A Systems Approach: Understanding Our Fourth Affordable Housing Development”

Lopez Community Land Trust’s fourth development, Sustainable Community Homes, consists of eleven single family residences comprising the Common Ground neighborhood, LCLT’s office and two studio rental apartments. In addition to the buildings, the project showcases strawbale construction, a rainwater system, rain gardens, solar photovoltaic and solar thermal systems.

Getting to Zero: our Net-Zero Energy goal
Guiding Principles and Definitions

• The community and building team defined “Net-Zero Energy” as an annual balance
  of consumption and actual on-site energy production within five years of
  first occupancy.
• We wanted to make this a fun challenge – getting to net-zero energy use – by
  combining low energy-use building techniques with renewable energy
  production.
• We wanted to raise the bar by challenging the design team to reduce energy
  use by up to 48% through passive solar design features.
  Education and direct feedback are essential. Meters were placed inside each
  home and financial incentives reward those who use less.

In this manual LCLT shares the design principles and technologies used as we worked to get close to our vision of “Getting to Zero.” We hope others will learn from our success
as well as from our shortcomings and we look forward to learning even more from those who surpass us.

Download a free preview.

This 103-page manual is available for $15.00 plus shipping and handling. To purchase the manual, please email LCLT@rockisland.com or call (360) 468- 3723.

Workgroup on the Lopez Island Farm Education (L.I.F.E.) Program:

Workgroup on the Community Grain Project:

Everyone thanked Jean of Vortex cafe for a delicious and hearty lunch. The volunteers (note blurs) also did an outstanding job! Thank you all!

A well rounded exhibit of books and a display of local beans were on hand to cheer us on.

Although at least one person was heard to say later, “I can’t believe I slept through the whole thing.” (Not really.)

LCLT’s most recent housing neighborhood COMMON GROUND was awarded first prize in the “new construction” category by the National Association of State Community Services Programs (NASCSP) in Washington, DC, on February 24, 2010. Common Ground, completed in 2009, is a sustainable net zero energy project and received its award in part due to LCLT’s publication of the manual Land, Water, Energy, Resource Use: A System’s Approach. Features include straw bale construction with earthen plaster, rainwater catchment, solar hot water and a grid-tied solar electric system. This is a mixed-income development of 11 homes and 2 rental units along with an office/resource center.

Lopez Community Land Trust (LCLT) began construction of Common Ground on June 4, 2007 as a demonstration project for replication. We produced affordable housing opportunities for Lopezians in a mixed income development of 11 homes and 2 rental units along with an office/resource center. The site location is on a seven-acre parcel owned by LCLT just off Lopez Road on Tuatara Road.

“Common Ground is about reinventing the American Dream. In the years ahead, Americans will be compelled to shed some deeply ingrained habits of material consumption. These adjustments can be endured, nay, embraced, if people are confident that the country is headed to a more fulfilling transformation. I believe this transformation is fundamentally about discovering what it means to be truly human, not as ‘consumers’ but citizens, neighbors, friends, co-creators of a compelling new story that embraces social justice and a healthy planet. It’s about smaller footprints and larger lives.”
- Chris Greacen, resident of Common Ground.

“In 1989 LCLT was created in response to the rapid rise of real estate prices. Escalation of home prices threatened the very fabric of our community. Common Ground is our fourth affordable housing development and the first net zero energy neighborhood. Common Ground was developed for replication; modeling rain water catchment, solar electric and solar themal systems, passive solar design, straw bale construction, earthen plasters and elements of permaculture design.
“Common Ground is home to teachers, small business owners and those who are self-employed. It is a testament of living comfortably and sustainably with a greatly reduced carbon footprint.”
- Sandy Bishop, Executive Director of LCLT

“When I first heard about this project, I didn’t think it could be done and now that I see it’s possible, I want to spread the word!”
- Rhea Miller, Assistant Director, LCLT

For a diagram of a typical home and its sustainable energy features, click here

The first milestone of Common Ground was a design charrette that brought environmentally-minded professionals together in March of 2006. Please click on this here to view the Scrapbook from this event.

Joe Bullock, a permaculture consultant for the project, prepared a brief discussion of biodiversity on the site, and offered a suggested plant list.

The SARD committee currently has five primary areas of interest:

1. research methods to increase the fertility of island soils,
2. increase the availability of locally grown grains and legumes,
3. increase economic stability and self-reliance amongst farmers,
4. increase food security, lessening our carbon footprint of imported goods, and providing “Food — when the ferries don’t run.”
5. develop the necessary infrastructure to produce a variety of staple crops for local distribution and consumption.

