The Permaculture Research Institute of Australia

Stephanie Ladwig-Cooper is co-owner with her husband of Gaia Creations -Ecological Landscaping and Permaculture Solutions. For the last 11 years Stephanie and her husband, Brian, have provided ecological land care solutions for residential and commercial properties in the Northern Sacramento Valley.

Stephanie first learned about permaculture around 1999 when reading about urban homesteading. In 2007 permaculture finally made its way to N. California when Stephanie met Cathe' Fish of Nevada City, CA, a 25 year permaculture veteran. Together (Cathe' teaching and Stephanie marketing the classes) they began providing Intro to Practical Permaculture workshops for people and properties all over Northern California, introducing many communities to the concepts of permaculture.

Stephanie received her permaculture design certificate from Cathe' Fish and Neil Bertrando in Nevada City, CA in March of 2009. Soon after Stephanie helped 2 other local permaculturists form the Chico Permaculture Guild in Chico, CA. This small non-profit continues today and has been successful providing meetings and workshops for the community. Currently Stephanie provides consulting services as well as professional permaculture design packages for urban and rural properties.

Stephanie and her husband are looking to settle down on a small farm with their 2 young boys in the next few years. Their eldest son took his PDC this year, he is 10 years old. The family is currently undertaking a unique permaculture project while living on the project site (on a temporary basis). The task at hand will be to design and implement a resource efficient and abundant oasis on 1/10 of an acre. The goal of the project is to set up the land so that future tenants renting this property will be able to provide some income for themselves by growing food or building products the local community needs.