Events List:

Anchorage - April 3 & 4 -
Paul Stamets hosted by Alaska Botanical Garden

The Alaska Botanical Garden is proud to present our
3rd annual Spring Garden Conference
Life in the Garden: from Mushrooms to Moose
ABG Annual Meeting & Spring Garden Conference April 3 & 4, 2009

Keynote Speaker: Paul Stamets of Fungi Perfecti
Plus a wide variety of presentations by Alaskan gardening & ecology experts on topics from slugs, moose, and forest pests, to peonies, vegetables, fruit, and more! Pioneering mycologist Paul Stamets, renowned for his researchon medical and technological uses for mushrooms, will provide the keynote talk for the 2009 ABG Annual Meeting, entitled "Solutions from Nature: How Mushrooms Can Help Save the World 6 myco-inventions to help steer humans towards a healthier & happier life with planet Earth.

Friday, April 3, 2009 at the Wilda Marston Theater of the ZJ Loussac Library. $10 per person; free to ABG members & Conference registrants.
Advance reservations strongly encouraged since capacity is limited.

Spring Conference, please contact Julianne: 907-562-7010
Alaska Botanical Garden
P.O. Box 202202
Anchorage, AK 99520
Phone: 907-770-3692, Fax: 770-0555

Anchorage - April 7, 9 and 14 -
Permaculture Documentary Film Series
hosted by the Anchorage Permaculture Guild

April 7,9,&14th
BP Energy Center
for more info call 344-0935

April 7th 6:00pm Spruce/ Willow Room (upstairs)
In Grave Danger of Falling Food (52 min) . Bill Mollison, author of the "Permaculture concept and recipient of the "Alternative Nobel Prize", believes that the single most destructive force on the planet is modern agriculture. Mollison has proposed a design system of agriculture which uses the engineering principles of nature itself, and has taken hold in dozens of developing countries. He combines hundreds of species-plant and animal-into a fertile self-regulating eco-system. His designs apply to the city as well as to the country, they can work in any sort of climate and once matured, have the potential to provide most of the food for any household.

Farming With Nature; A Case Study of Successful Temperate Permaculture; A visit to the farm of Sepp and Veronika Holzer. The Krameterhof in Lungau, Austria (37 min) This Documentary shows how an Austrian farmer simply observes nature and survives without depending on subsidies, chemical fertilizers or pesticides of any kind. Sepp Holzer created an edible landscape at 1500 metres above sea level - one of the few perfectly working permaculture systems in Europe. Between the pinetree monocultures of Austria he built a fishpond system with his own water power station, planted 9000 fruit trees of the most various kinds in connection with many other plants to support each other (plant families). Thirty different types of potatoes, many different grains, fruits, vegetables, herbs and wildflowers are growing just about everywhere - in the forest, on extremely steep hills, on rocky soil, on pathways, around ponds, as well as raised beds.

April 9th 5:30pm Spruce/Willow Room (upstairs)
David Blume's Alcohol Can Be A Gas; Fueling an Ethanol Revolution for the next century (2 hr 40min)"From alcohols amazing history to it's vitally important future, David Blume covers a wide range of topics - exploding the myths told about alcohol, and giving a primer on how to grow it, produce it, profit from it's byproducts, convert vehicles, claim tax credits, and far, far, more." With alcohol fuel, you can become energy independent, reverse global warming, and survive Peak Oil in style. Alcohol fuel is "liquid sunshine" and can't be controlled by transnational corporations. You can produce alcohol for less than $1 a gallon, using a wide variety of plants and waste products, from algae to stale donuts. It's a much better fuel than gasoline, and you can use it in your car, right now. You can even use alcohol to generate electricity. Alcohol fuel production is ecologically sustainable, revitalizes farms and communities, and creates huge new opportunities for small-scale businesses. Its byproducts are clean and valuable.

April 14th 6pm Alder/Cottonwood Room(upstairs)
Global Gardener with Bill Mollison (120 min) BILL MOLLISON is a practical visionary. For nearly two decades he has traveled the globe spreading the word about permaculture, the method of sustainable agriculture that he devised. Permaculture weaves together microclimate, annual and perennial plants, animals, soils, water management and human needs into intricately connected productive communities. Mollison has proved that even in the most difficult conditions permaculture empowers people to turn wastelands into food forests.