Design 21: Social Design Network

From a family background of farming and forestry near Woodstock, Vermont, Gerry went on to obtain a forestry degree from the University of Maine in 1971 then served as a forester in the Peace Corps, provided forestry, environmental and appropriate technology consulting in Africa, Asia and North America for USAID, The World Bank, The Food and Agrculture Organization of the U.N., the U.S. Dept. of Energy and many private clients while establishing a home, family and businesses in Woodstock, Vermont.

Gerry and his wife Karen, designed and built a cozy log home from dying spruce trees that they cut on their land. With a composting toilet that Gerry designed, passive solar, and wood stoves fueled by firewood from low quality and overcrowded trees, the home has low environmental impact and fits with and enhances the land.

Gerry’s goals are to protect and improve the health and sustainability of forests through improved methods and technologies that reduce adverse environmental impacts and foster positive impact management. As part of this effort, Gerry has been awarded 5 U.S patents and has more pending for a variety of environmental products.

You can see why he is deeply concerned by air pollution impacts on trees and forests by going to http://www.eco-systems.org/airpollutionanddyingforests.htm.

If you go to www.rutlandindustries.com you will see some of the bicycle parking and security systems he has developed to encourage more people to bike rather than drive cars.

At www.forest-savers.com you will find the system Gerry designed to control invasive species, reduce wildfire hazard, construct trails and restore overgrown fields with less environmental damage than conventional methods.

At http://www.forest-savers.com/ModularPathandTrailSurface.htm you can see a modular path system designed to provide high quality, rapidly installed surfaces ideal for pedestrians, wheelchair users and cyclists. This path system has evolved into rapid deployment tent flooring systems which can be seen at www.biketrack.com .

To meet the need for rugged, versatile hand tools that can be used for post disaster clean up and reconstruction, Gerry is designing wheeled hand tool systems with quick change attachments to efficiently undertake a wide variety of tasks. If you go to www.WheeledHandToolSystems.com you can see what has been developed so far.