Social Forestry
Advanced Permaculture Course
REVIEWS
Playing with Fire, an extensive report by Peter Michael Bauer following the 2016 Social Forestry Course.
FROM OUR COURSE EVALUATIONS: What Social Forestry crafts or skills do you now feel you could put into practice? (Summary)
– Stand evaluation,Small tree selection, selecting for good lumber, fuel hazard reduction, thinning, high pruning
– small-medium tree felling, log carrying, pole preparation, bark peeling,
– charcoal making (with the right equipment), biochar production
– broadscale burning, assist in cool burn, safe fire reduction thru pile burning, open burning with guidance, graze/mow/burn dynamic
– coppicing, Coppice hedge caretaking, pollarding, layering for propagation, identifying bodging materials
– maple tapping, pipe making, some basketry, some medicinals, furniture craft
– I can make a simple bench and a charcoal stove!
– use of some tools including broad knife, Sharpening tools, two person sawing
– Observing, listen to what the forest might want, plant id’ing
– I learned many skills for forest evaluation and applying learned practices with right intention and relationship.
– knot tying, making a loom for a hurdle
– woven rod mat, hazel may basket, some qualities of wood and what they can be used for, 2 loop basket
– linking heritage of land people; how to belong to a place
– making biochar from a burn pile; safely cutting down small trees; understand how to select trees to thin; new songs to sing; great way to check in with a group
– prepping a landscape for fire; high grading for basketry materials, making a charcoal stove
– how to learn and teach songs, how to identify a healthy tree stand; how to orchestrate a cool burn, work in a group
– reducing fuels and using that for biochar; benign coppice management and experimentation; giving something back
Sorry, seem to have misplaced the 2020 reviews.
Reviews from 2019 Social Forestry
5 stars: This course is like nothing else currently being offered in the country. Hazel is actively engaged in a lifestyle and work that I have been looking for for a long time. She is a wealth of knowledge living in and creating a culture of place. Whether or not you live in the Siskiyou, you will take away lessons from this course that are invaluable. My life is immeasurably enriched by this experience.
5 stars: One of the best things I could have done for myself as a citizen of the forest
4.5 stars: It would be a 5 if it weren’t for the weather. The charcoal making experience was thorough and fulfilling! I felt this hands-on education was amazing. Evening talks and and rebuilding a shelter wall brought our group together as a unit in song and spirit.
5 stars: Hazel is a wealth of knowledge, stories, humor, culture. A true elder. Practicals kills as well as deep culture-making, weaving together of scientific, spiritual and experiential knowledge. It is such a joy to meet all the terrific folks who came to learn.
5 stars: This course begins to illuminate the insurmountable opportunities that surround us. From reading our landscapes to creating uniquely local tools & crafts, I learned how to be with community in the community of the forest.
5 stars: Hazel and the team are pioneering, holding, remembering, teaching, storytelling and practicing simultaneously while facilitating a course that gives students an opportunity to really learn skillet to orient, access, organize and harvest what we can out of these times of transition. Their knowledge is rare and ever so valuable. Deep gratitude and bows to Hazel and her ability to continue forward so fiercely with laughter and stories to warm the heart and inspire!
5 stars: Hazel and company are excellent teachers and facilitators of learning. Come prepared to be flexible and adaptive to whatever learning opportunities present themselves and you will benefit immensely.
5 stars Thank you Hazel for being a living ancient council resource, advisor and inspiration with example.
5 stars: The knowledge, wisdom and insight gained through this course is reflective of Hazel’s deep ecological connection and love for the living world. It left me feeling rejuvenated, reinsured and full of conviction, culture and community.
5 stars: I feel blessed to have learned and spent time with the team. I hope to be given the chance to learn and share together in the future.
5 stars: Social Forestry provided me with sufficient practical skills and terminology to progress in a home practice of cottagers. It has provided a canvas for networking, inspired ideas and irreplaceable experiences.
5 stars: So much gratitude to all of y’all.
5 stars: Beautiful location, experienced instructors, lots of opportunity to learn about science, life, community and wonders of the world.
