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250.547.2001
Sanctuary Forest Design
Stewardship and Regeneration Certification
Includes Wild Dynamic Permaculture Design Certification
Presented within an Online Program
and Multi-day Certification Camp
A Sanctuary Forest represents a location where stewardship is taking place which seeks to protect, expand or rewild the natural biodiversity of a place. A Sanctuary Forest is also seen as a spiritual centre where the stewards of the place have created a sentient relationship with all of the biotic beings located there. A Sanctuary Forest can be located on private or public land and is largely placed there by the sheer will, of those individuals willing to steward that place. A Sanctuary Forest is created upon certain pillars that include stewardship, science, sentience, spirit and sanctuary.
A Sanctuary Forest can be of any size, stewards are provided with training and toolkits so that they can better understand their role and responsibility. Sanctuary Forests help to seed stewardship within cultures where it has become lacking. This effort seeks to create an understanding that the natural world is sentient. Sanctuary Forests provide a platform for learning about the natural world, and for research and data collection – these forests can be networked regionally and globally.
The design of a Sanctuary Forest also includes a plan for human habitat, a food and medicine forest and commercial gardening operations which do not conflict with the regeneration of wildlands and the biodiversity of wild species.
This Sanctuary Forest Camp offers a unique Wild Dynamic Permaculture Design Certification (WD-PDC) supported by field skills in wild dynamic stewardship. This camp series focuses on rewilding farms, gardens, communities, remote landscapes and interface landscapes and provides participants with a range of learning environments that includes both classroom and project work in the field. This series is ideal for gardeners, farmers, landscapers and other food and agriculture specialists seeking to incorporate rewilding into their scope of operations or workplace. The series focuses on Wild Habitat Forests, Food Forests and Medicine Forests as well as demonstration forests for practicing various kinds of forest therapy.
Upon successful completion of the online program and camp participants will be provided with a Sanctuary Forest Design Certificate and a Wild Dynamic Permaculture Design Certificate, which can assist them in both career and self-employment, endeavors especially suited for food and medicine production, agriculture, landscaping and restoration work as wells as education and community development fields including engineering. This camp series is also a great way to learn about better health and lifestyle choices and gives participants a chance to explore pristine environments and capture land-based skills which become an asset for off-the-grid living.
details
Four Part Online Learning Kit – This serves as an introduction to the Sanctuary Forest Camp Program.
Camp Sections 1 and 2
- Sanctuary Forest Project Nodes
- Wild Dynamic Permaculture Design Course with Fieldwork Project
- Fieldwork on a 5-10,000 sq.ft food, medicine and wild nursery farm and forest.
- Climate Change Mitigation
Camp Section 3
- Applied Wild and Indigenous Sciences
- Plants and Ecology Studies, Biosemiotics, Microbe Studies
- Wild Plant Breeding, Seed Saving and Propagation
Camp Section 4
- Remote Fieldwork in a Watershed Area
- Wild Dynamic Restoration
- Field practice related to Wild Habitat Forests, Food Forests and Medicine Forests that includes stewardship methods.
- Harvesting, stewardship and restoration methods.
- Mixed forest, pasturelands, front and backcountry interface.
- Aquatic and Riparian including Rainforests
Camp Section 5
- Fieldwork and Classroom Projects
- Restoration Camp Design
- Sanctuary Forest Design
- Urban Interface
- Eco-village Living and Design
These camps include comfortable tents with beds, kitchen and bathroom facilities.
Each camp carries a maximum of 10 people.
Regular registration fee is $1800 (Canadian) per person.
2025 Camp Program Dates
Open for Registration
- May 12-18
- September 15-20
•I promise to steward the land, elements and living beings with agape thoughtfulness and ceremony that seeks permission from Earth Spirits. I will study and seek to understand wild places and plant spirit medicines, craft and food that considers biodiversity and shadow biodiversity. I promise to propagate, restore and spread wild habitat and Earth-based teachings into areas of human settlement. I will seek to understand and implement natural eco-system plant breeding systems and techniques that are localized and based on ancient indigenous knowledge and traditions.
