Very, very Northern California Land Share available for permies friends only.

20 acres mountaintop, good water, Klamath River/Trinity convergence country.  We do wildlife rehab, orphaned and injured, and will use a couple acres for this purpose eventually, but we don't need all of it.  What we need are good people around, just doing their own thing, no hard rules, except you must love animals, especially bears, whom you can live alongside easily, we can teach you.  They're just part of the resident community.  Lots of trees that need thinning, probably a woodworkers delight, great diversity.  A large old terraced garden area with a pond that needs reclaiming.  Ye ole Himalayan introduced blackberry is our enemy, even though delicious on pancakes, we can grow something better and less invasive.  I'm thinking sheep may be our answer.  Any willing shepherds about, I'll be happy to invest in guardian animals and much more, if you are willing to dedicate yourself to both land and animals.  Make a clean and peaceful life privately for yourself if you want.  Just no trash accumulation.  Tiny houses, big backyards, and all logical permaculture tenets apply as the only rules and that's it.  Off Grid.  Land Share/Intentional Community, whatever you want to call it  The land itself is to be left In Trust for anyone who helps.  We are all volunteers here.  We are the stewards.

Wow. This needs bumping, what an awesome idea!!
Bump Bump

Great project! I am down near the 101-199 jct, and work on the College of the Redwoods food forest project in Crescent City. We have a site up in Weitchpec that I have never been to yet.

On the blackberry front, I have used a lot of it as fence material to make a natural barbed fence that will hurt like crazy if an intruder tries it but not kill my great pyrenees if he tears through it protecting his flock.  This has gotten me to the point where I am starting to worry I might not have enough blackberries until I get my wild and thornless going better.

Sepp Holzer swears by pigs for bramble removal.

Bill Mollison describes in a video on youtube about the old english method to grow a fruit tree amidst them and then run pigs or cattle through once they are big enough to fruit heavily and survive the large animals (7-10yrs). The trees rush to get above the brambles with a long straight trunk and then send out horizontal branches right above them. The tree ends up with perfect broad branching right above your head.

That's so funny, Ben.  That's exactly how I've been trying to handle these damned Himalayan Blackberries.  Including planting my fruit trees among them.  Gotta have some alternative food resource for our resident bears.   And those native blackberries sure do grow slow.

Hey Desyrae, I sent you a PM. I am very interested in this position. Hope its still available. :)

Hello Desyrae

I'm a natural farmer in the strict sense, meaning no-till etc.

I'm in Mendocino county at the moment, and have been looking for,a land partner interested in a cropsharing arrangement or something like that.

I'm familiar with the area up there and it certainly is bear country. When I lived on the Klamath river I had a bear that would bring trash nags,from other people's houses up to my place,and tear them open,in my yard. Every morning I was picking up diapers and whatever else was in there.

as soon as the sun would go down I could scan the perimeter of my yard with a flash light and I'd see his eyes shine in the light. Once he was hiding behind a shed, peaking around then ducking back when he saw,me just like a person might. It was a lot of trouble but pretty funny too.

Beautiful country up there, epic wilderness and very fertile.

I for one love blackberries. As a kid growing up in the redwoods I literally grew up on them, and hold them dearly my heart. Me and,my siblings would pick them and our mom would,make yummy BlackBerry pies. They're a great renewable resource as far as having a constant supply of organic matter.

I've always worked with or around them. They make good compost and great FPJ not to mention they harbor N fixing and P solubilizing
microbes.

But I have thought of away to get rid of them and other invasive species like scotch broom or pompous grass and that is to drench the soil with a solution that is e i their extremely alkaline or extremely acidic.

We have a pygmy forest here in Mendo county which has the most acidic soil on the planet.Its a flat that is 14 miles,long and 4 miles wide that is hard clay under soil that has a pH as low as 2.5; black berries don't grow there, that's what gave me the idea.

I came to the conclusion that alkaline would be the way to go like using calcium hydroxide (gardeners lye) to bring the pHone of the water up to 11. First knock them back with a weed eater than drench the area, repeat a couple of time until everything dies back, then treat the area with microbes to balance the pH and make it usable, cover it with card board nd a layer of soil and plant something quick.

At any rate in a couple of weeks I'll be meeting with some people and checking out some potential farm sites.

A couple here in Mendo a couple in Lake county, and one place that is also in Willow creek.

I'd be very interested in meeting with you to check things out and to discuss the possibility of farming there.

Let me know if you'd be interested

That’s very interesting to her about n fixing around blackberries. I had noticed in a lot of pulling myself that they leave behind much better soil. I always figured it was all the birds eating the berries and the protection from trampling.

We would love to see you, Adam, when you come up this way.  Give a call or send a text when you can.  Dez  530-623-0376   Myriah, you too, come for a visit.  We are narrowing down the right people this summer to complete a longterm staff on hand for the animals, and the gardens, and the building, etc.  But it has to suit you first, so come and see if this is where you'd like to live.  And also Hello again, Ben!  Cheers everyone.

I look forward to speaking with you Desyrae

English, I think those are factors too, they create a nice environment under the brambles that conditions soil to a desirable state . Inside a thick brambles the local soil food web is in prime state.

to be clear the N fixation in brambles is asymbiotic, not symbiotic like with legumes.

Asmbiotic fixers are free living organisms not in an intimate association with roots. They occur in certain conditions, fix N into bacterial biomass. When these bacteria are the living foundation of every forest and the precise reason a forest grows century after century without needing fertilization even though a soil test would show no surplus of N detected.

Certain other soil organisms devour the bacteria and excrete the N into forms plants can uptake.

As a natural farmer providing these bacteria a habitat is what I shoot for, and black berry leaf litter from a nice lush brambles is a good source for them.

