idealist.org

Earthaven is a spiritually diverse activist community developing on 325 acres in the Southern Appalachian Mountains of North Carolina, USA. Guided by Permaculture design principles, we are building an ecovillage in the midst of a regenerating deciduous forest. Since 1995, when we took joint ownership of the land, we have been using the labor of many hands and the love of our one Heart to create our village and contribute responsibly to our children's future.

A community of visionary pioneers, we are committed to ecological living, fully democratic governance, diversity, tolerance, and educational service. We are shaping a culture of abundance that supports and integrates individual and community needs for wholeness and well being, transformative growth, lifelong learning, convivial relationships, environmentally friendly and liberating shelter and livelihood, wholesome food, creative expression, and an ever deepening connection to Earth and Cosmos. Culture's Edge, our educational organization, sponsors courses and internships in permaculture, earth care, natural building, the creative arts, holistic health, community building, eco-spirituality, consensus decision making and group process, ecovillage design, and other subjects essential to regenerating and sustaining human culture.

We have 60 full members and expect to grow to approximately 150 people. We have created a closely settled hamlet of small shelters using natural and local materials in a mix of traditional, conventional, and experimental building methods, emphasizing efficient energy design and use of renewable energy. From this base, we expect to expand into eleven "neighborhoods" of leased siteholdings, radiating from the village center where we are now building public infrastructure. Agricultural lands are reserved for cultivation; most hillsides will be managed for biodiversity restoration and sustainable forest yields in long rotations of native and high value forest species. We mill our own timber for construction.