edible urban ecosystems while enhancing our visual environment.  
Vision:  The contemporary urban landscape often emphasizes form over function.  It is time that we create a space for the convergence of the aesthetically pleasing and the livelihood enhancing.  As the modes of production we have come to rely on for our basic necessities become less dependable, we must begin to look within our own communities for sources of sustenance.  Utilizing locally available resources, we will begin the process of facilitating the revitalization of our local food systems by creating pockets of nourishment and beauty in underserved areas throughout our city. 
Objectives:

• Hybridize the aesthetic beauty of conventional landscape design with food and medicine producing gardens
• Facilitate the propagation of place-based and traditional knowledge of the region
• Provide training for area youth in the edible arts
• Promote “sustainable” food production practices in urban environments through workshops and demonstration gardens
• Provide research opportunities for area high school and college students
• Serve as a catalyst for community collaboration and education

Implementation:  With the assistance of the youth mentorship program, we will implement garden designs that utilize components of formal gardens, permaculture design, and traditional indigenous farming techniques.  Our methods will underscore the importance of accepting and working with the limitations of our local environment.  In addition to being an integral part of the garden implementation process, the youth will be involved in community outreach in the form of organizing and participating in workshops on related topics, researching appropriate plants and planting methods suitable to our region, and processing the food, medicines and seeds that come from the gardens. 
*The Edible Landscape Initiative is the urban component of the Bioregional Lifeways Network, a newly formed subsidiary of the Native Movement Collective . The BLN acknowledges the growing importance of relearning the place-based knowledge of our ancestors and seeks to facilitate the process of reclaiming our lifeways.