Resources and links for managing wholes

Information is not practice. In too many instances, service organizations, agencies, and institutions work against their stated purposes by fostering clienthood and dependency, and replacing community and individual capacity with professional expertise.

If you want to gain awareness, context, skills, and connection, we recommend these resources:

The Allan Savory Center for Holistic Management in Albuquerque publishes a bimonthly journal, Holistic Management in Practice, and other learning materials. It runs a listserv (email) discussion. To subscribe to the listserv, send a message to

general-subscribe@lists.holisticmanagement.org

Allan Savory's book Holistic Management: A New Framework for Decision Making is the classic in-depth reference on Savory's process for managing holistically. Holistic Management helps people make decisions that are simultaneously socially, economically, and environmentally sound. Buy on Amazon.com, Booksense.com, Half.com.

The Asset-Based Community Development Institute describes the basic concepts in John McKnight's book, Building Community from the Inside Out, about development from an asset base of gifts and passions rather than the usual social-service approach of addressing needs and deficiencies.

McKnight's work is also described in the 1996 book, The Careless Society: Community and Its Counterfeits. For other samples of McKnight's work, see Regenerating Community and The Politics of Health Care.

The Bud Williams Stockmanship School site contains information on the low-stress livestock methods of Bud and Eunice Williams, and a calendar of upcoming events.

The Center for Nonviolent Communication was founded by Marshall Rosenberg to support the teaching of a model of communication that empowers the compassionate side of human nature. Similar to the consensus-seeking approach taught by Bob Chadwick, but uses a different language, different words. We like Rosenberg's 1999 book Nonviolent Communication. Buy on Amazon, Booksense.com, Half.com.

Dick Diven's Low Cost Cow/Calf website features information on animal nutrition and feed costs that is economically, ecologically useful and can contribute to the rancher's quality of life.

Ecoforestry is an excellent Canadian journal of forestry that focuses on wholes as well as parts. "Ecoforestry is a long-term ecologically sustainable and economically sound alternative to current conventional forest management. It is predicated on maintaining the 'natural capital' of the forest ecosystem, while allowing a wide range of values and benefits to be derived from the 'interest' of the forest."

Ecoresults! features stories and examples of effective restoration of degraded landscapes. Great photos. A project ofDan Dagget, author of Beyond the Rangeland Conflict.

Thomas Elpel's Wildflowers and Weeds website features excellent articles about weeds, land management, and desertification. Great photos.

An Peischel of Goats Unlimited uses goats as a land-management tool in northern California.

Jeff Goebel's website, aboutlistening.com, has some good material on consensus-building and community development, and some stories about particular situations.

Elaine Ingham's Soil Food Web is a good resource for understanding the life of the soil.

The Nebraska Sustainable Agriculture Society publishes an excellent newsletter; there are some good stories in their Newsletter section.

Northland Sheep Dairy is Karl North's site with some outstanding papers on his farm in New York State and holistic decision making.

Pasturemanagement.com is Wayne Burleson's excellent website. Good stories and photos about people solving conflicts and managing wholes in Montana and elsewhere.

Holistic Solutions is Christopher Peck's website on holistic financial planning.

The Permaculture Activist, North America's journal of design and sustainable culture, is an inspiring and down-to-earth magazine.

The 6th PERMACULTURE CONVERGENCE in Australia in 1996 has some wonderful proceedings online.

The Quivira Coalition is a New Mexico nonprofit and educational organization that helps ranches become ecologically and economically sound. The newsletter archives contain many good articles on herding and land stewardship.

Dick Richardson, who teaches zoology and resource management at the University of Texas, has some information and examples of holistic decision making on his web site.

Jo Robinson's website Eat Wild contains information on the nutritional superiority of grassfed meat and milk, in particular the high levels of conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) and omega-3 fatty acids in grassfed products. See also the Weston A. Price website for research information on the history of human diets and nutrition. Sally Fallon's book Nourishing Traditions: The Cookbook that Challenges Politically Correct Nutrition and the Diet Dictocrats is in part based on Price's research.

San Diego Earth Times articles on/by Allan Savory.

Teaching a Caterpillar to Fly by Scott Simmerman: a delightful and humorous essay about change.

The Sirolli Institute teaches a radically different, responsive and person-centered development method to practitioners and communities. This is not economic development from the perspective of capitalist economics or chasing smokestacks, but as personal growth and self-actualization. Also see our Enterprise Facilitation page.

The Stockman Grass Farmer is Allan Nation's classic magazine about the change to grass farming. An outstanding publication.

Wilbur Wood's experiences with Holistic Management. A fine essay by a Montana poet and teacher.

YES! The Journal of Positive Futures -- another resource for and about people who are designing their own futures

Zendik Communal Arts is developing a real, fun, pragmatic way of living that creates a balance between humanity and our environment on a farm in North Carolina.

Updated 24 March 2003
URL: managingwholes.com/links.htm