My colleague, transitioner Tim Watson – Founding Director of the Baldwin Farm Resource Center in Hillsborough NC and of the EarthWalk Alliance; restorative architect and CEO of the affordable, eco-restorative, site-adaptable, owner-builder Perch House Series; founding partner of the Trillium Dialogue face-to-face social networking process; and Cherokee elder – is coming to Denver area mid-July and will be available for discussions or presentations to Transition CO groups. His work is some of the most adaptable, healing and exciting I’ve seen since I began writing my book "Life Rules" (see my group), due out in a new edition from New Society Publishers in September.

Here's a brief update from Tim on his recent activities:

“We at EarthWalk are in the initial stages of finding funding for a new educationally focused grant application focused on reclaiming on-site rain water flows to potable standards.

“In connection with this my architectural work finds me busy with helping my client Dr. Mouawad with his Healing Center project near Chapel Hill NC. An exciting part of this planned natural building project is the use of LED lighting technology. We are planning indoor living walls illuminated by low voltage, dimmable, and spectrally adjustable LED's designed for indoor plants selected to improve indoor air quality. This project also features our "Power Tower" design which provides on-site water reclamation/storage, testing data collection on water quality characteristics, vertical landscaping/biomass enhancement, and an active solar system - all combined in one structure. I imagine the vertical horticultural aspect of this project will be of particular interest to you and transition folks. The mission for this design project is to demonstrate a healthy way for people and planet to beneficially co-exist via use of locally sourced energy and resource flows and healthy earth based natural building technology.
“We've also been assisting sustainable tech students at Central Carolina Community College with a completely off-grid rainwater collection and management system designed to interface with bio retention structures and drip irrigation delivery systems. Soil remediation and reduced storm water (thus erosion) are included in our Campus Perch project very similar to the

“In addition, Baldwin Farm Resource Center completed our second phase water collection system. We now have a 6000 gallon rain water storage system which is designed to heat greenhouses and provide irrigated flows to our newly reworked heirloom seed garden. At this point we've reduced our cost per gallon of stored rainwater to less than .50 cents by using 4 foot diameter plastic highway conduit stuck in freshly poured concrete foundations.

“Should the opportunity to visit you in the Denver be in the making, I'd be happy to share our latest power point presentation on these topics with you and the Denver transition community.”

Tim Watson can be contacted at tim@tlwarchitect.com