Note: Smart Shelter has identified approximately 18 key regional sites for pilot studies in the E.I. Land Steward Program. These sites are selected on the basis of smallness of size, ease of access and proximity to population facilitating their use, uniqueness of their habitat/environmental significance (especially isolated riparian cores), extent of impact and damage, and amenability/ feasibility of effectiveness of this program.

A preliminary mapping and reconnaissance (usually video documented) is conducted and if the site proves viable, a "Prescription for Remediation" is developed, incorporating permaculture, native landscaping, natural building, E.I. Standard and non-chemical invasives technologies. This prescription is then presented to the relevant land managers for consideration and possible pilot study approval.

Following are some of the Prescriptions utilized.

"Fluff Bucket" composting campsite toilets...there is no need to close damaged campsites, eroding our free camping rights and privileges because of human waste and the expense of installing concrete facilities or putrid smelling portapotties...with their obvious budget drains. Simple, aerobic, solar composting and extraordinarily cheap "fluff buckets" are located at high use spots with signage. They are portable, comfortable and a technology the society should be exposed to anyway. "Fluff Buckets" turn this disgusting problem with free camping sites into a composting asset, providing citizen education in the process and because of their solar/composting technology are not time dependent for maintenance...the longer the waste sits there, the more composted and nontoxic it becomes. Eventually, when thoroughly dried, its shredded in the chipper/shredder and returned to damaged soil as a renutrient, at next to no cost, as an automatic service of the Land Steward's time on the site. In the long run, the insanity of increasingly expensive anaerobic septic systems and municipal collection and treatment plants will be replaced with onsite retention of biological nutrients through widespread adoption of composting systems in the individual household (as is already the case in vast numbers of permaculture sites with 10-20 year track records in Australia). This is an ideal and well tested methodology to get that shoe in the door with the American public...who are going to attend to urgent natural necessities on public land whether the sign says its closed or not.

Glass "Cullett" Gravel from beer bottles

Reformulated Plastic Products

Chipper/Shredded wood Gravel-The proliferation of tree trimming debris dumped on public land is incredible. Most of our terrain is desert and the assumed bio-deterioration of riparian area tree parts results instead in desication...mummified elms and olives in our pinion/juniper forests...or even more disgusting contrast...on our beautiful, entrancing, barren adobe badlands (I've thought they were "good lands" since age 7 on a 1950's fat tire bike with two peanut butter sandwiches and a package of Sweitzer's Licorice on hand).

A commercial sized chipper shredder should be used to convert this debris into "fluff" (small dimension shreddings) for soil amendments onsite where damages and revegitation occur or "Chip" which is widely used in layers two inches and over as a weed preventative or in depths two inches and under as "wood gravel" for walkways on muddy ground, or parking spots/ roadways of high use. This would be an ideal use for creation of return Land Steward Sites both as a demonstration ingredient for educational functions of the Land Steward Micro and creation of attractor Productive Occupancy Free Camping when not in use with the Land Steward Program. Wood Chip floats (particularly on adobe soil or saturated clays)...gravel sinks...as anyone who has paid for the 8 yard gravel dump, fixed the broken trees these hulks invariably destroy on site and then smelled the diesel stink of a front loader (not to mention its $85/hr cost) only to watch the gravel disappear into the black wet ooze next spring can attest. Actually, the reason this happens is that the devil likes gravel "chews" for breakfast and sends little sub-terrainian demons to pluck it from below...that's where it goes...to Hades. Wood Chip won't do that...two chunks of bitter bark and the horned monster just spits it out.

Permaculture Terracing...the easy way...for soil erosion and revegitation

Recycled Metal

Concrete and asphalt slab reuse..these slabs of broken concrete and asphalt are already a preferred and viable building material in extensive use in the green and natural building industries...albiet, not yet quite to the volume demand levels sufficient to produce consumer-driven remediation of the prolific dumps on public lands. Growth has escalated this problem dramatically. The weight and volume of these dumps make their re-excavation and removal for reuse in residential walkways, retaining walls, passive solar massing structures, structural walls in buildings, etc a challenge. Doable, but a challenge. A better use of the material, following the prescriptive principle of viewing dump debris as an onsite locational asset for reuse might indicate...coupled with the objective of attracting and augmenting Responsible Productive Occupancies through creation of Free Camping sites and program awareness...that simple rearrangement of the concrete fragments into Micro Pads, patios, fireplaces or sculpture would not only dress up the areas, add indication of a responsible (even artistic) presence as a deterrent to abuse, but also generate additional public education mileage (because public lands sites generate more witness for these technologies than the ones closed to exposure on private premises). Prescident by example also produces photographable demonstrations which can serve to attract more responsible users, proliferate the value and use of these debris items and eventually produce a chance of increasing their perceived value in the building industry and home owner market sufficient to curtail their illegal transportation and dumping on public lands...which is quite a taxing endeavor for the perpetrator, if you think about it. These blocks might also be used to fill on site road ruts, similar to the animal carcass discussion below.

