Integral Permaculture Design: part two

Transition as a Way of Life.

A year or so ago I presented my take on Integral Permaculture Design in the form of an article. I used the Big Three primary perspectives as an example of an integral map, related them to the permaculture ethics, thus giving permaculture design an integral foundation. I went on to give brief examples of how we might explore each perspective and begin to clarify essential responsibilities within each of the ethics, responsibilities which we ignore at our peril¹.

above: the Big Three as the primary perspectives.

I always intended to write a second part to this first piece, looking at a number of concepts and ideas, including succession, development, progress, evolution, growth or simply change and considering how appropriate they are, if at all, in relation to each of the primary perspectives.

I am not going to look at succession in the development or evolution of human society here. Ken Wilbur's Integral Theory depends heavily on Dr. Clare Graves' ideas of succession known as spiral dynamics. In many ways this is a highly contentious perspective which deserves attention in itself, so I will return to this at a later date.

Here I will concentrate on a particular type of change in the environment, commonly known as succession, and then see what happens if we generalise some of these ideas and concepts. I don't draw particularly strong conclusions but present these thoughts and ideas for further consideration and discussion.

Succession in the environment

I've presented ideas of succession in the environment on permaculture design courses and elsewhere since about 1989, largely as a result of observing Argel, a one acre site set aside for natural re-vegetation since 1986².

above: Argel four years into the natural re-vegetation showing young gorse doing well. The willow in the right foreground has escaped the reach of deer.

I want to relate this environmental succession to the idea of transition in society and culture but first I will go over some of that succession transition again, briefly, for anyone who is not familiar with this work.

Its worth pointing out that at the time I began Argel, there was some debate and considerable ignorance as to what would happen when livestock were excluded from the landscape here in Britain. The general feeling was that you would simply get unproductive scrub, or at the best, scrub oak (whatever that is).

The standard model of environmental succession at the time was based largely on observation of farm land in north west Europe that had been abandoned. This led to a fairly simple progression from grassland through shrubs and pioneer trees into forest. It was then straightforward to generalise this to describe succession in Britain after the retreat of the glacial ice in similar terms- simple species such as lichens and mosses through pioneer, cold tolerant plants, such as the low growing Arctic willow and on into shrubs and trees as the climate warmed, to complete forest cover. This gave rise to the idea that Britain was largely covered by dense, impenetrable, dark forest, the Wild Wood, until humans got stuck in and started clearing it.

At Argel there was a different situation in that although it was relatively easy to exclude domestic stock (a fence), I did not have the resources to exclude fallow deer. At the time there was a considerable herd living within Coed Y Brenin and it was not unusual to see a dozen or more wandering through our holding, grazing the fields and browsing whatever plants and trees they fancied.

The consequence on Argel was that young tree seedlings and saplings were eaten and only those that grew on the edge of, or even in the centre of young gorse bushes, survived. Over the space of a few years this gave Argel a very distinctive appearance with grassy clearings and paths between dense clumps of gorse sheltering considerable numbers of young trees.

above: me as a young man (!) in Argel at a stage where gorse was the most obvious and dominant species in the succession. A screen capture from a video (Super 8) taken for me by good friend Dee.

This led me to wonder about the standard model of succession. From observation of current environments and analysis of past environments, such as tundra, its clear that they support or supported considerable numbers of large herbivores. It then seems obvious that such a presence would steer succession in particular ways; as we know, “everything gardens”.

At Argel, the fallow deer kept clearings and paths open, eating out any young tree seedlings and saplings, which they like and preserving the grass, which they also like. The gorse, which is nutritious (hence the spikes to deter animals from eating it) proved too prickly for them to do more than browse a little in harsh winters when the ground might be snow covered or frozen for many weeks (remember those times?). Thus the prickly gorse did well and provided invaluable protection for trees, much more effective than a plastic tree guard! So we could say that a general consequence of succession in the presence of large herbivores is the appearance of prickly plants.

