Out of all the design work I’ve done over the years, nothing has sharpened my thinking more than standing on a piece of land and realizing, very clearly, that if a fire comes through, everything about that place—every tree, every slope, every decision—will either help it survive or help it burn. The experience at Locke Mountain forced that into focus. Walking the property, feeling the dryness in the air, seeing how wind moved across the ridges and how vegetation stacked itself from ground to canopy, it became obvious that fire mitigation isn’t a checklist—it’s a design discipline. This course was built from that realization. It is meant to move beyond generic guidelines and into practical, field-based understanding—how to read a landscape, how to shape it, and how to make decisions that matter under real conditions. The goal is simple and direct: to give you the ability to assess risk with clarity, design with intention, and create properties that are not just more defensible, but more functional, productive, and resilient over time. 

An asynchronous (start anytime and proceed at your own pace) advanced course in permaculture, ecological design, and the United Designers International design process using Adobe Illustrator®. 

This course is self-paced. Plan on at least 6 weeks to complete, but you may extend use to 6 months. 

Please contact us with questions, submissions, or course issues at northamerica@uniteddesigners.org

Register as a user here and enrol on the United Designers website

An asynchronous (start anytime and proceed at your own pace) advanced course in permaculture, ecological design, and the United Designers International design process using Adobe Illustrator®. 

This course is self-paced. Plan on at least 6 weeks to complete, but you may extend use to 6 months. 

Please contact us with questions, submissions, or course issues at northamerica@uniteddesigners.org

Register as a user here and enrol on the United Designers website