Animal carcasses-direct, open pit burial would be a possibility here for disposal, eliminating unsightliness and smell. It may be that occasionally located pits in selected areas would, at least for the time being, focus the illicit and unethical disposal into controllable locations. A more immediate, less mechanical and definitely more permaculture oriented solution based on the principle of viewing the illegal dumping as a productive transportation of a usable material to damaged sites (also ease of disposal and amenity to longer duration remediation) is to relocate the carcass parts...which need composting while still biologically active and pulverizing once they are bleached bones...into the roadway erosional rutts which cause such scaring and road widening as the original tracks become innavigable. This is being pilot tested (Apr. 04) at the SVK 32 site in Shavano Valley with deer legs. Sure enough...one rain storm and the silt is building behind the carcass parts, slowing storm erosion and interlacing branches, etc. to reinforce the nature generated backfill...much simpler, cheaper and sensible than a front loader and a gravel truck...whose tires are laced with gravel pit invasives seeds which soon would add another problem to an already existing one.

It's likely that pit curing fresh carcasses and later excavating bones for pulverizing or reuse would leave behind a fairly rich top soil from the composting...which could then be used to perimeter enrich roaded areas and parking lots as a healthy deterrent barrier and eco-zone. That might easily be accomplished by surface treatment of carcasses, simply dragging them into a common pile place and covering with other compost and soil...possibly in a building mound system extending with new additions in one direction and a year or so later reexcavated on the other end for bone reuse and enriched soil relocation...kind of a surface carcass compost processing pile.

Illegal dumpsites as a funding source...identifying the culprits and hunting them down

Aluminum

Paper and Cardboard shredding and bedding

Human and Animal Waste

Permaculture Terracing

Hand Irradication of invasives....Chemical herbicides are not designed to eliminate invasives. No chemical corporation CEO or marketing department would be that stupid. If they produced an herbicide that worked (that is...really got rid of weeds) they'd be out of business the following year. What they produce instead is a price-jacked, toxic concoction which looks like it worked, but instead of killing more than just the plant it contacts, it destroys soil microbes producing desertification in which only weeds will grow, weakens or kills the native species which, if they were healthy would out compete the weeds (which would make the chemo-corp honchos hysterical), and selectively reinforces the next generation of weeds to be increasingly herbicide resistent...with the result that very soon the soil is dead, the natives have vanished and the weeds are now the only things that grow and they demand ever increasing levels of herbicide to curtail. Your tail...that's what they now have between their teeth...especially after the third application...which is the threshold we see invariably demonstrated on chemo-treated soils time after time taking your land beyond the point of no return. The only missing ingredient in this diabolitry is an expensive ad campaign telling you that dioxin (the most toxic chemical man has ever created and ingredient in most herbicides) is safe (remember, these are the same people who told you DDT and Agent Orange were safe) and that they work...in fact you're not responsible if you don't use them. Where does the money for that chemo-hog wash ad campaign come from???? You got it. You. At the hardware store counter. You gave them $18 for a tiny can of an addictive substance that won't work on weeds but will destroy your immune system and cost $2 to produce. $16 of your money went to fatten bloated CEO's and fund moron level marketing campaigns.

The only irradication technology (beyond prevention) that has ever worked or ever will is hand irradication. It's hard, it's a pain in the ass and it's a necessity. Our challenge is not whether it is or not...if you're still debating that one it's too late for you anyway. Our challenge is developing the programs producing the labor force to do that. The Land Steward Program is a start. Key principle is...we need smart people doing this. Dumb ones only make more trouble. Smart people bore easily. Anyone who's ever tried assembling a volunteer weed pull knows how fast the quick kids leave...and don't come back. The solution is to devise programs dependent on duration with viable and fair carrots and sustaining of effort as well as marketability to the public sector with IQ's consistently higher than their body temperatures.

What that means is Extended Occupancies utilizing very small daily endeavors (no more than half an hour a day will ever produce consistency..they only produce aversion in the intelligent) and relying for their effectiveness on extended duration, numbers and annual repetition.

The hand irradication formula is invariable and consistent across species. One of the monotonously redundant mantras of the chemo-nazi-capitalist-moneymonger pigs is: this invasive is much more tenacious than anything else...and if you hand pull it it will get pissed off and only send up more shoots than you can imagine and things will get worse. Every CSU Extension Research/Agent (usually garnering about 60% of their operating budgets from chemical corporations despite the illusion the public has that these are independent researchers operating in the public's behalf) I've every encountered starts sniveling some rendition of this mantra....I've heard it about russian olive, tamarisk, thistle, white top, spurge, knappweed. If you're talking to a land manager who starts spewing this drivel you're talking to another chemo-corp dupe who's been to one too many Monsanto cocktail parties...or even worse...the next generation in corporate greed...the expensive seminars on invasives control the chemical corporations initiate and clandestinely fund which the participants pay exorbitant prices to attend...and the corpos stick the profits in their pockets and get paid for their chemo-promotion. If you watch these events...those of us adamantly insistent on independent research and fair voicing for non-chemical regimens are very quickly eliminated from the invitation lists for the following year. A criminal investigation is needed into director funding sources for these events. Enough...on to the solution.