This can still (just) be seen in Wales in the form of ffridd³, a traditional Welsh use of landscape which can be described as agro-forestry. Fridd was managed by the careful use of a variety of grazers resulting in a very complex graze/browse system with high overall species diversity and complex topography. As at Argel, the presence of grazers resulted in various prickly plants (black and white-thorns, gorse) which have similar protective qualities for young trees.

above: old ffridd below Bwlch Drwsoer, east of Dolgellau. Although lacking more recent management using cattle and horses whose weight would have restricted the development of bracken, still a beautiful example of a complex, rich and varied land use and perhaps an indication of post glacial Britain.

With the publication of F W M Vera's seminal work, Grazing Ecology and Forest History⁴ this alternative model of succession was described in much greater detail with considerable supporting evidence and since then has been used as the foundation for a number or “re-wilding “ projects, producing very interesting results.

In short, Vera suggests that rather that the traditional idea of Britain being covered with dense forest, the presence of large herbivores resulted in a more open, savannah type landscape (like ffridd). Its worth saying that there was and still is resistance to this idea from some quarters; the dense, dark wild-wood is well rooted in our consciousness, if not in reality.

Given that there is currently a strong push to increase tree planting both in Britain and further afield, there are a number of important things to say here regarding bio-diversity.

With conventional tree planting, trees are planted at fairly close spacing, with mulch mats and tree guards. The mulch mats suppress the grasses (which compete with trees for nutrients in the same root space) and the tree branches meet within a few years, forming a canopy which suppresses other vegetation. The trees then grow on towards maturity, with or without thinning; though the lack of thinning will result in over tall stems with limited root space making the trees liable to wind-throw.

In this and the simple model of succession, the sun-loving species that are in the pasture to begin with are largely shaded out and replaced by the trees and shade tolerant species. Given that some pastures may have a high diversity of species to begin with, replacing them with a limited number of species of trees can mean a loss of bio-diversity.

Woodlands, while important for a variety of reasons, are not necessarily of high diversity. I once taught an introductory permaculture design course on a farm which had an area designated as an ancient oak woodland. When I had a good look at it, I found what I thought was actually formally coppiced oak over heather and winberry and very little else.

So in in these successions, the maximum species diversity without intervention (or interaction, that is, gardening) by animals or humans, occurs somewhere in the middle of the transition from grassland to forest, when we have both examples of the sun-loving pasture species and the emerging forest species of and taller herbs such as hog weed and angelica, shrubs and trees. Ffridd would originally have provided a very good example of such a complex, managed transition, giving a more open, savannah like appearance.

This period, a dynamically maintained edge between pasture and forest, is highly energetically active. The complex topography of the plants, the interpenetration of space by growth at many different levels, maximises surfaces and the varieties of spaces, or niches, for life forms of a wide range of types. Plant species accumulate various essential nutrients (for example, bracken accumulates potassium, gorse fixes nitrogen), birds consume insects and seeds and deposit phosphate rich droppings and there is considerable cycling of nutrients and the accumulation of biomass on the surface and into the soils.

Natural succession in the individual

I don't intend to say a lot about this here as its such a huge subject but Its clear from experience, observation and extensive studies that something which we may call child development does take place. This development or learning continues into adulthood and there seems no reason to doubt that learning can continue to occur throughout our adult life too. In fact, evidence suggests that continuing to learn is one aspect of sustaining our mental health and well-being.

Using the simple developmental model I outline in the previous article on integral permaculture design, we could say that natural succession in the individual occurs in physical, emotional, mental and intuitive (or spiritual) spheres as successive layers of experience though in this case, each subsequent layer does not displace or replace the previous one but rather includes it and builds from it.