10 stars: website provides more than sufficient information
?: This course is a great opportunity to learn and experience social forestry with people who are committed to healing the earth. Warning-camping in the winter can be challenging so prepare to rough it in the woods. I love how you let people figure things out and didn’t do a whole lot of coddling.
Reviews from 2018 Social Forestry
5 stars: I don’t think any words can exactly prepare someone for what to expect in the Social Forestry course. It is so wholistic and immersive that what you learn will reach every part of your life and transform how you see the world around you and the world within you. I felt so comfortable and welcomed in your presence and so very inspired by your life’s work!
4.5 stars: This is the most holistic, thoughtful and inspiring forestry course you can take. It will challenge your preconceived ideas of what forestry and woodcraft is. It will illuminate an almost forgotten way of life and show you how fulfilling it can be to re-establish an authentic relationship to the land and people. Thank you for your wisdom, hard work and for believing in us.
5 stars: An invaluable opportunity to learn from excellent individuals of vast knowledge and depth of experience. The enormous amount of fascinating information imparted in this course would be overwhelming if not for the charming and skillful way it is contextualized into an emerging phraseology for appropriate and responsible forestry within a functional and heart-filled culture of cooperation.
5 stars: This course covers all the bases necessary for an individual or community to begin a new way of practicing forestry in the 21st century that reconnects mind, body and spirit to the needs of both people and place. This is top of the line stuff.
4.75 starts: This is not a course to learn some one skill that you can put in a box and check off. This is a life way , as much about the meta as it is the micro. Its an exposure to stimulate seeds already in you, or that you didn’t know were there, a place to get more info than you thought you wanted , about any question really, and specifically about trees, fuel, ecosystems, etc.;and an invitation to listen, watch, question and develop your own conclusions for how to live well with our surrounding others in this time.
5 stars: Packed full of so much heart, as well as information; a life altering experience. You three were wonderfully balanced between yourselves and I am so grateful for the work you do and the opportunity to learn from all of you.
5 stars: Listening to the wisdom of someone who has lived on this land for so long, and with such depth is humbling. This course weaves history, science, magic, practical application and personal growth in such a way that creates a community of holding for heart, practice and intention to flourish. Thank you social forestry team.
5 stars: A very well structured course provided by well seasoned instructors. Masters of their craft, Hazel, Rose and Karen were all incredibly competent and well-suited to teach this course. I’m grateful for their wisdom and service.
5 stars: I love that this is the opposite of a sterile classroom. I feel like I learned a lot about how many hands make light work, and how having community makes labor enjoyable. The stories really drive the knowledge into an internalized learning experience.
5 stars: Amazing, life changing, beyond my dreams and I an avid dreamer:)
4/5 stars: Beautiful landscape. Hazel is an elder with a wealth of practical and resilient minded knowledge
6 stars!!: I highly recommend social forestry with Siskiyou Permaculture because the things you will learn, you will carry for life, because the teacher is living the life you are being taught hands on. No fake news here.
5 stars: This course connects people with each other and the forest with a culture of community, generosity & reciprocity. Hazel’s wisdom and knowledge of the landscape is woven through all the concepts and skill building. Siskiyou Permaculture offers a well balanced course and you will leave inspired, more skilled and knowing you just received very special teachings.
5 stars: I learned and grew so much during this course. I am so incredibly grateful and feel so blessed to have gotten to learn from Hazel, Rose and Karen. It felt like family, so right in my heart and whole being. I fell in love with this place and all who I shared this experience with. I’m coming away with more skills, inspiration and a full and open heart.
Reviews from 2017 Social Forestry
5 stars: Getting deep into social forestry is an inspiration for how I steward the land I live on. The teachers complement each other and Hazel’s deep vision and understanding of the big picture truly inspired me.
4.5 stars: I took this course to learn how to better read and interact responsibly with the forested landscape. How to integrate and become a person of place. This was expected and received by Hazel’s loving, witty, holistic teaching from experience and story. A new challenging way to learn but I walked away feeling that I had been spoken to be a great elder. A fulfilling course. I hope they spend more time on crafts in the years to come.
5 stars: for the course and for the generous giving of self, each unique of Peter, Hazel, Karen & Melanie. You give me breadcrumb trails back into the world of the wild and my own heart.