Also you can make FFJ from the fruit when it is ripe and black, or a higher Phos FFJ when the fruit is purple.

A good FPJ can be made from the fresh spring shoots and starts. Also from the plant shoots that grow in dark places like when they bust into sheds, or go under houses and decks etc. places out of direct sunlight, or in darkness; that growth makes good FPJ

Then in the fall well after they have fruited, they grow through another reproductive stage where the tips of the canes put out roots and go through something like a bolting stage to try to plant the rooted tips. They put out runners Basicly and that's one of the ways the brambles seem to grow so fast.

At any rate those rooted tips are loaded with growth hormones that make an excellent FPJ.

Adam, great info. I though I was a compost tea wonk but I had to look up what FFJ and FPJ are (fermented fruit/plant juice respectively to those who may also be wondering).

Do we know of anything like this in Southern California? I've followed the cutator of the Kauai food forest fot a while. I live in the Suburbs of North County San Diego at my parent's house. I yern for a piece of dirt on which to practice organic, natural farming. If anyone has any specific information please don't hesitate to let me know.

This sounds amazing! I have always wanted to become a wildlife rehabber (to specifically work with bears) and just moved to California from the East coast. I am currently looking for some land to steward. I would love to discuss this project with you! I can be reached at 727-534-8330.

greetings,
my name is Havana. i wanted to know if you were open to communicating via email???
I love to explore in the garden, learning about mushroom cultivation has been a alternative healing outlet for me. I have been sharing the gift of abundance an within my community in northern California from my garden. i am expanding my bridge building projects.
if your offer is still on the table, i'd like to add my own personal intensive Mycelium education cultivation projects sustainably.

contact me when you have a moment @ havana25coleman@gmail.com

Hello Lina and Havana, I missed your posts earlier and look forward to connecting with you.  For everyone else, if you come upon this thread, we are still looking for a couple of good residents and especially in need of carpentry skills.

Greetings would love to come up an visit. let me know when you are welcoming visitors, to come up contribute to care taking of the animals an garden, can we come up for 5 days?

Not much to see at this time, Havana, it remains mostly wilderness and the sole domain of the resident wildlife. Of the many people who have expressed interest in joining this project, none so far currently have the correct sort of vehicle to climb the rather short stretch of road to get up the mountain, which is really interesting to me.  When I tell people they need a 4WD, it's as if they don't want to hear that, don't believe me, or seem to otherwise think it's just not important.  
Keeps down traffic though.  
Bears don't mind climbing.  They like it.  
As to the caretaking of animals, so far as our patients, even at our main clinic this is not something we invite people to just come in and do on a visiting basis.  We have many volunteers but they are each trained and commit to a certain amount of time.  Even then it is always important to limit our overall time and contact with the animals either being raised or in some form of recovery, as much as that is possible, reducing their stress and keeping the wild things wild.  
I would encourage you to search out the nearest wildlife rehab facility in your area if you have the time to volunteer, they most certainly always need help.  Cheers!

So I guess no valid driver's license would be a problem. Sounds great though and I rambled through California for a few years in the 80s. I have also worked in a rescue rehab release program for the Florida state parks, not to mention my raising of Squirrel Haggard!. It is good to know that there are people like you out there doing what you are doing and even if it would work out, I think my cat would eat the bear. I hope you guys get the kind of people that you are looking for.
Cheers!
Terry

Squirrel Haggard, that's funny, Terry.  I started out with squirrels as a young kid after a hurricane.  Pockets full of squirrels, no other way to keep them warm.

This is exactly what my family and I are about to sell everything to go do. My husband is a carpenter/contractor and we love animals more than people so this sounds like our dream come true. We have not only a 4x4 truck and suv, but a 4x4 quad. Would be eternally in your debt for just a tiny piece that we could use. We all work very very hard and are very close. We’re capable of basically anything!  Have researched the area for over a year. I found a number here and texted it, sorry if it’s old but please reach out and let me know if you still need help. I’m in tears reading this. ❤️

Is this still an active offer?

Iam in the bayarea currently and have been searching for such a life style. My version wasnt community rich though. I much more prefer this. How does one apply or learn more? Website by any chance?

I am also in the Bay Area and interested!

Are you still looking for volunteers?

Me and my partner are definitely interested in invest our current into a situation like this. Who do we contact?

Wow I have to think sometimes that my phone can read my mind as I've been considering a huge change in my life ive lived in this city on the east coast for going on 2 yeats now and im ready to leave it all behind and go off grid. And what does my phone do but lead me right to this blog for some reason i definatly believe the universe works in mysterious ways. Im really interested in this idea and have been
Thinking alot about going back to the west coast. Im a carpenter and have all my own tools if you are still looking for people to join you on this please feel free to email me at tyrellscott50@gmail.com

I realize this post was years ago but in case you still check here and this opportunity still exists i'm very interested!  

Goats are what you want for blackberries, it’s their favorite. Sheep are grazers.

 This sounds PERFECT for my child and I...but we do not have a 4WD :(  

Are you still pulling together a team? I'm a 49 year old ex-professor/visual artist with a passion for animals and wild land. I bring expert communication, design, problem solving skills. I am comfortable in nature and inherently motivated. In shape, creative as hell, and crave to learn. Honourable motives. My one question involves my dog. She's a sweet little ranch dog who goes with me everywhere. Probably a tasty morsel for a bear if I'm not schooled in how to manage her in this environment. Thoughts?

Erin

Black bears are not much of a risk to dogs unless the dog is dumb enough to corner one, but rattlesnakes, cougars and coyotes and if it’s a really small dog raptors are a real consideration. I have two large dogs, and do not worry about anything hurting them but cars and guns.