We could say that our limited abilities as babies and our increased senescence of old age frame the central part of our transition which we could describe as our most active, either physically, emotionally, cognitive or intuitively (or spiritually). Also, we can experience these aspects in combinations. For example, when I garden, I am involved in a physical activity in which I am emotionally involved with the environment, mentally aware of the particular task I am undertaking and perhaps responding intuitively to the specific needs of a plant.

Succession and permaculture design

Considering the example of environmental succession seen at Argel (and elsewhere), that is, the movement from pasture to forest, we can that the most energetic, diverse, complex and interesting stage in the succession lies somewhere between the start and end states, when elements from both states are combined. This can be seen as an edge in time and from permaculture design, we know that edges are usually the most productive spaces to occupy.

In permaculture design we begin with a thorough analysis of the current system and then go on to imagine a desired future state of the system and the steps whereby we move from the first state to the second. In this we can say the permaculture design is a form of succession.

It doesn't really matter what system we are talking about here as permaculture design is sufficiently flexible to be applicable to many different systems (such as a garden, farm, business, lifestyle, community etc. etc.). So we could take something like Rob Hopkins' excellent Transition Town design⁵. as an example. I use the transition towns model because it is so clearly defined and the term itself suits where I'm going with this.

In Transition Towns we have the familiar permaculture design approach of analysing and defining the current state of the system and then then collaboratively designing the desired future state. We then work together to design the steps necessary in order to move from the current to the future state, that is, the transition.

Now if we then consider this with reference to the observations from Argel (or similar), then this suggests that the transition itself is more dynamic, complex, energetic and diverse than either the start or end stages, as it includes elements of both systems (an edge in time). Further, this suggests that the optimum space to occupy is one of constant transition, rather than the fixed, static positions of either start or end states.

Given climate change as a result of human induced global warming, it is also becoming increasingly difficult (impossible or pointless?) to imagine a stable end state, thus we will find that change will in fact be the only constant. So will our designs need to become open ended (because we don't know what is coming)? With a little thought, we can also apply this to ourselves as individuals. That this happens anyway, becomes fairly obvious for us as we transition between young and old and we have no idea when our own personal endings are coming.

Its important and useful to remember that life itself (and Gaia) maintains a dynamic equilibrium which is a long way out of balance. Its as if there was a strange attractor, always pulling life and us towards a point of maximum energetic activity.

Think about those Cymric farmers and tyddynwyr (smallholders) who by varying the number, type and timing of grazing animals, could sustain their ffridd at that dynamic balance between simply pasture and closed canopy forest. Their interventions with livestock or harvesting, such as taking out a mature tree for building materials, maintained a dynamic equilibrium of that environment.

That this is the case is evident since ffridd was largely abandoned as a specific, managed type of land use. Ffridd remnants with out that dynamic interaction managed by those tyddynwyr, progressively simplify into far less interesting or dynamically active systems.

above: ffridd remnants lying in a distinct strip in four sections between the fields below and the mountain pasture above, a typical arrangement in western Meirionydd. No longer managed as ffridd they devolve into simpler land types. On the left, largely gorse, the next section is on the way to woodland, the next shows as blue of bluebells but on the way back to pasture and on the right, just a few shrubs left in rough grazing.

That's all here. Many thanks for reading and welcome to new subscribers. I'd be very grateful for any comments, suggestions of criticisms as I see this thinking as an evolving subject area. Till next time, take care and hwyl! Chris.

1. The full article can be found on my web site, as a web page,

or you can download it as an Open Office document.

2. For more details see my web site

and also here on Substack

3. For further details on ffridd, see my web site.

4. Grazing Ecology and Forest History CABI Publishing 2000. Sadly, this is a very expensive book. I was able to borrow a copy via our local library's "Library Exchange" service. Digital copies can be found on line including on the-world-famous-search-engine-that-is-not-to-be-named's Books where it can be read on line.

5. Incidentally, Rob Hopkins visited our site as a young student and I gave him a tour of Argel. He very kindly acknowledges both me and Argel in some of his books.