LCLT Grain Project Goals:

Grain – dry seeds of cereals and pulses (legumes) used for animal feed and human consumption

• To increase food security in the San Juan Islands
• To further an ecological approach to farming the lands of the Islands
• To increase soil fertility by the choice of locally adapted crop varieties, crop rotations, and animal grazing
• To grow enough grain annually so as to have planting seed available for 100% island self-sufficiency within one year of a catastrophic event.
• To encourage island citizens to develop family food security programs, including storing a one years supply of grain and grain products.

Grain Project Research Goals:

• Identify landrace, heirloom and modern non-genetically engineered, patent and PVP-free, open source grain varieties with good end use qualities which will produce acceptable yields in the San Juan Islands environment.
• Identify grain and legume varieties which are suited to diverse soil improving crop rotations including cover-cropping, hay production, and grazing, as well as grain.
• Enable individuals – through workshops and written materials – to conduct ‘farmer research’ and seed saving on their farms, land and soils.
• Coordinate and assemble observations and data to make available to the community and other researchers.
• Create Webpages to post information, data, and provide for communications.

“Made from homegrown WHEAT, grown, threshed and milled by hand and foot power on Lopez Island plus water and sea salt”

At the Annual LCLT Potluck, this bread won First Prize. Ona Blue has been growing this wheat in her garden for several years and usually harvests about 90 pounds – a years supply of bread for her family of two. She obtained the original Certified Organic seed from Johnny’s Selected Seed. (They no longer carry it.) The variety is ‘Polk’ – a hard red spring wheat – which was bred at and released by the Minnesota Agriculture Experiment Station in 1968. It is a tall non-semi-dwarf wheat and maintains good resistance to the predominate Stripe Rusts west of the Cascades. The varieties from which Polk was bred have both Red Fife (a spring wheat) and Turkey Red (a winter wheat) in their pedigrees. We believe that Polk is one of many older wheats that have a place in the search for local grain production on the Islands.

Steve Lillestol and his "Seed Vault"

Downloads: (Documents are in either Portable Document Format (PDF) or in Rich Text Format (RTF). The later can be opened by MS Word as well as TextEdit on a Mac or various programs on Linux.)

• Written version of an address by O.J. Lougheed given at the Fall Grain Harvest Workshop (2009) hosted by the WSU Extension office in Friday Harbor. (16 KB Download)
• Grain Project Brochure (Fall 2009) in PDF format (2 MB Download)
• 2009 Winter Grain Data Sheet in RTF format (7 KB Download)
• "Finley Wheat, the Rest of the Story" by O.J. Lougheed, from which the text for the "Finley Wheat" insert in the Grain Brochure was taken. (6 KB Download)

Links:

• "Growing Your Own Grains" – a recent article from a forthcoming book, discovered on the Web.

For more information please contact OJ Lougheed at olougheed@gmail.com

We are currently accepting applications for internships that can begin in February. Download an  intern application here.

Available Internships

(Sustainable Agriculture & Rural Development) This internship offers a unique opportunity to combine on-farm learning with participation in the ongoing work of the LCLT’s Sustainable Agriculture and Rural Development (SARD) program. LCLT’s staff will work with each intern to develop a flexible workplan/learning contract that will take into account each intern’s interests or needs, while meeting LCLT’s program and field/farm work needs.

Hours may vary but internships can involve up to 35 hours/week, between work on local farms, on LCLT projects and in exchange for housing. Housing will be arranged (could range from a room in a family home, to a small cabin, to a tent/tipi campsite) for the length of the internship. Interns will need to provide their own transportation.

Local farming and horticultural opportunities range widely. Examples include: landscaping design and nursery business, salad greens operation, biodynamic farming, winery, market garden, and livestock production.

General responsibilities of interns:

• Begin internship on an agreed upon date and stay with the program for the entire contracted time Commit to a negotiated workplan/learning contract
• Submit a program evaluation at the end of your time with LCLT
• Participate with an attitude of cooperation and willingness to learn
• Adhere to all policies of the LCLT and local laws
• Project a positive community image

On September 5th, 2008 the Wall Street Journal published an article on the MPU entitled, “Have Knife, Will Travel: A Slaughterhouse on Wheels ‘Custom Butcher’ Gives Small Farms New Option to Sell Local Produce”

Buying local farm products is a less expensive and healthier way to nourish yourself, your family, and your community.

Use this map and guide to locate homegrown and homemade goods on Lopez Island, download a 2009 farm products guide here.

Living on an island, we are especially aware of the importance of sustaining life for all future well-being and the need to lessen our ecological footprint. The Lopez Island Farm Education (LIFE) program began as a collaborative, community effort involving the Lopez Community Land Trust (LCLT), the Lopez Island School District (LISD), the Family Resource Center , the Lopez Island Education Foundation (LIFE), the S & S Center for Sustainable Agriculture, the San Juan County Conservation District, WSU Extension, and the Heller family.

