The May Whatcom Permaculture Meet-up, in partnership with Regenerate Whatcom, will be a special treat indeed! The event will include a bicycle tour of various properties in the neighborhood that practice permaculture, regenerative agriculture, and good ole fashion gardening!
We are pleased to invite you to the upcoming Birchwood Permaculture Bike Tour and Potluck on Saturday, May 30th, from 2:30 PM to 6:00 PM. Organized in collaboration with Whatcom Permaculture and Regenerate Whatcom, this neighborhood event features a rolling tour of local permaculture properties. Seven host stops are confirmed, offering real-world examples of intentional land use, ecological design, and food production.
How to RSVP
If you plan to attend, please send an email directly to Julian and David to help us estimate headcount for the potluck.
Please ensure your reply includes both organizers:
* When: Saturday, May 30th, from 2:30 PM to 6:00 PM. Please arrive at 2:30 PM to get situated; the tour will start promptly at 3:00 PM. * Where: Starts and terminates at 3116 Pinewood Avenue. * Parking: Because street parking is not permitted in the immediate neighborhood, please park your vehicles at the nearby Birchwood Elementary School parking lot and walk or bike over to the starting point. * The Route: Participants will travel by bicycle between properties within the neighborhood. * The Stops: Each location will host a mini-meetup or short tour focusing on distinct themes, possibly including hemp building, hügelkultur, swales, and biochar. * The Potluck: Our starting location serves as the central hub. You can drop off potluck dishes here before the ride begins. We will return to this site at the end of the tour to eat and socialize. If you’d like to participate just in the potluck, expect it to start circa 5:00pm.
Note: A follow-up email will be sent prior to the event detailing the finalized bike route, specific stop locations, exact times, and the full schedule of discussion topics.
Meet Your Hosts & The Neighborhood History
The tour originates and concludes at the home of Julian Kapoor, Julie Miller, and their family. Julian and Julie are California natives and former evolutionary ecology researchers who relocated to Bellingham in 2022 to focus on climate change mitigation, public health, and to find more intentional community. They chose Birchwood specifically for its unique urban agricultural history.
In the early 20th century, much of the Birchwood neighborhood was intentionally platted into long, deep lots to allow working-class families to sustain themselves with backyard orchards, gardens, and livestock. This design left a legacy of deep backyards and mature fruit trees that makes the area highly suited for modern permaculture integration.
While managing a 6-year-old and a 1-year-old has kept Julian and Julie’s large-scale property adjustments on a gradual timeline, their 0.3-acre site features several active polyculture experiments. It provides a realistic look at the early, foundational stages of planning a food forest. Julian’s recent focus on producing and utilizing biochar will serve as the demonstration theme for this stop.
David MacLeod
miles58@yahoo.com
Birchwood Neighborhood, Bellingham, WA
3116 Pinewood Ave Bellingham,
WA
98225United States+ Google Map
The Permaculture Meet-up April 24th will be a special gathering to celebrate the land we are on, Spring, and gathering in community to dream a future into being. Join us, between the labor of spring and the blaze of summer, to break together, learn from the land and see what emerges. We will gather at 4, walk the land and then gather around a campfire to share food and talk.
View this beautiful movie and Join a discussion afterwards with local water expert panelists.
November 14, 2025
@
7:00 pm
–
9:00 pm
As part of Regenerate Whatcom’s continuing series of events focused on water and its role in our landscapes and how it binds together community and climate, Regenerate Whatcom is hosting a screening this movie.
“Water is Love” shares inspiring stories of regenerative ecosystem design to create water retention in communities and regions, touching on traditional ecological knowledge, how water makes climate and, the importance of restoring complete water cycles. This award-winning movie shows the beauty of the intact water cycle, its widespread degradation and, ultimately, the possibility of regeneration.
$5 – $10 Suggested donation. No one will be turned away for lack of funds.
RSVP below!
“Water is Love: Ripples of Regeneration” follows a group of young people grappling with the climate crisis while we journey around the world to share inspiring stories of regenerative ecosystem design to create water retention in communities, villages, and regions.
Click to download the poster
Local sponsors
“How Water Makes Climate” is tailored for children and youth, making this essential content easily accessible and engaging for young and older audiences alike.
We touch upon traditional ecological knowledge, how water makes climate, and the importance of restoring complete water cycles.
Through inspiring stories from successful projects in India, Kenya, and Portugal, we aim to spark conversations and actions that contribute to a regenerative and resilient world. As we’re facing both the growing devastating impacts of climate disruption and the failure of governments to act, this film points to an often overlooked need and possibility: community-driven decentralized water management as a critical key for surviving – and thriving in — this century.
Visit the Water Is Love website to view the trailer and learn more.
Inspired by screenings, communities have fortified connections and coalitions that have already existed in their regions by coming together to watch the documentary.
This speaks to our intention of creating community and movement building. The documentary was never meant to just be consumed as a piece of media, but to be a tool to bring people together and care for our surroundings.
Water is Love: Ripples of Regeneration won awards:
It is a huge gift to share climate content that opens people’s hearts and moves them into action, to see tears in people’s eyes when the lights come on after a screening, to see children’s faces light up with understanding and awe about how water moves and how it has a soul.
An invitation to gather, celebrate, connect with each other and share vision for the future.
If you have joined us in Permaculture Meet-ups or Walking Whatcom Water events or are new, please join us for a social informational round table gathering!
Bring your plants seeds, garden abundance or preserves to swap and mingle with other Permaculture enthusiasts.
An opportunity to experience permaculture and meet other practitioners. Visitors can see first hand an established permaculture system and ask questions. See how the permaculture design system has relevance to the challenges we face and to creating communities and environments that are resilient.