I promise to steward the land, elements and living beings with agape thoughtfulness and ceremony that seeks permission from Earth Spirits. I will study and seek to understand wild places and plant spirit medicines, craft and food that considers biodiversity and shadow biodiversity. I promise to propagate, restore and spread wild habitat and Earth-based teachings into areas of human settlement. I will seek to understand and implement natural eco-system plant breeding systems and techniques that are localized and based on ancient indigenous knowledge and traditions.
ethics
camp
dates
Sanctuary Forest Design
Stewardship and Regeneration Certification
Includes Wild Dynamic Permaculture Design Certification
DISCOUNT FOR WILDCRAFT FOREST SCHOOL CERTIFICATION HOLDERS
If you currently hold a Wildcraft Forest School Practitioner Certification in Yasei Shinrin Yoku, Shamanic Coaching, Wild Alchemy or Wildcrafting you can attend the Sanctuary Forest Design Program at reduced rates. Please email us to confirm that your certification is eligible. Upon eligibility your registration fee is $900 cdn for a 5 day camp with online support.
Each camp carries a maximum of 10 people so register as soon as you can.
There are three different training programs which represent our Sanctuary Forest Initiatives. Explore these programs to see which
ones are a good fit for you.
You may also register by Interac or
Wells Fargo Transfer. Send us an email and we will send you instructions.
- Camp Accommodation is Included
If you have questions please email us or call 250.547.2001
REGULAR REGISTRATION
Sanctuary Forest Design Camp Series
Regular Cost: $1800 (Canadian Dollars) per person
You may register using this secure Paypal link:
Food security and rewilding have disjointed pathways as we become more careful but without any plans to guide us. A complicated political landscape has emerged as communities lack real tangible food security plans which don’t consider food supply and demand or how new agriculture production will be created. At the end, both nature and humans might suffer. Examining what is happening in Europe will give North Americans a chance to problem solve – or not.
Bringing nature close to us is important. For the most part our perception of what nature is becomes different from person to person. For some, nature might mean a city park, but for others it might be a remote old growth forest. What we do know is that in every case being closer to nature has positive results. It might be our exposure to healthy phytoncides, or perhaps it’s the experience of getting away from steel, concrete and screens
We are now discovering that there are additional layers that might bring us better health. Getting our hands dirty helping nature recover from degradation might result in an improved gut biome from having our hands in the soil as well as an enhanced meaning and purpose as we feel that we are building a tangible relationship with the natural world and helping her regenerate.
We are also discovering that if our food crops interface with wild environments that this will reflect on our health and the health of a vast number of wild species.
How we grow nature within ourselves will serve as a wider expression between humans and nature on Earth. This process of growth and expansion could be described as “rewilding”.
Riparian - Observations within an
Old Growth Forest Riparian Area
We invite you to watch this 30 minute video which examines the ecosystem held by an old growth forest located in an Inland Temperate Rainforest in British Columbia. This riparian area is now feeling the presence of clearcut logging as a road is built along its edge.
Don Elzer shares his thoughts and observations within this footage that we call “Riparian”
Regardless of how challenging things might seem we must remember that we evolved based on our ability to cooperate and build community while strengthening our kinship with nature.
These are challenging times and indeed change is self-evident and it emerges in small trends and movements. The pandemic caused a global social and economic lockdown which created a historical event that shifted existing trends. More people are now moving out of cities which are fueling a “counter urbanization” movement.
Every day we are reminded that we touch and connect with intelligent life forms that include plants, trees, animals and even the landscape all of which we are only beginning to understand. We are in an age that I like to call “First Contact”, and here in the forest we seek to make contact and invest in the cosmic intelligence that surrounds us. An intelligence that we are opening ourselves up to – one that we are preparing for because it is intertwined with our future.
The need for becoming more locally independent is gaining interest and there is a search for information and opportunities to change lifestyle, shelter and place of work.
There is a renewed and expanded interest in being closer to nature, closer to healthy food and clean air and water. There is also an expanded interest to find one’s “tribe”. All of this is generating new thought in philosophical circles – one area that discussions are migrating towards is “bioregionalism”
