HMI’s Getting Started Holistic Land Planning online course began in January 2015 with 21 participants from all around the world. The course was co-taught by Certified Educators Roland Kroos and Ann Adams. This course focused on the key holistic land planning design principles and practices to allow participants to more effectively manage all their resources. This simple approach to land planning helped the participants explore key infrastructure/land improvement projects in the context of their whole farm/ranch goal to better analyze design possibilities for improved return on investment. Participants developed management consideration lists, land plan options and explored tool options and the return on investment of the different land planning options using the Holistic Management decision making framework and considering how such options will affect land productivity. 70% of the participants are currently farming and were eager to explore numerous land planning principles and practices, giving feedback to each other through the discussion forum. Participants noted increased knowledge, behavior and confidence with the following topics:
How to prioritize land/infrastructure development/investments
Design strategies that can build resilient, diversified farms
How to assess management considerations to guide land planning
How to incorporate natural resources issues on your farm into land planning
How to incorporate social/legal/contractual considerations into land planning
How permaculture methods fit into Holistic Land Planning
The ability to prioritize land or infrastructure improvements on a farm/ranch
The ability to incorporate farm natural resources issues into land planning
The ability to incorporate social/legal considerations into land planning
