Holmgren: Fire-Resilient Landscapes with Permaculture

In the online event 'Beyond the Burn: Cultivating Fire-Resilient Landscapes,' David Holmgren, permaculture co-originator, presents strategies for using permaculture principles to build landscapes resilient to bushfires and extreme events. Scheduled for Friday, March 20, 2026, from 6:00 PM to 7:30 PM, this session targets land managers, homeowners, and communities in fire-prone areas like Yarra Ranges, Victoria. Holmgren shares practical techniques from his extensive experience, focusing on regenerative designs that mitigate fire risk while enhancing biodiversity and productivity. Key methods include fuel load reduction through strategic grazing with small livestock, creating firebreaks via productive edges like hedgerows and swales, plant selection for low-flammability species in guilds that maintain ecosystem services, water harvesting and storage systems like tanks and ponds for firefighting and irrigation, soil building to boost plant vigor and reduce bare ground flammability, and zoning for asset protection with non-combustible materials and defensible spaces. Drawing from Melliodora's survival of multiple fires, he demonstrates retrofitting suburbs and rural properties with passive defenses integrated into abundance-generating systems. The talk emphasizes observing local patterns—wind, topography, vegetation—to design from patterns to details, using edges for diversity, and small/slow solutions like progressive mulching over mechanical clearing. Practical details cover retrofitting homes with ember-proofing, community-scale fire planning via permaculture social strategies, and post-fire regeneration using pioneer species and soil food webs. Participants gain actionable insights for immediate application, such as mapping fire sectors, implementing keyline plowing for hydrology, and fostering mycorrhizal networks for drought-hardy plants. This expert session provides depth beyond general advice, offering field-tested protocols for regenerative fire management that align with permaculture ethics, enabling stewards to cultivate landscapes that thrive under uncertainty.