Planting Water: 

Keyline Design, Rainwater Harvesting & Oak Woodland Biomimicry

Planting Water: Keyline Design, Rainwater Harvesting & Oak Woodland Biomimicry

A Two-day Workshop with Jesse Trace

March 8-9, 2025

Join us this early spring to learn about designing food systems that mimic nature, manage stormwater, replenish aquifers, improve landscape fertility and restore aquatic ecosystems.

This two-day workshop introduces principles and practices for holistic land stewardship based on the Keyline Design system and ecosystem biomimicry. Participants will learn: the scale of permanence framework, ecosystem identification, landscape literacy, energy and resource conservation optimization and practical skills for building scale appropriate earthworks for harvesting rainwater on the landscape. 

On Saturday March 8th , the morning course work will focus on agro-ecological holistic design and scale of permanence. Through these lenses we will learn the basics of creating a conceptual design for a farm scale parcel. Participants will identify the local ecosystems and climate moisture types to develop a bio-mimicry approach to farming.
After, we will focus on the oak woodland ecosystem of the central coast of California. 

The second half of the day will focus on Keyline Design and rainwater harvesting features. We will learn how to identify patterns on the landscape, understand and delineate your watershed and determine soil conditions for aquifer recharge. All of these principles will be drawn from the rainwater harvesting system developed at
Traceland Farm near Morro Bay.

On Sunday, March 9th the morning session will start with a design tutorial on Google Earth Pro, methods to delineate the watersheds of a parcel, and ways to identify the features and infrastructure necessary for the project. After, we will cover the agroforestry cropping systems that will be integrated into the keyline design at the Santa Cruz Permaculture Farm.

In the afternoon we will go into the field and learn how to place the designs on the land using surveying equipment and discuss options to further slow spread and sink water. We will learn about different excavating machinery and the utility each one has in developing earthworks. We will wrap up the session with an overview of permitting, potential incentives for groundwater recharge and water budgeting basics.

Learn more about the Keyline system in these videos from permaculture teacher Andrew Millison

 

Learning Objectives

Upon successful completion of this course you will be able to…

  • Identify local ecosystems and interesting genera for biomimicry
  • Incorporate climate analog crops and native plants into the food system
  • Understand Keyline design and how to read the landscape with attention to detail
  • Use the Scale of Permanence to create successful permaculture designs aligned with natural patterns
  • Design water retention landscapes and rainwater harvesting earthworks at the farm level
  • Construct water retentive landscapes

Registration

Pricing

  • Full Tuition: $325 – Register by 3/7
  • Early Bird Discount: $315 – Register by 2/14
  • Super Early Bird Discount: $295 – Register by 1/31

Your Guide For This Course

Jesse Trace is a broad acreage planner and designer with experience blending food systems with keyline water management and restoration ecology. Growing up on a small family farm and in a landscaping family: form, function and beauty were elements that were emphasized in understanding his surroundings and developing environmental literacy. As a young adult he spent almost a decade traveling, studying and working abroad in Latin America and Spain. During this time, he educated himself in the fields of sociology and sustainable development, schools of thought that inspired his work in rural communities to build resilience, develop value and conserve natural and cultural resources. These experiences continue to motivate his work at Traceland, his family’s farm on the central coast of California, as an advocate for other small farmers locally and in his long-term dream to uplift and modernize millenary ethnobotanical foodways. 

Frequently Asked Questions

Please use the registration button above.

Cancellations up to two weeks before the course begins will be refunded, excluding a $150 processing fee. No refunds are given after that date.

Participants are welcome to defer their enrollment to the next session of the course.

The course is held on our 26-acre farm north of Davenport, CA, 20 minutes north of the Westside of Santa Cruz and 1 hour from San Jose or San Francisco. 

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