OUR STORY
My name is Josh Conrad. I have been around heavy machinery since I was a young boy. I have pictures of me at 5 years old in my grandpa’s skid steer helping with projects. I grew up on a commercial fishing boat, so thinking 10 steps ahead has always been life or death out at sea. I’ve been listening to the hum of hydraulics since before I could walk.
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I have done a lot of traveling and moved around a bunch. I spent 8 years in Colorado, some of those were my early years working and living on the ski resort as a ski bum. It was at this time I was in a long-term relationship with a woman who shed light on many different aspects of my life today. One of these tools was permaculture. I was first introduced when I came to sit in on one of the ecology classes she was taking, and my mind was blown.
This started a lifelong journey of learning about ecological systems and helped me to approach projects through a different lens than my traditional construction background. My study into the topic of permaculture led me to world renowned practitioner, Sepp Holzer. He has worked all over the world building and designing self sustaining systems of water retention landscapes.
This is the work we are striving to do.
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Through practicing this work, we can provide both flood mitigation and drought resistance through storing water in the ground by collaborating with and restoring the existing landscape
ABOUT ABUNDANCE BY DESIGN
We strive to create ecologically sound spaces using permaculture and regenerative design techniques to develop a plan based on your wants and needs. Our passion lies with water. How we manage water through our landscapes can help mitigate drought, floods and fires. Through working with the natural contours of the landscape we can help slow the flow of water allowing it to infiltrate into the ground through key points in the landscape.
This process provides many benefits. One is helping to slow the sheeting of water through a landscape to prevent overwhelming the local storm water systems therefore helping to reduce the risk of flooding. By working together, we can help mitigate flooding in the lower parts of the landscape.
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Another benefit is groundwater recharge. We consistently pump water from aquifers within the earth and these are essentially large cobble cisterns of water. By constantly pump water from this reserve, over time we are depleting this resource. Eventually, if we do not focus on replenishing these stores, the cobble walls will not have enough resistance to uphold themselves. This could potentially cause catastrophic failure within ground water availability.
Lastly, when we use contour to maneuver water we have the ability to cultivate these spaces with perennial food scapes. I.e. food forests. Coming from out west, there is a drastic need for retaining water due to lack there of. The east coast also has desperate need to retain water but due to over saturation.
Vermont goes through periods of too much rain as well as droughts. So here it’s the same solution to a different set of problems. Overall, our goal is to help people turn their dreams into reality from an ecological perspective. Give us a call today to see if we are a good fit.
ECOLOGICALLY MINDED EARTH WORKS
In a time of uncertainty and unpredictable weather patterns, let us help you design a property that will help you to both stay protected from weather related disasters and provide food abundance for you and your family for generations to come.