Dan Dorsey
CONTACT DAN AT (520) 624-8030 dorsey@dakotacom.net
I offer consultation to individual homeowners and businesses and teach workshops through the Sonoran Permaculture Guild, Prescott College, and Pima Community College – and for nonprofits, neighborhood associations, and other groups and organizations throughout the Southwest. I am on the adjunct faculty of Pima Community College, teaching green construction and straw bale house construction; and the adjunct faculty of Prescott College, teaching classes and mentoring on topics such as Permaculture, passive solar design, water harvesting, and sustainable site planning and design. I manage the Sonoran Permaculture Guild certificate course held each Spring and teach over half of the course content.
Photo courtesy of jamesmpatrick.com
I do consultation, classes, and design in
- Permaculture
- Water harvesting
- Straw-bale housing
- Natural building
- Passive solar
- Sustainable site assessment and planning
- Edible plants of the Sonoran Desert
- Sustainable community development and planning
Here is a Cross-Section of projects I have completed; references are available upon request…
1. Mesquite Tree Permaculture Site: This one fifth acre urban site, located one and a half miles north of downtown Tucson, was completely devoid of any vegetation thirteen years ago. Today, however, it is an integrated and thriving community of edible plants and structures that demonstrate strategies for sustainable living in our Southwest desert. The home and office are powered by solar panels. Mesquite Tree is one of the Sonoran Permaculture Guild’s main classrooms teaching sites – and the location of its strawbale office in the City of Tucson.
Before Pictures - Mesquite Tree when purchased in 1994
After Pictures- Mesquite Tree with Permaculture Design - 1994-present
2. Freedom Park in Tucson, AZ: Working with Tucson Parks and Recreation Deptartment, as well as volunteers from Tucson Clean and Beautiful and the adjacent Myers Neighborhood Association, we re-vegetated a bare and compacted five acres along the eastern edge of this City park by cutting large swales with heavy machinery and raking in a seed mixture of native plant species. What was once a bare site is today a thriving plant community of native trees and shrubs – supported entirely on harvested rainwater.
Above: Freedom Park before pictures and cutting water harvesting swales
Two pictures of Neighborhood residents putting native seeds in swales
Freedom Park at year one (first picture) through year eight – and now a thriving urban forest of native trees, shrubs, and wildlife supported by water harvesting
3. The Old Community Food Bank in Tucson: As featured in the Permaculture Drylands Journal, we ripped up the asphalt of the parking lot along contour lines. Water harvesting swales were constructed along the contours, and native trees were planted in the swales. After only one year the trees were thriving, supported only by runoff from the parking lot and roof of the warehouse. These trees shaded the parking lots and the west side of the building within three years. Trees were also planted in basins next to the building to intercept roof runoff.
Above: First picture – parking lot before. Second picture – parking lot with planted swale and realigned parking spaces. The speed bump is placed slightly off countour to divert water from parking lot into swale.
Above: First picture -year three - trees in parking lot swales and second and third pictures - trees in basins next to building – water is supplied by roof runoff.
4. Fundecai, the Mexico office of Save the Children: I consulted with Fundecai to design and build a prototype straw-bale home and Permaculture site in a barrio outside Ciudad Obregon in 1994.
Pictures showing the Fundecai Woman’s Building group – building the first straw bale house in Ciudad Obregon
5. Tuancualpican, a small village near the city of Puebla, Mexico: I consulted on the design and building of a strawbale office for Heifer International out of locally available materials. Labor was provided by local workers and a visiting Methodist Church group from Kansas.
Pictures showing the building the first straw bale office in Central Mexixo out of indigineous and local materials.
6. Design of energy efficient homes: I have designed and drawn blueprints for over 65 homes (single family residences) and auxillary structures ( home 
offices and studios), using a variety of natural and green building materials – often times I use straw bales for the walls. I obtained the permits and built the first straw bale home to code in Pima County in 1992. Many of the homes I have designed have included design for Permaculture landscaping also. I emphasize passive solar design, energy efficiency, and simple design features to create homes that are low energy use yet also beautiful and functional. I know the building codes and have years of hands on experience with design, natural building, and construction.
7. Black Mesa Permaculture Project: I worked and taught Permaculture at Black Mesa on the Navajo (Dineh) Reservation for four summers in the 1990s. Using a series of gabions and swales as water harvesting structures and working with the native Dineh people, we restored an entire watershed on what was once severely eroded land. Old springs began flowing again and native trees and shrubs were reestablished.
Pictures showing the building of gabions with native Dineh and visitor volunteers on Black Mesa
8. Tucson Mountains Permaculture Site: I worked and taught on this two acre site for 10 years, implementing water harvesing swales and basins, experimenting with runoff dryland gardening, and restoring the land to a lush oasis.
Pictures of Before and After – Turning damaged land back into lush native landscape through water harvesting – west side of the Tucson Mountains
Press, Radio, and TV about Dan
1. My first permitted straw-bale house in Pima County is featured in the New York Times Dec 12th, 1991 on the front of the Living Arts Section. Second picture is building a curved straw bale wall in Tucson. Picture courtesty of Watershed Management.
2. I’m picked by the Tucson Weekly as one of seven “Local Heroes” for 2007 in the December 20-26th, 2007 issue for making Tucson a better place 
through teaching and implementing Permaculture throughout the City and the Southwest.
3. I received a grant from the Arizona Department of Water Resources to develop low cost water cisterns, The Arizona Daily Star, August 17th, 1995.
4. I’m featured as one of the founders of Tucson Traders, a successful alternative money system in Tucson – The Arizona Daily Star, July 8th, 1999.
5. Mesquite Tree Permaculture Site is profiled in Tucson Green Magazine - April 2008 issue.
6. I’m interviewed on the topic of Permaculture for the Genesis Network in May 2008 by Sheri Frey on ’The Easy Organic Gardener Show.
7. I’m featured on YouTube in two short segments at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VDRpyN9XgGE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lDmhavqFj3Q
or go to http://www.youtube.com and type in the search window Becoming Sustaianble 101
8. Dan and the Sonoran Permaculture Guild are featured on KUAT Public TV at
Http://ondemand.azpm.org/videoshorts/watch/2009/9/28/kuat-permaculture/