Ecology center couple working on dream

OTISFIELD – The origins of Moose Pond Arts and Ecology may lie in a college paper Scott Vlaun wrote when he was studying at the Portland School of Art in the early 1980s.

In the paper, he envisioned a communal living area where artists would share cooking, cleaning, and gardening chores so they could find time for their preferred tasks, like making art or even just relaxing together.

This youthful vision earned him an A. And eventually, it evolved into a home in this small town, and into a more carefully designed lifestyle. He and his wife, Zizi, now hope the life they have carved in this out-of-the-way patch of woods will become a model for sustainable living for a world they fear is rapidly becoming unsustainable.

“It’s not going to be an oil-driven economy,” Scott, 48, said, speaking about the future as he walked through the damp forest covering most of the center’s 74 acres, which includes shoreline along quiet Moose Pond sprouting lily pads. “We’ll have to be more locally based. You can look at it as a gift, as a way to get back to local, community-based living.”

He added, “It’s important that we start promoting opportunities for people about how to grow food and be more self-sufficient. Our grandparents knew how to do a lot of that stuff, but in between, that has been lost.”

On Sept. 11, one ambition of the Vlauns,’ to turn their property into an educational center for green building, organic gardening and other topics, will materialize. They are offering a two-week permaculture design certification course taught by a well-known figure in the field. It costs $900 and participants are invited to camp around the garden. Some scholarships are available.

Permaculture, first conceptualized by two Australians in the 1970s, refers to a holistic design system that promotes productive and sustainable human habitats, integrating the natural ecology with agricultural and social needs. Scott said permaculture designers create living systems that emulate natural systems; they are resilient, diverse and forge connections between people and their environment.

“Personally, through the design course, we will come up with a sustainable system for every aspect of our life: food, building, social, business,” Zizi, 38, said, sitting inside the small home she shares with Scott and their 3-month-old son, Jasper.

The permaculture course is part of a long-term plan the Vlauns have been working toward since they moved here seven years ago. Eventually, they would like to have an intentional community on their property based on a permaculture ethos.

When Scott was 22, around the time he wrote his paper, he bought a cheap lot by Moose Pond that on first glance appeared unpromising. It was a bedraggled piece of land that had been logged, leaving scars on trees and oil spills soaked into the ground.

But since then, Scott and Zizi have turned a portion of the land into a garden thick with vegetables and flowers, and have built a small house partially with the logs left behind by the clear-cutting. They have a new root cellar lined with stones dragged out of the forest by their draft horse. There is a greenhouse, chicken and turkey coops, and an open-air kitchen by the herb and salad garden.

With the infrastructure settling into place, the couple – who both have busy professional lives, Scott is a photographer and Zizi a graphic designer – are now looking to the next phase. In their vision of an intentional community, they would like to see several families living on the land, sharing communal property, contributing their skills to the small association, eating largely from the land, and perhaps driving shared vehicles.

The Vlauns also acknowledge the practical need for people to invest in land.

“We’d like to have people come, own property, and build equity,” Scott said.

He said by this winter he hopes to draw a draft of the future community, with outlines for small lots, to present to the town for permits. He and Zizi also will look into putting some of their land by the lake into conservation easements.

An intentional community, as the Vlauns describe it, counters some modern-day tenets.

“People will share resources, enjoy the lake,” Scott said. “And everyone will not be struggling for themselves. Less competition, more cooperation. That’s where it gets radical. Cooperation, that’s not the American way.”

He continued, “There is increasing interest in living more lightly on the planet, and slowing down. Part of what we do is slow down. Cutting wood seems like a sacrifice, but we see it as a much more beautiful way to live… I think for a lot people how to make simple things brings a peace of mind that is lost in our society. People have no control over their basic needs. They’re just working for money.”