If you are planning on attending the tour please consider carpooling with others. Folks with plants to sell or swap can arrive at 12:30
Guided tour will be from 1-2. Self guided tour and plant sale/swap will be from 2-4. Look forward to seeing you all!
We will also have a place to trade or gift plants and seeds to other attendants. To sell or trade you can show up a little early say 12:30 and set up. You can bring a table or display on the ground or the back of your car or truck.
An opportunity to experience permaculture and meet its practitioners. Visitors can see first hand an established permaculture system and ask questions. See how the permaculture design system has relevance to the challenges we face and to creating communities and environments that are resilient.
Now in its 14th year, International Permaculture Day has grown rapidly from its roots as an Australian initiative to a global day of permaculture celebrated in over 35 countries.
If you are planning on attending the tour please consider carpooling with others. Folks with plants to sell or swap can arrive at 1:30 Guided tour will be from 2-3. Self guided tour and plant sale/swap will be from 3-5. Look forward to seeing you all!
You can shop for plants ahead of time and we will have them ready for you to pick up. There will also be a place to trade or gift plants and seeds to other attendants. To sell or trade you can show up a little early say 1-1:30 and set up. You can bring a table or display on the ground or the back of your car or truck.
Imagine Permaculture
We offer these tours to further develop the connection between the farm and the community. Tours are a great way to learn and visit the farm and pick up some permaculture food at the same time. See first hand what it takes to turn a landscape into a productive, vibrant, resilient, regenerative system. We will show you what makes Permaculture and Biodynamic farming systems thrive in food abundance at the same time as we regenerate the land, create habitat, clean and store water and build soil! Tours generally cover land, water, nutrient, biomass and animal management systems. Nursery Plant sales and more. This may be altered according to people on the tours interest and questions.
large scale systems
describing water connections to earthworks course students
Resilient Whole System Design Strategies
Inspiration Farm is an 11 acre homestead styled farm founded in 1994. Integrating Biodynamic and Permaculture practices in relation to annual & perennial food systems, animal husbandry, appropriate technology, land/water nutrient management.
Birchwood Neighborhood, Bellingham, WA
3116 Pinewood Ave Bellingham,
WA
98225United States+ Google Map
A Free gathering time for People interested in Permaculture from Whatcom county to come together and discuss ideas. Tour Inspiration Farm in the Winter Agenda– Tour, talk, swap plants and seeds. Simulate and educate through demonstrations of water harvesting landscapes, soil building, animal integration, growing techniques, tours, and workshops.
Come bring your idea to share! How can we Showcase permaculture?
After the tour we invite you to stay for an informal discussion. How can we move Permaculture forward here in Whatcom county. How can we as a community form guilds of different skill sets, aid in promoting permaculture related events and work within our community to install systems such as food forests, lending libraries, speakers forum and cooperative nurseries.
An opportunity to experience permaculture and meet its practitioners. Visitors can see these myriad initiatives, ask questions and see for themselves a permaculture design system. Learn how theses systems have relevance to the challenges we face. By Creating communities that are resilient in the face of undesirable and unforeseeable impacts. Hope to see you there!
An opportunity to experience permaculture and meet its practitioners. Visitors can see first hand an established permaculture system and ask questions. See how the permaculture design system has relevance to the challenges we face and to creating communities and environments that are resilient.
Now in its 14th year, International Permaculture Day has grown rapidly from its roots as an Australian initiative to a global day of permaculture celebrated in over 35 countries.
If you are planning on attending the tour please consider carpooling with others. Folks with plants to sell or swap can arrive at 1:30 Guided tour will be from 2-3. Self guided tour and plant sale/swap will be from 3-5. Look forward to seeing you all!
You can shop for plants ahead of time and I will have them ready for you to pick up. We are donating 10% of all sales towards the Salish Seed Garden Project. We will also have a place to trade or gift plants and seeds to other attendants. To sell or trade you can show up a little early say 1-1:30 and set up. You can bring a table or display on the ground or the back of your car or truck.
Imagine Permaculture
I will share with you an overview of what Permaculture is and some of the strategies used to implement it on your land. Ethics, concepts, strategies and themes of design will form a basis of understanding of how to partner with nature to create a resilient abundant regenerative system.
We offering these tours to further develop the connection between the farm and the community. Tours are a great way to learn and visit the farm and pick up some permaculture food at the same time. See first hand what it takes to turn a landscape into a productive, vibrant, resilient, regenerative system. We will show you what makes Permaculture and Biodynamic farming systems thrive in food abundance at the same time as we regenerate the land, create habitat, clean and store water and build soil! Tours generally cover land, water, nutrient, biomass and animal management systems. Nursery Plant sales and more. This may be altered according to people on the tours interest and questions.
large scale systems
describing water connections to earthworks course students
Resilient Whole System Design Strategies
Inspiration Farm is an 11 acre homestead styled farm founded in 1994. Integrating Biodynamic and Permaculture practices in relation to annual & perennial food systems, animal husbandry, appropriate technology, land/water nutrient management.
As a co-steward of Inspiration Farm for the past 25 years, Brian has a wide breadth of practical knowledge on how to partner with natural systems to bring forth stability and abundance. Having completed three full Permaculture design certificate courses, he now does consultation work for others who want to fast track the establishment of resilient system on their land. Brian teaches workshops at Inspiration Farm pertaining to the many aspects for designing and living within a resilient system that provides for most of the food, fiber, fuel and medicine needed to live a happy healthy life while restoring the ecosystem. His enthusiasm to share this with a wider audience shows in all that he does.
