Common Vision invites Geoff Lawton

On August 8-10th, world renowned Permaculture designer Geoff Lawton, will be joining Common Vision to teach a Permaculture and Reforestation course. Geoff is director of the Permaculture Research Institute of Australia, a master of harvesting rainwater in the landscape, and a frequent co-teacher with Bill Mollison. He has been invited by governments, NGOs, businesses, and communities in 27 different countries to teach, restore damaged ecosystems, and direct sustainable design projects. In case you haven't heard of Geoff's work, we would like to share the power and impact that his water-harvesting knowledge has had. Check out "Greening the Desert" below, it will boggle your mind...

Fruit Tree Tour Wins Emmy Award !!!

Good thing I was at a party when I found out the Fruit Tree Tour
episode of the show Natural Heroes, had won an emmy, because it was time to celebrate! The award-winning show was based on our DVD Planting the Vision. The special episode aired on PBS across the nation. This award is a huge tribute to programs like Natural Heroes and the featured groups that are working for positive change. We hope many more people will see the show and be inspired to plant a tree in their community!

Watch a 6-minute trailer for the DVD "Planting the Vision" below.
> Order the DVD today




> Watch the Natural Heroes Fruit Tree Tour Promo on the Natural Heroes site

CV Crew Supports GreenFriends

In Castro Valley, just southeast of Oakland, an international humanitarian and spiritual leader Amritananda Mayi has a center on several hundred acres of grassy hillsides. As part of her Green Friends initiative (which plants 100,000 saplings along the coast India each year) she has begun a campaign to plant trees in the United States starting with the center’s grounds. Just after Fruit Tree Tour ended, 5 Common Vision crew members brought the fruit tree grafting skill that they developed on tour to propagate 108 apple and pear trees to support the project. The grafted trees will be used as part of a fund raiser to support the reforestation effort in the Castro Valley hills.

Reforestation Weekend Retreat

After returning from our fifth annual tour planting 1000 fruit trees in urban schools across California, we asked ourselves, “How else can we be in service to the planet?” Plant more trees, we concluded! Join Common Vision to bring this tree planting energy from the cities out into the National Forest to plant 1,500 trees on five acres of fire devastated land. The weekend will be a festive celebration of life, spring, and stewardship of our beloved planet. Forest base camp is in Alder Springs, less than 3 hours from the Bay Area, Ukiah, and Grass Valley, located southwest of Chico. Weekend Includes: Organic vegetarian meals, Forest camping, Campfire singing, Yoga classes, and Tree planting! Sign up.

Permaculture Hillside Transformation

In the eastern hills of Oakland, Common Vision joined forces with three classes at Merritt to transform a steep hillside into a permaculture food forest with 108 fruit trees! Before trees were planted a team of pickaxers and shovelers built swales, long on-contour ditches, designed to harvest 1000’s of gallons of rainwater and store it deep in the hillside. Over 75 Common Vision crew and Merritt College students worked all day, accompanied by the drums, to plant the widest spread of tree varieties in Fruit Tree Tour history. Jujubes, almonds, chestnuts, pluots, figs, apples, pears, plums, peaches, apricots, nectarines, and persimmons will soon watch the sunset over Oakland. Video created by Annapurna.

1000th Tree Planted Celebration

With the most packed schedule in Fruit Tree Tour history including more schools and community collaborations then ever before, the Common Vision crew successfully planted over 1000 fruit trees on the 2008 tour. In this short video, Professor Dingledorf, (a character in this year’s performance) leads the celebration of the 1000th tree going in to the ground at Hillside Elementary in the East bay. Students from Hillside support the celebration by writing and performing an eco-beats rhyme for the occasion. Video by Annapurna.