A Tibetan Buddhist ranch in Hot Springs, Montana, is undoubtedly obscure. Not surprisingly, each employee has a unique story of finding their way to Namchak. Charlie’s journey from the University of Massachusetts to the Namchak Retreat Ranch is auspiciously inspiring.
The Journey to Namchak
As part of the permaculture program at UMass, Charlie was encouraged to seek opportunities outside the University system. Subsequently, he studied natural resource use and conservation at the School for Field Studies in the Paro Valley in Bhutan. He studied the intersection of subsistence farming, community forestry, and national policy, and emphasized social and cultural factors in a rapidly modernizing country. Much of his research relied on understanding the cultural history of Bhutan and Buddhist relationships with the natural world. While Charlie does not consider himself strictly Buddhist, the connection between Buddhist principles and his work resonated with him.
“Everything is interconnected and weaving itself together in a really, really nice way. And the Buddhist principles help form a strong culture of making sure you care for yourself and the nature around you in a way that is supportive and generative, not destructive and conflictive. It’s a really nice break from a lot of agriculture. And just a lot of Western society in general. So that basis was like, oh, this is interesting.”
While looking for a summer gig, he made a common mistake. “I forgot to select my location preferences on one of the websites I looked through.” However, after reading the job description, he realized that the work at the Namchak permaculture site was exactly what he was looking for.
“I was like, wait, this fully aligns with everything I studied, am interested in, and want to do. As soon as I talked to Rick (Namchak’s Permaculture Program Manager) on the phone, I was like, wow, this is really, really interesting.”
The opportunity was too serendipitous to pass up. Having never heard of Namchak or even visited this part of the West, Charlie found his way to a place that already felt remarkably familiar, echoing his work in Bhutan.
Today, as a seasonal permaculture worker at the Namchak Retreat Ranch, Charlie applies his practices while earning credits for his Bachelor’s degree.
What is Permaculture?
The most basic way to describe permaculture is permanent agriculture. Instead of typical monoculture-style practices of growing swaths of one variety of fruit or vegetable, spraying with pesticides, and harvesting, permaculture mimics natural ecosystems to form a food-producing system. Modeled after a forest ecosystem, permaculture has various layers that nurture and depend on one another as a closed-loop system. Permaculture follows a guild planting system, meaning plants that have beneficial relationships with each other are planted close together to support each other to achieve a truly sustainable farming system.
Charlie’s role encompasses everything from disease and pest management to fence construction to animal rearing. His experience in permaculture and agroecology makes him perfectly suited for the position, and his passion for implementing sustainable, resilient food systems and community-based management practices is evident when you ask him about his work.
Before his job search, Charlie was already seeking answers to questions that weigh on many of us, like, “How do I respond to these huge international, environmental, social, and economic crises? All of these omnipresent issues weigh heavily, especially on my generation.”
Charlie’s answer was “to simply look around.”
“It’s creating relocalized food systems, producing as much as you can with the means that you have, and forming meaningful and strong connections among the people who support you. Pretty much just control what you can in your little bubble and give people the tools to do that in their little bubbles, and over time, that populates out, and people are more and more resilient.”
The Namchak permaculture site allows Charlie to put his practices to work. As permaculture is a relatively new site, Charlie and his coworkers are not simply planting and harvesting (though there’s plenty of that), they are implementing strategies to help the site develop into a robust, self-regulating system. Compared to his previous experience, this site requires more management and nurturing, as many of the crops—some 50- to 60-year-old producers—are still young and vulnerable, and the unique landscape.
“It feels like oasis gardening here.”
And he’s not wrong. The Namchak permaculture site is a verdant sanctuary tucked into a hillside of the parched Flathead Valley. The region’s intermountain prairies—as well as the drastically shorter growing season—proved to be a bit of a shakeup for Charlie, as his previous real world experiences included working on a farm in a lush Virginian floodplain. He says the conditions there were “perfect,” with their five-person crew producing nearly 1,500 lbs of tomatoes weekly for market sale.
So, how does that compare to farming in Western Montana?
“It’s targeted management; everything is closer and tighter.” The variation in the landscape amplifies the emphasis on growing within microclimates like the Namchak permaculture site and increasing crop diversity. But ultimately, he finds the differences negligible. “It’s like, you give them water, you tend to them, weed ’em. They’ve got fundamental needs. They want to grow, so they’ll grow.”
Looking Ahead
Charlie is nearly finished with his Bachelor’s Degree with Individual Concentration, and his experience at the Namchak Retreat Ranch will provide the last of his requisite credits. This winter, Charlie will graduate with a concentration that is uniquely all his own: “Radical Survival.” Charlie describes Radical Survival as an “anthropological approach to understanding the social, political, and economic factors that inform forest and food system management practices.”
His degree incorporates multiple disciplines: anthropology, political science, resource conservation, animal science, forestry, and agriculture. His unique approach to his work has afforded him some remarkable opportunities, like forming care-based relationships with horses for use in equine-assisted therapy and hosting environmental education workshops at farmers’ markets. And now, it’s led him to Namchak.
Charlie’s season at the permaculture site ends in the fall, just around Thanksgiving. While he came into the work with his understanding of agroecology and intertwining Buddhist principles, he’s taking valuable lessons with him when his season comes to a close. “It’s nice to see and be surrounded by (Buddhist principles) because you can learn so much and just… You never know the depth until you actually dive in.”
The state of the world is often disheartening, but Charlie’s journey reminds us that we can make a difference if we “simply look around.” With a virtuous intention, every step on the path reveals opportunities to benefit the world.
What’s your next step?
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