What is the scale of permanence?
- Seeds of Substance
- Land Use , Permaculture , Whole Systems Design
Created by P.A. Yeomans, an Australian engineer and farmer, the Scale of Permanence is commonly used in permaculture design to help us assess the whole system we are designing within. It is a simple tool that guides us in the otherwise complex decision-making required to create resilient and sustainable systems. We look at things we can’t control and consider how that will inform decisions on things we can control. Since we can’t control things like climate efficiently, we must acknowledge our climate and design accordingly by developing systems that thrive in our climate instead of wasting energy trying to work against it or change it.
When designing as part of a whole system, we should consider and understand that we are part of a series of ever-larger—more permanent and less controllable—systems. For example, Ocean Hour Farm is a peri-urban farm in Newport, Rhode Island; while we have 12 land units that make up our farm, they are all governed by the fact that we live in a temperate oceanic climate on an island surrounded by saltwater. Suppose we want to change our landscape. In that case, it will be easier if the desired changes are at the bottom of the scale of permanence, like aesthetics or stewardship, and significantly harder or impossible if they are at the top, like climate or landform.
The Scale of Permanence is not a hierarchy of importance or value; all aspects are essential in a system, but some are more easily changed. Illustration credit: Holly Fisher, Spence; Original Concept: P.A. Yeomans; Concept Adaptations: Sara Wuerstle
One example of how we design with the Scale of Permanence is to look at mangoes. The delicious, nutritious tropical fruit is impossible to grow here due to our climate (top of the scale!), as the tree requires temperatures between 65 and 90 degrees. So they get shipped. Since most mangoes consumed in the United States are grown in Sinaloa, Mexico, we can estimate this beloved fruit travels 2,500 miles to get into a Rhode Island grocery store. But what if we could grow a similar fruit? The common pawpaw is indigenous to North America and similar to mango in taste and texture! It naturally grows as far north as Pennsylvania and is likely adaptable to our region. As we fill out our food forest, pawpaws are on the list of fruit trees to trial in our climate.
The land we manage is nested inside the Earth’s operating system of weather, hydrology and geology, which are nested inside the solar system that provides us with permanent patterns of day and night, seasons and tides.