Tourmaline Center ecological landscape design praxis
PROJECT BACKGROUND
Tourmaline Center is a vision of an ecological, healing, and educational retreat center in the early stages of development. The idea for the center sprouted from a place of healing loss through spiritual connection to nature. Through my own healing journey, from the traumatic loss of a pregnancy, to the loss of home and community in Hurricane Katrina, as well as sexual trauma, I was drawn deeply to the spiritual path of connection to Source.
For much of my life, I studied spirituality and comparative religion, some formally, some to fulfill my own curiosity. It has always been clear to me that people’s beliefs shape who they are and how they behave in the world. (I will embrace this in more detail in future posts.)
ROOTS/ORIGIN
Tourmaline Center is located on a 10-acre settler occupied parcel of land in the Norridgewock territory of the Wabanaki Confederacy, also known as Weld, Maine. The town is in the valley of Webb Lake, which is drained by the Webb River, a tributary of the Androscoggin River. Mountains surround the valley providing a multitude of recreational trails and connection to Mt. Blue State Park. The parcel is bound in the southeast by Parlin Brook, is primarily sloped, and mostly wooded with both soft and hardwoods. There are currently three buildings in the most used areas of the property (zones 0-2) and a seasonal cabin in the east on the upper part of the property (zone 5).
The property is privately owned and has been stewarded by the same family for 100+ years. This phase of development for Tourmaline Center is focused on a wetland healing garden, a nut orchard, medicinal herb forest gardens and nursery greenhouses. Community and social benefits of this phase include a Herbal Lending Library, support and training for self-identifying women in herbalism, and the development of an herbal collective that can expand beyond the boundaries of this piece of land.
The next images are a series of assessments of the existing conditions on the land for the Center.
In this map, the blue arrows indicate water flow on the hillside. Parlin Brook is delineated at the bottom of the drawing. Blue blobs show where water currently collects in ephemeral pools and generally wet areas. Structures, roads, trails, and paths are indicated, as well as variance in vegetation.
This map shows how zones of use are designated and will be referenced again later in this entry.
This map shows the area of focus/detail for this phases’ plan.
The wetland was not part of the concept but revealed itself during the observational period of the design, through song and offerings to the sweet waters of our earth mother. Through meditation and contemplation, I felt into the earth and the plants in this area of the property. Again and again, I was shown through animals (heron, newt, eagle, raven, deer), through plants (moss, fern, balsam fir, tamarack, cedar, pitcher plant), through memory of places I’ve seen in other parts of the forest nearby, through the excessive rains and floods this year and held as memory in my body.
I observed how this small portion of earth reflects the issues we all face on this planet. The changing stressors reveal how the pine trees lose their needles every year now instead of every few years. There is panic in the trees. They are trying to compensate by producing more seeds than they used to. There is algae growing in nearby brooks that used to run clear. The loss of the primal waters in my pregnant womb parallels the destruction of our global wetlands, which are the earth’s nurseries for the forgotten and voiceless…the insects, amphibians, the tiny creatures of the swamps and bogs.
Through research, I was shown that many nut trees have an ecological relationship with wetlands. While this was not a deciding factor in designing an accompanying nut orchard, it was an added benefit to the overall goals of the project.
GOALS
The goals of this project are multifaceted and evolving. In this post, I will address the broader goals for the entire property first, and then lay out the specific goals for the phase represented in the main drawing. The details mentioned here will be explored in future posts (with links) as this entry is primarily about my design process.
The primary goal of this project is to utilize the property to provide income/fair exchange and sustenance for myself and up to seven inhabitants, year round, through heart and earth centered practices rooted in Permaculture Principles.
Earth Care
Bioremediation of PFAS chemicals at site of existing leech field with hemp, sunflowers and mustard.
Improved water quality for watershed
Erosion Control on hillside
Flood abatement low lying areas, retaining water where possible using natural landforms and interventions.
Creation of a wetland to support habitat for threatened species, insects, and amphibians to enhance local ecology.
Planting native wetland plant species.
Medicinal herb gardens attract pollinators.
Planting nut trees for carbon sequestration, groundwater filtration, food crop, and forage for animals.
People Care
Supporting self-identifying women, through interrelated offerings, to increase their sovereignty and agency.
Educating the public by sharing knowledge with women about natural healing practices, vitalist herbalism practices, growing medicinal herbs and native plant species, and utilizing permaculture practices to apply to their own gardens and natural spaces.
Create a Herbalist Lending Library by engaging local and regional herbalist and growers to donate surplus herbal harvests for collective use/sharing, encouraging new gardeners to grow herbs for the library, sharing seeds, making cooperative purchases of supplies that cannot be grown in region (bottles, oils, alcohol etc.), sharing equipment, books and knowledge.
Establish a low-profit collective apothecary, creating local jobs.
Creating a wetland garden as a space for healing from grief and loss.
Building global connections through offering regional support to small scale herbalists from other regions with local clients within the Northeastern United States.
Sharing surplus with Herbalists Without Borders to help support frontline activists and decrease burnout.
Future Care
The design concept for the Herbalist Lending Library can be used as a model for community sharing, encouraging neighbors to coordinate growing efforts to support food and medicine sovereignty community wide.
Supporting self-identifying women through education, business opportunity, community, healing, and personal sovereignty.
Design and plant choices that support an ecosystem beyond human care. For example, making choices that support wildlife if there were no humans caring for the land.
DESIGN PROCESS
My design process for this project was very complex based on the intention of providing healing to others through the experience of the land. This required not only assessing the need for healing on the land, but also healing within myself and my family over the 100+ years of stewardship. During this assessment, complex feelings needed to be addressed and released. Attachment to ways of thinking, traditional expectations regarding gender roles and the concept of inheritance, arose in conflicting energies to be reconciled.
I beheld every aspect I could, in full contrast of opposing forces in order to discern the truth of balance, staring directly into the face of the sublime, no matter how painful. Sometimes solutions don’t present themselves for a long time, patience is required. Stillness reveals answers.
