Author(s)

ROSLYNN BRAIN, JEFFREY ADAMS, JEREMY LYNCH

Abstract

Permaculture, an integrative design process creating resilient and productive landscapes and communities, can serve as a useful mitigation tool for projected climate change impacts. In the United States, the desert southwest town of Moab, Utah, has employed permaculture design in a community initiative called ‘Bee Inspired Gardens.’ This initiative has harnessed social capital to create resilient landscapes demonstrating pollinator health, water conservation, and perennial food and forage systems. Bee Inspired Gardens have been designed at a University, middle school, charter school, Bureau of Land Management property, hotel, public park, environmental education non-profit, and more. Community members are now harvesting fruit and seeds from existing garden sites, attending educational workshops at the gardens, and volunteering to help with the design and implementation processes. In the desert southwest, climate change projections are for hotter, drier, weather. In preparing for, and working to mitigate, projected impacts, initiatives like ‘Bee Inspired Gardens’ can serve as models for other communities looking to take positive action in climate mitigation and adaptation.

Keywords

permaculture, climate change, water harvesting, conservation, resiliency, regenerative, pollinator health, perennial food, social structures, desert