The environment almost always takes center stage at the Occidental Arts & Ecology Center in Occidental.
This modest community center, founded in 1993, has as its purpose to develop “innovative and practical approaches to the pressing environmental and economic crises of our day.” The center accomplishes these goals with regular classes on sustainability, reuse, conservations and all-around eco-consciousness, as well as a core of eight other programs.
Some of these programs include curricula in permaculture, intentional communities, arts, Mother Garden biodiversity, wildlands biodiversity and a number of important international institutions as well.
The place certainly practices what it preaches; the main office was fabricated from an old, ramshackle chicken coop, and even the structure of the center’s land ownership is sustainable.
A conservation easement through the Sonoma County Land Trust was recorded on the property to run with the deed and restrict the use of the land in perpetuity. This unique easement prohibits the use of herbicides, pesticides, or chemical fertilizers on the site’s organic gardens.
The property is also structured as a no-equity cooperative. This means it’s owned in equal shares by the ten original owners, many of whom still own the land.
Despite the center’s push to establish a local community, it is not open on a regular basis for drop-in visitors. Instead, interested parties can get involved by volunteering, taking tours, selling plants, and studying in some of the recurring courses.
Also, a number of Bay Area social justice and environmental organizations use the OAEC facility for strategy retreats and workshops for their staff and boards.
Considering the karma after years of visitors, there may be no better place on Earth.
