In early October 2018, Wilson Alvarez took me on a tour of his work at Horn Farm Center for Agriculture Education in York County, Pennsylvania. On that land, Wilson works to restore the damaged ecosystem by mimicking the disturbances created by beavers, wolves, humans, and the proboscideans: elephants, mammoths, and mastodons.

All of this is part of a larger effort he calls The Reintegration Project which aims to embed human beings back in the land through the act of restoration. Wilson does this by creating and sharing the tools, techniques, skills, and community necessary to empower current and future generations to take up this task and create a more beautiful world in harmony with nature.

You can follow Wilson on Instagram @Wil717, and see more of his work and other projects at Horn Farm Center by visiting hornfarmcenter.org

That question provides the framework for Wilson Alvarez and his current work, The Reintegration Project, which examines the prehistoric ecosystem engineers of the Eastern United States as a way to understand how permaculture practitioners and rewilders can use biomimicry to replicate those influences and restore the landscape. To dig into this question and the solutions he’s found, Wilson shares his thoughts on harmonic disturbance; functional extinction; taxon vs. mechanical substitution as two different approaches to land management for conversation rewilding; and how to bolster the ecosystem by planning for correct disturbances of the correct size at the correct time. As one of my teachers, colleagues, and friends this interview with Wilson has less structure as we didn’t need an introduction to get started so we just started talking, with the interview beginning with an explanation of the idea of niche construction.

To find out more about Wilson and his work as a permaculture practitioner and rewilder, listen to our earlier interviews:
Restoring Eden with Wilson Alvarez and Ben Weiss
Listener Questions on Zone 4 Permaculture with Wilson Alvarez and Ben Weiss
Rewilding with Wilson Alvarez and Ben Weiss

I’d also like to say that for anyone in the Mid-Atlantic the Horn Farm Center is an incredible resource for anyone interested in Agriculture, Permaculture, and Rewilding. Jon Darby, who appeared in the first group discussion of the podcast many years ago (Part 1) (Part 2), is the education director there and focuses on offering classes in these areas, often with Wilson as a lead instructor. Check out the events page and see if there is anything might be of interest to you. -- My conversations with Wilson always restore some of my hope that we can achieve a number of our ecological, landscape, and management goals because of the way he provides practical, replicable advice on how to tackle the hard issues facing us.  He continually develops ways to face the difficult tasks of working on the edges to manage the landscape and to do so with simple tools. Though there are some ethical and legal issues we’ll probably need to discuss at some point before taking these practices to the required landscape scale, right now you can use the four ecosystems engineers that Wilson shared today -- the beaver, wolf, elephant, and wild human -- and look for similar prehistoric landscape changers in your area and how they impacted the land and begin applying the mechanical disturbances they did, now, where you are. If, after listening to this episode you dive into the research of your local ecological engineers, I'd love to hear what you find and the ways they created disturbances. Email: The Permaculture Podcast Write: The Permaculture Podcast The Permaculture Podcast From here the next interview is my conversation with Michael Judd on Natural Burials.

Patreon Exclusives
Wilson Alvarez - Practicing Permaculture On The Edge

Other Interviews on The Permaculture Podcast with Wilson Alvarez
Rewilding with Wilson Alvarez and Ben Weiss
Listener Questions on Zone 4 Permaculture with Wilson Alvarez and Ben Weiss
Restoring Eden with Wilson Alvarez and Ben Weiss

Resources
Horn Farm Center
Donate to Horn Farm Center and support The Reintegration Project
The Forest Man of India (YouTube)
Jadav Payeng (The Forest Man of India - Wikipedia)
The Biggest Estate on Earth by Bill Gammage
Bringing Nature Home by Doug Tallamy
Last Child in the Woods by Richard Louv

Related Interviews
Beyond the War on Invasive Species (Tao Orion)
Nomad Seed Project (Zach Elfers)

My guests for this episode are Wilson Alvarez and Ben Weiss. They are permaculture teachers and practitioners from Lancaster, Pennsylvania, who focus on rewilding, observation, and tending the wild. I also consider them my friends and colleagues in the community, having learned and shared a great deal with both of them. We've also sat down and broke bread by sharing meals with one another. This is their third time on the show. Their past episodes are: Restoring Eden: Zone 4 Permaculture with Wilson Alvarez and Ben Weiss Listener Q&A: Zone 4 Permaculture with Wilson Alvarez and Ben Weiss In this conversation we spend much of our time talking about their advanced PDC, which revolves around three core concepts: 1. Reconnection 2. Regeneration 3. Rebellion It is quite a conversation and I look forward to having more with them around this expertise of re-wilding and observation. I am reminded of David Holmgren’s suggestion that we all find our niches, as I continue to develop my own. I'll also be visiting Wilson, Ben, and Natasha on February 27th, so if you have any follow-up questions for any of them, please let me know. Contact Wilson and Ben: Wilson Alvarez: rebelgardentools@gmail.com Ben Weiss: susq.permaculture@yahoo.com Resources: Susquehanna Permaculture Facebook Page Aboriginal Men of High Degree by A.P. Elkin Native Science by Gregory Cajete Rewilding (Conservation Biology) (Wiki) Rewilding (anarchism) (Wiki) Practical Rewilding by Sky (Article from The Anarchist Library) The Forest People (Archive.org. Free Download.) by Colin Turnbull (Wiki) The Rewilding Institute and Dave Foreman. A Note From Scott: I’ll be attending A Gathering of Farmers on March 8^th, 2014 being held by Certified Naturally Grown. This event is on the grounds of Wilson College in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania.  If you are in the area and would like to attend perhaps we can take a few moments to meet and catch up. Contact the Show: E-mail: The Permaculture Podcast Facebook: Facebook.com/ThePermaculturePodcast Twitter: @permaculturecst (Episode 2014-011)

This episode is a Question and Answer session with Wilson Alvarez and Ben Weiss as a follow up to our last conversation together. In this episode they address three listener questions.

1. How to connect with them and learn more about their work now that the Kickstarter campaign is over?
2. How can one manage property if there is a large amount of Zone 4?
3. 3. What is the Hoop System and could it apply to the Eastern Woodlands?

After you hear their thoughts you can connect with them directly via email: Wilson Alvarez: rebelgardentools@gmail.com Ben Weiss: susq.permaculture@gmail.com Feel free to reach out to me if you have questions you'd like to hear in a follow up conversation with them, or if you have problems getting touch with Wil or Ben. E-mail: The Permaculture Podcast Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thepermaculturepodcast Twitter: @permaculturecst Resources: Susquehanna Permaculture Facebook Page Kyle Chamberlain (Permaculture Global Profile) Positive Impact Forestry by Thom McEvoy (Episode 2014-005)