OAEC supports diverse communities to design their own regenerative systems at the regional and local scale.
Our cookbook is a collection of inventive recipes inspired by seasonal eating from our biodiverse Mother Garden, orchards and Wildlands Preserve.
Experience the Occidental Arts & Ecology Center through beautiful slideshows of our Guest Houses, Meeting Hall, Kitchen, Garden, Wildlands and more.
OAEC serves as a retreat center for networks, public agencies, foundations and other groups working towards social and environmental change.
Our 100% Certified Organic plant nursery specializes in open-pollinated perennials including edible landscaping plants, rare and endangered food crops, drought tolerant ornamentals and habitat plants - all tested in our onsite gardens and appropriate for our bioregion.
OAEC offers the longest consistently running two-week Permaculture Design Certification course in the West. Immerse yourself in information, ideas and inspiration on how to design sustainable, regenerative systems in balance with your home ecosystem.
This article written by Brock Dolman was published in the Permaculture Drylands Journal in 1998. The article discusses the permaculture principle of “maximizing edges” or ecotones – the zone that is created when two distinct landscape forms come together. Brock puts forth the argument that while an edge zone may be richer in biodiversity in theory, in an age of habitat fragmentation due to development pressure, the ever increasing edge zone is only as rich as the interior zones that come together to make the edge.