Quail Springs

Building a living example of a better future.

Founded in 2004, Quail Springs is a leading educational non-profit that resides on a 450-acre permaculture demonstration site on the traditional homelands of the Chumash people in Cuyama Valley, California. 

Our mission is to empower students of all ages and backgrounds with knowledge, skills, and inspiration essential to cultivating ecological and social health in a rapidly changing world. Quail Springs teaches strategies and techniques instrumental for designing and building resilient, affordable, and carbon-neutral housing as well as ecologically sound and sovereign food systems. We are connected to an expansive local and international network of leading-edge practitioners. 

We envision an equitable global community that shares the bounty of this living planet and the responsibility to tend to its health. We believe the most effective way to foster positive change is through our relationships, both with one another and our ecologies.

The work we do at Quail Springs: 

We build fire-resistant and climate-appropriate earthen homes.

We protect and regenerate our local watershed.

We grow food and build healthy soil in the desert.

We love what we do and we share what we learn.

We collaborate with our local and international communities.

What we are committed to at Quail Springs:

Earthen Building Advocacy - education, activism, testing, informing + influencing building code

Water Advocacy - outreach, education, activism, advising policy, conservation work

Regenerative Agriculture - our regenerative onsite demonstration subsistence farm

Online Education - thoughtful guidance and strategies to support regenerative living

Local Outreach - youth programs and science education, community-building

Social Justice - non-hierarchical governance, collaboration, interdependence, accountability


Why we do the work we do: 

We are passionate about restoring our planet and we believe that these times offer us a call to action to live regeneratively – not just sustainably. As climate change and environmental conservation move to the forefront of the world’s consciousness, growing numbers of people are looking for ways that they can make a positive impact. Quail Springs is an important hub for people to share and discover ways of deepening their understanding of regenerative living. Our various offerings train individuals to be leaders in developing agro-ecosystems and communities that are culturally vibrant, socially just, ecologically equitable, and natural capital rich. Many of our course participants have realized that sustainability starts at home with the necessity of deepening their connection with their families, communities, and the land. We recognize and acknowledge the different paths each person takes toward living regeneratively. Quail Springs attracts people who choose to more deeply examine their role in the health of their communities and the planet. We receive overwhelming confirmation from participants that Quail Springs offers a transformative immersive experience.