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Rene Michalak 's Profile
Rene Michalak
Details
Joined:
24/02/2012
Last Updated:
08/12/2014
Location:
Red Deer, Alberta, Canada
Climate Zone:
Cold Temperate
Gender:
Male
Web site:
www.urbanpermaculture.ca





My Projects

(projects i'm involved in)


Projects

(projects i'm following)

WeTheTrees Crowd Funding Platform Central Rocky Mountain Permaculture Institute The Transformation of Our Urban Home Wildwood Community Permacultured Gardens Freezer Burn Compost toilet project The AREA Ermineskin Cree Nation Permaculture Garden & Food Forest Jasper Place (High School) Permaculture ACIL Experimentation Site Zaytuna Farm, The home of the permaculture Research Institute   Milkwood
Followers
Alla Guelber Corey Schmidt Doris, Sze-chit Cheung Dylan Kirk Eva Mader Gemma Hurst Grazyna Zoltkowski James Reid Jamie Wallace Jay Cuthbertson Kathy Parsons Kenton Zerbin Michael T. V. Hunton Rick Hatch Rylan Zimny Salah Hammad Sara Zweig Starr Brainard Steve Schultz Travis Schreiber
Following
Adam Grubb Alexia Martinez Barb Hazenveld Ben Falk Brad Lancaster Chris Evans Dan Harris-Pascal Daniel Halsey Darren J.  Doherty David Cody Doug Weatherbee Evan Young Geoff Lawton Jerome Osentowski Jesse Lemieux Kathy Parsons Kevin Bayuk Kirsten Bradley Michael Victoria Moore Nick Huggins Nick Ritar Paul Taylor Rhamis Kent Rob Avis Robin Clayfield Robyn Francis Ron Berezan Sabina Arokiam Starr Brainard Stephen Couling Travis Schreiber Trev Bamford X X
View Updates

About Rene Michalak

As Project Lead for ReThink Red Deer and past Education Chair of the American Rainwater Catchment Systems Association (ARCSA), I've helped bring resilient community planning to the forefront of public dialogue in Central Alberta. I'm currently studying renewable energy system design and installation, biomimicry, and resilience theory; exploring urban ecological systems to understand the foundations of community sustainability. I'm a Renewable Energy Electrician (Red and Blue Seal certifying), Marketing graduate of the Haskayne School of Business (UofC) and Red Deer's Leadership Centre, a Permaculture Educator (since 2016) and practicing Designer (since 2009), certified Transition Towns trainer (since 2010), accredited Rainwater Harvesting System Installer (since 2012), and aspiring SPIN-Farmer.

I came to be interested in permaculture after learning about sustainability and resilience - pouring over hundreds of books and videos, attending conferences, workshops and seminars. I ran into an up-and-coming permaculture trainer and then quickly registered for the first PDC in Alberta back in 2009. I came home overflowing with enthusiasm and got to work on my 2-year practicum; hosting a major regional conference on sustainability presented from a food, fuel and finance lens, and then set up an urban homestead complete with a rainwater harvesting system, hoophouse, annual garden and perennial food forest.

My time pracitising permaculture is spent developing the Centre for Urban Agriculture in Alberta and an urban homestead demo site - planting and cultivating a food forest garden, developing a rainwater-fed aeroponic and an aquaponic growing system (www.foodgarage.ca) for four-season growing in Canada's unforgiving but beautiful northern climate, helping build community gardens throughout my home town of Red Deer, and increasing participation in the provincial Growing Food Security in Alberta Network (www.foodsecurityalberta.org) to develop and apply a framework in rural communities for Sustainable, Equitable, Local and Regenerative Systems for food (SELRS).

Updates

#H2Whoah - Arizona Rainwater Harvesting Tour

June 29, 2015 - Aside from the inherent challenges of water management in desert drylands, Arizona's water situation is even more dire than that of California.

Posted over 9 years ago (2 comments)

Rainwater Harvesting System Inventory

The CANARM Prairie Chapter 2014 Fall Training Tour, led by Rene Michalak, turned out to be a valuable research and development exercise. Numerous commercial and residential rainwater harvesting systems were inventoried and promoted to increase awareness o

Posted almost 10 years ago (0 comments)
My Badges
Consultant Aid worker Pdc teacher
My Permaculture Qualifications
Verified
Verge Permaculture PDC
Type: Permaculture Design Certificate (PDC) course
Verifying teacher: Jesse Lemieux
Other Teachers: Rob Avis, Barb Hazenveld, Ron Berezan
Location: Gull Lake, AB
Date: Aug 2009
Other course unverified
SPIN-Farming
Type: Gardening
Teacher: Curtis Stone
Location: Red Deer, AB
Date: Feb 2012
Other course unverified
Level One Beekeeping
Type: Other
Verifying teacher: Patty Milligan
Other Teachers: Eliese Watson
Location: Calgary, AB
Date: Jun 2010
Other course verified
Transition Towns - Train the Trainer
Type: Teacher Training
Verifying teacher: Naresh Giangrande
Other Teachers: Sophy Banks, Michelle Colussi, Lena Soots
Location: Stratford, ON
Date: Aug 2010
Other course unverified
Art of Hosting
Type: Teacher Training
Verifying teacher: Tenneson Woolf
Other Teachers: Chris Corrigan, Teresa Posakony
Location: Lumsden, SK
Date: Sep 2011
Other course unverified
IAP2 Certification (Facilitation)
Type: Teacher Training
Verifying teacher: Jan Bloomfield
Other Teachers: Gale Simpson, Gay Robinson
Location: Edmonton, AB
Date: Jan 2011
Other course verified
The Four Seasons Garden
Type: Gardening
Verifying teacher: Jerome Osentowksi
Other Teachers: Rob Avis
Location: Calgary, AB
Date: Jun 2012
Other course verified
Permaculture Project Establishment Course - Permaculture Aid in Action
Type: Aid Worker
Teacher: Geoff Lawton
Location: Zaytuna Farm, The Channon, NSW
Date: Sep 2012
Other course verified
Four Days of Dirty Tricks and Secrets
Type: Soil Biology/Compost
Teacher: Doug Weatherbee
Location: Calgary, AB
Date: Sep 2011
Other course unverified
Permaculture Teacher Training
Type: Teacher Training
Teacher: Michael Becker
Location: Calgary, Alberta
Date: Jun 2013
Other course unverified
NOA Fisheries Aquaponics
Type: Other
Verifying teacher: R. Charlie Shultz
Other Teachers: Dr. Nick Savidov, Dr. James Tidwell
Location: Edmonton, Alberta
Date: Nov 2013
Other course unverified
Rainwater Harvesting Certification (CANARM)
Type: Other
Teacher: Ken Nentwig
Location: Surrey, British Columbia
Date: Jan 2013
0 PDC Graduates (list)
0 PRI PDC Graduates (list)
0 Other Course Graduates (list)
have acknowledged being taught by Rene Michalak
0 have not yet been verified (list)
Climate Zones
Rene Michalak has permaculture experience in:
Cold Temperate
Cool Temperate
Warm Temperate

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