Permibus shows locals the perks of going green

Photo by Jill Russell

FREE RANGE. Delyla Wilson holds one of three chickens traveling with the Permibus.

The Skills for a New Millennium Tour brings the best of sustainability to cities around the country. The tour, which is featured aboard the Permibus, a renovated, ecologically friendly traveling school bus, made a stop at Kings Books in Tacoma on June 24.

Delyla Wilson, program coordinator for the Skills Tour, has been an activist and organizer for more than 20 years. Her goal is to provide communities with skills to support social change activism, ecological awareness, and economically sustainable patterns of living. With help from her husband Stan (who is also known as poet, ‘Dogman’), daughter, Megan and intern Lorca Blanco, the tour travels almost year round.

Wilson said the tour officially began in December 2008, but the first bus broke down and had to be completely replaced. The group was able to raise enough money to buy a second bus, and has been on the road ever since. On an average year, the Wilsons’ give about 1,000 permaculture demonstrations.

The group’s home base and garage is in Montana, but their message has been spread as far south as Georgia and as far east as Maine. The tour is especially diligent to stop in big urban centers, like inner city Philadelphia, which Wilson described as one of the most interesting places they have visited.

“Most of the white people in the community were the urban farmers, but when the people saw the chickens out front, all gaps were bridged. It really brought everyone together,” said Wilson.

The group also prides itself on teaching non-violent demonstration techniques, empowering the masses to demand accountability from corporations and their government.

“People can grow all the food they want, but if a company builds a smelter down the street, then the food’s not going to be very organic,” explained Wilson.   

With more than 40 years of social activism among them, the Wilsons’ try to teach by example. At the 2008 Republican National Convention in Saint Paul, Minn., the Permibus was impounded and police threatened to confiscate the animals aboard. But, Wilson said supporters far and wide demanded the bus be released and all charges dropped. Police eventually agreed.

“It was truly people power,” she said.

Since then, life on the Permibus has mellowed out a bit. The crew understands that changing the way the world thinks about environmentalism does not happen overnight, but they remain committed to showing how it can be done on a small scale. The bus is powered with bio-diesel, supplied by companies like Earthwise Essentials in Snohomish. Wilson said recently the company has begun experimenting with Montana scratch grass, an invasive species, as a new form of bio-diesel.

Everything inside the bus’s cabin is reused and recycled. Curtain rods are made from old tent poles and the curtains hanging from them are made from a salvaged blanket a friend bought 30 years ago in Guatemala. A wood stove, used for heating and cooking, rests upon clay tiles saved from a swimming pool built in 1896, located in Maine. Wilson said the wood floor was made from a hodge-podge of odds and ends, donated by a flooring company. Even the crew’s laptops and lights are run on electricity derived from solar power.

“Permaculture is just a long word for pack rat,” joked Stan Wilson.

Community members who stopped by to visit were intrigued to learn that the bus also yielded a hydroponic garden to grow herbs and small vegetables. Tacoma resident Susan Dean said the tour is wonderful because it makes sustainability look so easy. Ana Sierra accompanied Dean on a tour of the bus. She said it was interesting to learn how the crew reused everyday items.

“They just thought of everything. It’s better than a $50,000 RV,” said Sierra.

She is also a member of a local holistic mothers networking group and was impressed by the Wilsons’ daughter, Megan, and her knowledge of eco-friendly issues.

“It’s nice to see a young person so excited and knowledgeable about sustainability,” said Sierra. “I know she could probably go out, get another bus, and start the same thing if she had to.”

As the sun began to set and the crowds began to dwindle, the Wilsons hope to have somehow left their green mark in the minds of Tacoma residents.

“We want to just spark the imagination,” said Wilson.  “It’s essential to change the way we live and to reduce our footprint.”

For more information on the Skills for a New Millennium Tour, visit http://www.permibus.org.

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