The LIFE farm to school program promotes an appreciation of nature, nutrition, aesthetics, community, land stewardship, environmental awareness, and the value and joy of meaningful work. The LIFE program uses an integrated systems approach to address childhood obesity; provide nutritional education and meals; and teach principles of local and global ecology, social justice, and sustainability. LIFE literally grounds children in life skills, and fosters creativity and hope for their futures.

With leadership from the LCLT, the LIFE program has since been integrated into the school system. The LCLT is proud to have had a role in this significant development.

The following stories from the LIFE farm and garden program at Lopez Schools inspire us to keep community support of this program.

STORIES FROM LIFE FARM AND GARDEN PROGRAM

The teacher Jeanna Carter reported that she has been doing the vitamins and colors from Antonia Demas’s curriculum about nutrients, and the kids are literally just eating it up. They were asking her for vegetables and fruit. One boy said that he hadn’t eaten any vitamins that day so he really needed a potato. Could he really have that potato? They also requested to eat the raw red cabbage!

Huck, a middle school teacher, took his class to harvest strawberries at Crowfoot Farm. A young male came in his office the next Monday morning wanting to go back and pick strawberries.

A quiet and somber senior in the high school wasn’t showing many signs of having much interest in eating or growing healthy foods in class. Actually, he wasn’t interested in much at all other than his beat up four-wheel drive ‘85 Toyota truck–clearly his true love. Imagine the surprise when he was sampling some fresh swiss chard from an abundant bed in the hoop house, and he suddenly came to life exclaiming, “Dang! This crap is good!”

The teriyaki stir-fry received a standing ovation from the football team at school lunch.

The LIFE program collaborated with the school chef, and cut vegetables were put on the table while students waited to go through the lunch line. The students ate the vegetables, the lunchroom was calmer, and the lunch period moved more quickly. Staff observed elementary students sneaking vegetables from the bowl of veggies at the other end of their table, as their bowl was empty.

The students picked herbs and then made signs for the lunchroom with them.

On behalf of all secondary students, the Student Council officers planned on making “dime on pins” (diamond) in recognition of the “Best Lunch Ever” for the kitchen staff. This was decided after the chicken curry lunch one Wednesday.

The superintendent noticed students hanging out in the Rishi Center garden, exploring the pond, garden beds, etc. Several students excitedly grabbed the superintendent’s arm and exclaimed that they had discovered fish in the pond.

Elementary students were waiting for their turn to go through the lunch line, discussing which kind of dressing they liked best on their raw broccoli.

The superintendent walked into the cafeteria when several kindergardeners yelled at him, encouraging him to try the raw spinach that had been set out in the daily veggie bowls on the lunchroom tables?

In the homeroom class, the lesson was cooking with seeds–rice with peanut sauce and seeds in cabbage leaf wraps–using the portable kitchen and team cooking. Lisa, the curriculum assistant, discussed the recipe with the class and had them guess which items were seeds or were from seeds and from what kinds of plants. She also discussed which items could be grown on Lopez in the winter. She talked about what in seeds are good for the human body to eat. Then they feasted together around a community table.

The kindergarten class discussed seeds, their function, their form, how they
traveled, germination, and other ideas about seeds using a giant picture book about growing seeds. The class sprouted mung, garbanzo, and kidney beans in ziplocs to observe their growing form over the week. The teacher Laurie was to continue to take observations with the class over the week and collect data. The kindergardners loved being little scientists. They passed around and talked about all types of seeds that humans need. The new grain poster usually in the lunchroom was very helpful for this. They had sunflower seeds for a seed snack. One of the aids at the school stated that, the day after the lesson, she asked the kindergarten table what was the best thing about kindergarten. They all said in different ways, very excitedly, “We get to grow seeds! We get to see if they will grow for us!”

In small groups in all the elementary school classes, all the students learned about sprouting seeds to eat and sprouted jars of red clover for a snack they are making next week. Groups of 5 made schedules for all next week of who would be responsible for rinsing and caring for the sprouts each afternoon and morning. Watching the team decision-making for this part was very interesting, especially to see the kids all trying to work together to decide who would do what when.

After Huck’s class worked in the hoophouse watering the plants and making an assessment for a final harvest, they went down to the pole barn where they joined Lisa, the curriculum assistant, and helped milk the cow Lillie together. They talked about cows, dairy and beef, their role on the farm and in producing fertility for the vegetable garden. They checked out the dairy compost and discussed all aspects of dairy cows: their breed, their care, their nature, and managing them as part of the whole farm. Most of the students were able to try milking which they were very excited about. Then a second milk cow Loveday and Noel (her new calf- only a few weeks old) were brought in for the night and they talked some more about management as they observed the cow care system. It was very cool.