5 stars: there could not be a better introduction to social forestry.
4 stars: Permaculture students will leave this course with a nourished mind, body and spirit. Weather dependent, you will spend time outside working in the fields and forest, but the true value of this course lies in the daily story-telling sessions with Hazel where one remembers and connects with our shared ability to be humans living a life embedded in nature.
5 stars: A socially dynamic, material and content dense, weeklong course of study and action. A necessity for any long term permaculture involving forestry and people. A beautiful social learning experience which I look forward to attending again.
5 stars: Hazel offers a well-rounded course in ultimate permaculture. Instead of a zone 5 within which humans have no influence, Hazel’s opinion is that the forest misses our presence and needs us to maintain its health.
5 stars: The social forestry class is a full-on immersion into reciprocal land-tending practices. The gift Hazel and Siskiyou Permaculture have to offer is invaluable and greatly needed. This course builds culture.
4.5 stars: 5 stars would be a bit much don’t you think? It’s not the ritz.
5 stars: and 10 hearts. Learn forestry hands on ,w tie grounded academic basis and incubating the culture needed for resilient forestry practices.
5 stars: Course is substantialized by Hazel’s collective wisdom, macrocosmic perspective and tangible lessons from contextual management of this gorgeous desert land. If you want details, read three or four books on the subject before you arrive and then enjoy Hazel, the staff and your counterparts in study.
5 stars: I am leaving this course feeling inspired and little overwhelmed by all I’ve learned. Hazel is a brilliant mad scientist of the woods and its always a pleasure to soak up some of her wisdom.
5 stars: The social forestry course from Siskiyou Permaculture includes lots of hands-on forestry work and learning to read the landscape with a healthy dose of engaging classroom time. Lots of fun in a beautiful environment. Hazel’s deep connection to the land provides endless opportunity for demonstration sites, story and experimentation.
Reviews from 2015 Social Forestry
5 stars: Prepare to radicalize/re-indigenize your worldview. In addition to practicing hard forestry and crafting skills, so much of what this course has to offer is conceptual: how do you read a landscape intuitively and scientifically? How do you interact with it? How do we as humans work and live mutualistically with each other and other forest beings? How do we tune in with our evolutionary roots and value our place in the universe again? This is not your standard structured academic course. So prepare to listen carefully, read between the lines of the stories, ask questions and allow the experience to unfold in its organic way. I had a bunch of fun and enjoyed the unconventional learning environment.
4.5 stars: This course provided a broad array of ideas and practices for collectively interacting with a land base. There was thorough first hand, scientific and mythic exploration of materials, processes and culture. The demonstrations were hands on and there was a good amount of space for questions. Facilitators were flexible and open to change based on class desire.
4.5 Stars: This course is excellent for anyone seeking to gain knowledge into new ways to live more traditionally, more i harmony with nature. It has helped me learn new skills, hone some existing skills and deepen my ability to observe my surroundings. Thanks friends, I appreciate the knowledge you’re spreading.
3 Stars: Recommend some sort of prerequisite. I found myself lost in some of the terminology, but found that most of my questions were answered when I just waited and listened more. The class did fit my learning style yet I got overwhelmed with the note taking. After 3 days, I just stopped taking notes.
3 Stars: Even though I was hoping for more, it was an incredible experience; more social than anything. I really valued the space for developing community around these topics. How can we work and be a part of wild nature? Keep it up! Really, really important edge of permaculture to be living into.
Reviews from 2014 Social Forestry
5 Stars: A balance of science and lore applied to pragmatic forestry for ecological resilience. This work brings peace to my mind; thank you for generating sacred space.
5 Stars: I came into this course uncertain about what exactly was going to be the glue binding together the many proposed topics. It turns out the title of the course actually does say it all! Hazel, Melanie and Karen guided us into a world our world, in which the forest encompasses an entire structure already in place that we as humans are capable of waking up to, reintegrating into, and forming community within.
5 Stars: This is a great course to begin ones journey of reindigenation. Introductions to topics and hands-on skills including biochar and charcoal production, ethnobotany, cool broadscale burning, symbolic and rithal connections to nature and lore, stand assessment and tree felling were broad and inspiring. Best synergy in town.
