Dan Dorsey
Straw bale design Before and after - Returning damaged land back into multi-use landscape
CONTACT DAN AT (520) 624-8030 dorsey@dakotacom.net 
I offer consultation services on Permaculture landscape design, water harvesting, straw bale and natural building design (along with complete to code blueprints), natural building, passive solar design, and general site assessment. I also offer workshops on many ‘Green’ topics through the Sonoran Permaculture Guild, Prescott College, and Pima Community College - and on request from nonprofits, neighborhood associations, and other groups and organizations in the Southwest.
- Permaculture - I manage the Sonoran Permaculture Guild certificate course held each Spring and teach about half of the course content.
- Water harvesting
- Straw-bale House Design and Construction
- Desert Gardening
- Natural Building Materials
- Passive Solar Design
- Site assessment
- Edible plants in the Sonoran Desert
- Many other topics on ”going green” and building sustainablity into your life
My home base is Mesquite Tree (pictures at the bottom of this page) - a thirteen year old Permaculture site on one fifth acre - located one and a half miles north of downtown Tucson. This site features Permaculture design, along with water harvesting, kitchen gardens, grey-water recycling, passive solar design, mature edible landscaping, and an outdoor ramada classroom. The home and office is powered by solar panels on the roof. Mesquite Tree is one of the Sonoran Permaculture Guild’s main classroom teaching sites and the location of its strawbale office in Tucson.
A Cross-Section of Typical Projects I have worked on the last sixteen years…
- Mesquite Tree Permaculture Site: This urban site 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 techniques for sustainable living in the desert Southwest.
- Freedom Park in Tucson, AZ: Working with Tucson Parks and Recreation, as well as volunteers from Tucson Clean and Beautiful, I 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 with mulch a seed mixture of native plant species. What was once a bare site is today a thriving plant community of native trees and bushes.
- The Old Community Food Bank in Tucson: As featured in the Permaculture Drylands Journal, I designed a way to rip up the asphalt of the parking lot along contour lines. Water harvesting swales were constructed along the contours, and trees were planted in the swales. After only one year the trees were thriving, supported by runoff from the parking lot. These trees shaded the parking lots and the west side of the building within three years.
- 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 poor barrio outside Ciudad Obregon in 1994 and 1995.
- 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. I obtained the permits and built the first straw bale home to code in Pima County in 1992. Many of my homes have included whole site 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.
- Black Mesa Permaculture Project: I worked and taught Permaculture on the Navajo (Dineh) Reservation for four summers in the 1990s. Using a series of gabions and swales as water harvesting structures, I helped the native Dineh people restore an entire watershed on what was once a severely eroded site.
- I am on the adjunct faculty of Pima Community College, teaching green construction and straw bale house construction. I am also on the adjunct faculty of Prescott College, teaching and mentoring on a variety of green topics from Permaculture to passive solar design, water harvesting, and green business design.
A cross-section of articles about Dan:
- The 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.
- 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.
- Received a grant from the Arizona Department of Water Resources to develop low cost water cisterns, The Arizona Daily Star, August 17th, 1995.
- Featured as one of the founders of Tucson Traders, a successful alternative money system in Tucson - The Arizona Daily Star, July 8th, 1999.
- Mesquite Tree Permaculture Site is profiled in Tucson Green Magazine - April 2008 issue.
- Interviewed on the topic of Permaculture for the Genesis Network, a nationwide network of 150 radio stations in May 2008 by Sheri Frey on ’The Easy Organic Gardener Show.
- Mesquite Tree Permaculture Site and Dan featured on YouTube at
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lDmhavqFj3Q
The First three images below show Mesquite Tree site when purchased in the Spring of 1994. The next images show the site after a Permaculture design was installed - and 14 years of evolution later.