One of the classes read the book The Enormous Turnip. At 9 o’clock in the morning, the portable kitchen was brought into the classroom. The students cut turnips, onions, and garlic, and cooked them together in the wok. The entire wok full of turnips were eaten. The extra uncooked turnips were cut up for snack over the next two days, with children vying for the last piece!

In the hoop house one day a student started the class in a very bad mood. He was a student that sometimes has anger management issues, and this day he was really angry that he had been assigned to a new garden bed for the 2nd semester which was not right next to his buddies. He was making rude comments and being rather obnoxious in his actions as he worked the soil to prepare it for some seeds. His teacher was on the verge of having him sit in the van for the rest of the period. Just after he actually got his hands in the soil and had created some seed furrows, he gradually started to mellow out a bit. By the time he planted and watered his seeds he was totally back on track and participating in a positive way. After he had already planted his original plot planned for the day, he enthusiastically planted some extra seeds that he teacher had leftover. The next morning the teacher commented on what an impressive 180 he did in class yesterday after starting out in such a bad mood. When asked what he thought it was that made him suddenly change his attitude and actions, he responded, “I don’t know. Planting seeds was just really fun.” This really speaks to what the experience of planting seeds in the soil has to offer human beings and to how this middle school boy was able to ground his energy into the Earth and completely rearrange his attitude for the rest of the day.

In one of the elementary class homerooms, students were observed eating sprouts when they come in the morning.

The curriculum assistant showed a group of kindergardners a tree seed and then a tree branch. She asked the kindergardners where the mass of the branch came from. After some attempts at answering, like the sun and soil, she mentioned that the mass came from the air, from carbon in the air. One of the students started pawing her hands through the air, amazed, because, as she said, “You can put your hands right through it!!!”

The school cafeteria offered humus and pita bread for lunch one day. The older students wondered what humus was, and when told, primarily declined to eat it. They ate the sliced turkey instead. When the elementary students were told that they were being offered humus, they replied, “Oh yeah! We learned about that in Lisa’s class!,” and they gladly ate it!

For further information, see: http://www.lopezislandschool.org/programs/garden

LCLT asked this question last year and, with the assistance of Michael Karp, CEO of A World Institute for Sustainable Humanity (A W.I.S.H.), installed a wind-testing tower to find out. LCLT’s goal is a zero-net-energy community. To collect data that provides a detailed analysis of a potential wind resource on Lopez Island , LCLT commissioned a 50-meter meteorological tower last August.

The tower was sponsored by A W.I.S.H. with funding from Washington State Department of Community, Trade, and Economic Development through a grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The final report was prepared for LCLT by Terrance Meyer, P.E., and Rose Woofenden of Chinook Wind, located in Bellingham. You can read the full report, entitled “Wind Testing Final Report, 2007.”

Data was collected by six sensors at 30, 40, and 50 meters on the tower and recorded by a data logger that averaged the data in 10-minute intervals for 24-hour days. LCLT board members extracted raw data monthly and forwarded it to Terrance Meyer at Chinook Wind. There the data was reviewed for accuracy, sensor failure and any potential anomalies. The tower was decommissioned June 5, 2007.

Average wind speed of the data collected for the site was determined to be 3.37 meters/second or 7.5 mph, somewhat low for wind power production. However, the analysis also states that one of the mid-range turbines with a 15-meter (46 foot) rotor diameter at a height of approximately 100 feet could provide 37,000 kWh/year, and meet most of the expected electrical loads for the homes and office.

The 29-page report compares three sizes of wind turbines and analyzes capital costs versus solar electric (PV) costs. The report states that a large wind turbine would provide a similar value to solar options with a much smaller footprint than solar. (LCLT is also planning for a small solar farm on site.) Tower height is important since the power of the wind increases with the cube of wind speed: a turbine at 50 meters will produce nearly twice the power as the same turbine at 30 meters. The report also gives further analysis for other potential wind power sites on Lopez.

LCLT has not yet determined whether or not to locate a wind turbine on site. “The answer my friends, is…”

The need for a second housing project became apparent in September of 1993. Once approved by the Land Trust, the nine month long process of design development began. Groundbreaking was delayed three months due to a Sewer District moratorium. However, in June 1994, the first shovel-full of earth was turned on 1.8 acres north of Morgantown for what is now Coho, site of seven homes.

Once again a group of seven households formed crews to build foundations, frame and finish their homes. Interns, community volunteers and tradespersons gave many hundreds of hours of labor. Eight months is not a long time for seven houses to get built from the ground up.

In February of 1995, members moved into beautiful, finished homes. As with Morgantown, Coho residents turned to transformation of their construction site into lush gardens of flowerbeds, vegetables, shrubs and trees.