5 Stars: This course was super fun and we learned a ton. Hazel’s stories give forestry work a new depth. It is inspiring to co-create a new now with a whole new community of people. You were fabulous to spend a week with.
5 Stars: I really appreciate the emphasis on hand-based skills and the inclusion of the multilayered relationsips/natures of ecosystems. I also appreciate that things/people weren’t overly micro-managed. Thank you for singing, laughing and acknowledging truths.
5 Stars: I would repeat this course if I could burn the whole time! The three of you are amazing and inspiring.
4.5 Stars: Tom-thanks for your wisdom and energy and willingness to be and act each day what you believe; Melanie-thanks for your calm, subtle humor and on-trackness and many skills; Karen-thanks for your demeanor that just speaks “friend”, for your gentleness.
3.5 Stars: The course is advertised as Advanced Permaculture. The skills covered seemed pretty basic. I think more could have been covered by better coordination. More than anything else, the stories and discussion have inspired me to network with others to create and participate in seasonal work camps.
4 Stars: A great experience. Don’t know where else you could find it.
4.5 Stars: This was a totally awesome course/original offering. Hazel’s experience is very unqiue and provides an example for a way to live close to your environment with a keen symbiotic relationship. Thank you for your dedication to growing a more healthy culture and stewardship of the Earth!
Reviews from 2013 Social Forestry
5 Stars: I learned so much that I can apply right away and feel that I am a more capable steward & designer from being here. I liked the mix of practical hands-on activities and the more thought-oriented discussions. Good to think about how we got here and where we can go. Thank you for your transparency and the sense of wonder and fun that is behind all this.
4.8 Stars: This course is full of practical skills and tools for developing a beneficial relationship with the woods and creating valuable products in a human scale (and fun) way. I have a renewed sense of the resiliency of nature, and a better understanding of how I can contribute to creating more diversity and complexity and health on our land.
5 Stars: This course takes an integral look at some of the roots of our historical interaction with the woods. The class was a wonderful balance of hands-on work with new and old tools, new and old cultural stories, and new and old design ideas and principles. Y’all are a wonderfully effective trio with wonderful knowledge, wisdom and good humor. I would love to take more courses and come intern when I have more experience under my belt.
5 Stars: The Social Forestry course has been truly transformative. My expectations were blown away and I am leaving full of practical knowledge, inspiration and a deep respect for the forests. The social aspect of forestry that Tom brings pulls all of the permaculture forestry practices together in an extremely critical way. I wish I could more accurately express my gratitude for this opportunity. This course has been critical for me in this time.
4.5 Stars: There were so many topics we didn’t even begin to cover. Also we didn’t use the recommended books. Sorry can’t think of a review right now.
5 Stars: Thank you for this hands-on field study class. It was wonderful to move from the classroom and lecture to the field study site where we could practice what we were learning and see the results of our activity. With the broadscale burning–seeing how permaculture shapes the landscape makes a difference. Thanks for being inspiring teachers and a great team. It’s an honor to watch you inform the next generation!
3-4 Stars: If the focus is social, we could have had much more social elements present–more song, ritual, story, community-building. Love the way your team works together, super inspiring.
5 Stars: Beyond all the facts and experience I gained during this course was the introduction to a different sense of time and community that I could not have imagined without the example of Tom Ward. My life is richer for having taken this class.
5 Stars: The course will change your experience of being in the forest. It is a deep introduction to a set of traditional ways of relating to a forest. Great community of people and pool of knowledge and information. Great course, great teamwork. Really enjoyed the chemistry between you.
5 Stars: Seriously, this is the visioning and re-skilling that needs to be brought into the movement consciousness and discussion. A great blend of theory and practice helps illumine the bio-regional scope of possible integration and abundance.
No rating: This is a wonderfully exciting, fast-paced course focused on a the way humans can relearn to participate in the forest community as a regenerative force of change. I loved the mix of inspiring, revolutionary and visionary stores with hands-on projects. The best thing about it was the offering of a change in perspective of how to manage the forest amongst the human and natural community. This is vital information for all world-changers. I’m sad we didn’t make charcoal stoves or do focused basketry.
