Treetop Permaculture Ecosystem Restoration Community is a network of sites and projects nestled around the greater Lake Oroville area: from the valley in Oroville at 160ft elevation to the main site in Berry Creek, located high up in the Sierra Nevada Mountains at 4000ft. Like many parts of California, the ecosystems and cultures in this area have been historically degraded by it’s past colonization and continued unsustainable resource extraction. Excessive mining, logging, hunting, and agricultural practices have and continue to cause massive erosion and soil degradation, deforestation, extreme loss in plant and animal diversity and so much more. These conditions have led to local climatic shifts, from major flooding and erosion on one side of the scale and extreme drought and megafires on the other. Unfortunately this area has seen more than it’s share of devastating wildfires and so Treetop Permaculture’s biggest focus is “Fire Resilient Design and Restoration”. Their model is a community scale approach weaving together education, demonstration, and resource sharing. Treetop Permaculture has four main permaculture/restoration demonstration sites that represent common ecosystems and property types in the region. They have several models for the 3 most common land types in the area: from the typical small suburban lot you would find in the valley, to larger semi rural valley/foothill edge property, to the broad acre, extremely rural mountain-woodland-meets-alpine- forest. Treetop Permaculture also has an amazing Permaculture School Garden Program that they partner with to bring ecological stewardship, regenerative agriculture, healthy food, and regenerative career pathway opportunities to the next generation. Many of their sites has similar attributes, but the vision for their main site is to have year-round camping, workshops, retreats, and food and craft production where folks will be able to engage in classroom and hands on activities.

Impact story

Treetop Permaculture quite literally rose out of the ashes following the devastating “North Complex” wind-driven megafire of 2020- that burned roughly 129, 068 hectares – to help the communities of Berry Creek and Feather Falls in California with immediate, ongoing, and long term restoration of the ecosystem and livelihoods. The impact of their work has infiltrated deeply into the common knowledge and culture of the local community and the natural ecosystems. The toxic runoff mitigation initiative – and work with the local, state, and federal governments and other NGO’s – has helped change the public policy protocols on dealing with toxic runoff from fires. Their toxic runoff mitigation initiative was a first of its kind and the model being replicated across the country.