The only solution (after prevention) is consistent hand irradication. That formula (and it applies to all species...there are no exceptions...and yes experience is at hand to prove it) is this:

Year One...the pain in the ass phase...thorough onslaught of the infested area soil remediation where mandated. Staged area treatment...starting at headwaters or ditch source down if necessary.

Year Two...the diligence phase....the critical, mandatory religious followup, irradicating sprouts and young invasives. Augmentation of preferential biologically(never chemically) based soil ammendments...more reseeding or allowance for native reseeding...which is preferred.

Year Three...over the hump phase...invasives will now be minority and vanishing...precaution to continue soil nutrification...spot monitor seasonal sprout irradication...augmentation of permaculture or native seeding continues.

Year Four...spot maintenance, easy monitoring and occasional vigilance... You've one...if natives are not flourishing, find out why and fix it. Spot monitoring and maintenance to prevent reinvasion is established and needs continuation in perpetuity. This demand however is all but insignificant...provided vigilance is consistent. Consider transiting strategies if restoring wetlands, riparian, permascaping, etc.

There are no shortcuts to this pattern. Agriculturists for 100,000 years have substantiated that. Until 50 years ago, it was unquestioned and part of our lifestyles, farming and public lands policies. Then Dow and Monsanto had no use for the chemical warfare agents they'd produced during W.W.II and Vietnam, so they changed their names, packaged them for hardware store counter sales and created the greatest level of chemical dependency and immune damage in human history...not to mention the public lands, farm fields, municipal parkways and residential lawns they've destroyed. The class action suit around this one will make the tobacco industry litigation and fines look like a warm up act. Not only is the chemicalization damage diabolical...it's intentional...just like the cigarette company additions of formaldehyde (a known carcinogen) to cigarettes (because makes them even more addictive to teen agers)...the chemo-corps understand elaborately how to guarantee future sales by producing substances touted as necessary and safe but in reality addictive and destructive. Soon the lid will come off. The battle for the present, besides supporting the class action litigation formulation already underway, is to redesign the solutions for the future. We will live to see the day when all of these chemicals are illegal, their perpetrators are hung up to dry (probably in lavish privatized prisons...at public expense) and the public knows factually what their dangers are...independent of corporate lobbying and propaganda.

The solution is based on what we had 50 years ago in terms of hand irradication, prevention, soils and native species health. But we are further along than that today because of the proactive work of the permaculturists like Bill Moleson, Jerome Ostentowski, Kris Holstrom, Nancy Wicks...etc. What we must do here is not to go back to the 50's...not to stay stuck in the chemical addiction of the 90's...but to proactively progress in accordance with the new regimens of sophisticated natural technologies into the century ahead...the one we are in now.

It only takes one or two visits to sites in year four or beyond having had the benefit of these hand irradication, permaculure or native landscaping regiments...noting the extraordinary health and diversity not only of the native species plants but also the insect, reptile, butterfly, bird and mammal populations to endorse it. Can't afford it you say? Add in the cost of chemotherapy to your cost equation...then deduct your current salary for the rest of your life following your Alpha Two E.I. collapse and disability...for which there is no cure. Far fetched and extremist you think? Better read the biographies of the regional E.I.s contained in the Smart Shelter E.I. Standard before you too fall victim to the age old snake pit of "contempt prior to investigation." There were days when every single one of us thought that too. Experience makes an irrefutable teacher when reason and forethought won't. In the case of advanced environmental illness perpetrated by the chemical industry that has now effectively dismantled all safeguards the american public ever enjoyed (and most naively think are still in place)....it has already generated a population who effectively have no alternative but to place these non-chemical solutions on line. They can't breathe unless they do. That's why they are the backbone of the E.I. Land Steward Program.

Renutrienting damaged soils

Reseeding/ Regrowth

Maintaining free camping as attractor and education mediums instead of closing them

"Fluff Bucket" free campsite facilities for composting and education

Land Steward presences as deterrents and the driving labor force

Public Education...service organizations, botanical societies and permaculture

Art from Scrap...ala Santa Barbara...One of the most interesting possibilities to be tested in the pilot studies is the concept of, instead of removing debris and slash from sites undergoing remediation, the objects are rearranged into site facilities (chipper/shredder campsite wood chip gravel)and art sculpture...even illegal vehicle tracking barriers...

This strategy provides fun art projects for kids and adults. It's certainly harmless...the debris is already there. The promise it holds is that the statement inherent in the intelligence that takes someone else's stupidity and stacks it up into a sign post indicating the presence and insistence of a higher consciousness on the land can provide an excellent non-confrontational deterrent to illegal public lands dumping. Make the thugs aware they are not alone or unnoticed...and with a little luck, and a good reward system (why isn't BLM doing this already...DOW is?) they can be traced and prosecuted...even sentenced to building some themselves.