Episode 003 - Tao Orion: New Ecosystems in a Hotter World

Earth Repair Radio

SUBSCRIBE: WWW.EARTHREPAIRRADIO.COM In this episode we talk with Permaculturist, ecologist and author Tao Orion. We discuss her book "Beyond the War on Invasive Species" and what a new paradigm of land management for novel ecosystems in a changing climate looks like. Novel ecosystems are defined as "human-built, modified, or engineered niches of the Anthropocene. They exist in places that have been altered in structure and function by human agency." This means ecosystems that are functioning and have structure, but include non-native species and new combinations of species not seen before. This is especially relevant in a world of climate change and species dislocation, migration, and extinction. Tao has a vision of where we are and where we're headed, which she outlines in this podcast. Tao's Links: www.resiliencepermaculture.com http://www.chelseagreen.com/beyond-the-war-on-invasive-species http://www.aprovecho.net/ Tao Orion biography: Tao Orion is a permaculture designer, teacher, homesteader, and mother living in the southern Willamette Valley of Oregon. She teaches permaculture design at Oregon State University and at Aprovecho, a 40-acre nonprofit sustainable-living educational organization. Tao consults on holistic farm, forest, and restoration planning through Resilience Permaculture Design, LLC. She holds a degree in agroecology and sustainable agriculture from UC Santa Cruz, and her interest in restoration was piqued when studying botany, wildcrafting, and herbalism at the Columbines School of Botanical Studies in Eugene, Oregon. She has a keen interest in integrating the disciplines of organic agriculture, sustainable land-use planning, ethnobotany, and ecosystem restoration in order to create beneficial social, economic, and ecological outcomes. When she is not writing, she is busy keeping up with her toddler and wrangling a diverse array of plants and animals on her 6.5-acre homestead, Viriditas Farm.