True Nature - Sustainable Farm & Education Center
Eden Gal
Executive Director, Founder
Eden grew up in a small intentional community (Kibbutz) in the Israeli desert. From a young age he was wandering the wilderness, farming, and participating in communal living.
After four years as a pre-school teacher and a counselor for troubled youth, Eden went on to deepening his studies in nature awareness, Permaculture and native survival skills in the United States, spending time at the Tracker School, Wilderness Awareness School, and various Permaculture Organic farms.
Eden also spent several years traveling worldwide, learning traditional living skills from indigenous cultures in Central America, Asia, India and New-Zealand, seeking to understand the relationship between social and inner sustainability, between ancient and modern lifestyles, the natural world and the wild-within.
In 2010 Eden co-founded True Nature Farm with the intention of creating a learning-circle and community for exploring the deeper aspects of sustainability, weaving together nature awareness, viable living skills and personal sustainability.
To view programs taught by Eden, go to the Sustainable Living Apprenticeship page.
Kirsten Rechnitz
Wilderness Survival & Traditional Living Skills Instructor
Kirsten is a veteran of the wild. For the past ten years, she has led outdoor trips and explored ecosystems in over 30 different countries.
Her work began at Vanderbilt University, where she led trips through the Smoky Mountains while a student of political science and anthropology.
Her academic and outdoors work led her to study the people and cultures throughout the world who use natural materials to sustain their lives.
Kirsten believes the best way to study a people is through hands on experience of living the way they do. Her specialization in desert survival and the traditional living skills of Native Americans has included a month long solo expedition in the desert, where she sustained herself with friction fire, spear fishing, trapping, wild edibles, hunting and natural debris shelters. She has continued to develop her skills in teaching as primitive lifestyles have become not only a lifelong passion but a preferred way of living.
To view courses taught by Kirsten, go to the Wilderness Courses page.
Lauren Proctor
Sustainable Living Apprenticeship Director, Garden Manager & Herbalist
Lauren graduated in 2009 from Humboldt State University in beautiful northern California with a BA in Interdisciplinary Studies with a concentration in Globalization.
After graduation she has continued her personal education in many different fields. Following her passion for Permaculture, she completed the Permaculture Design Course at Lost Valley Education Center, as well as a Farmstead technology course at Aprovecho Sustainability Education Center, where she acquired additional life skills such as welding, distillation and blacksmithing.
Her love of the Earth and living close to the Land led to a Sustainable Living Apprenticeship at True Nature Farm in beautiful Boulder, Utah and an Herbalism internship at the HerbPharm in Williams, Oregon. In addition, Lauren is a certified Yoga teacher, and continues to practice daily.
And in the midst of it all Lauren has still found the time to pursue her never ending passion of world travel, spending time in over 35 different countries, learning from a multitude of varied cultures and traditions along the way and shaping the person she is today.
To view courses taught by Lauren, go to the Sustainable Living Apprenticeship page.
Grace Totherow
Instructor - Wisdom of the Wild Woman
Grace received her BA in Dance at Hollins University in 2001. For 15 years she has immersed herself in the performing arts - writing, movement, theater, and music. She has offered writing
workshops to teens and children through Literature Alive and California Poets in the Schools, facilitated poetry classes at New Folsom Prison, toured the Pacific Northwest with her music, and produced and directed collaborative works of dance theater in rural Utah. Grace recently created her first one-woman show, "Star and Stone."
Nature and sustainable living inspire Grace's work, and she loves the farm life - tending the garden, milking goats, making sauerkraut, building soil. She is currently exploring the art of felting wool and integrating it into her passion for designing and sewing clothes. Always ready to learn and create, Grace seeks to nourish her art with a lifestyle that honors and celebrates the cycles of nature.
Matt Graham
Matt was a climber and began studying primitive skills at age 17 in Yosemite Valley. At 20 he was doing search and rescue as a tracker in Sequoia while running and learning to travel the backcountry with no food or gear. Not owning a car, he travelled all over California and parts of Arizona on foot. At 23, he ran the length of California on the Pacific Crest Trail (1750 miles) in 58 days, a record at the time.
Matt moved to Boulder at age 24 and started guiding and teaching at Boulder Outdoor Survival School, teaching all the hunter-gatherer courses. Primitive hunting and living off the land became his passion. Three years ago, he walked off into the wilderness on the Winter Solstice and returned on the Summer Solstice. Living with the land for 6 months, Matt has been on many primitive walks and led about 50 hunter-gatherer courses ranging 4 to 33 days.
Matt has been a consultant for "Survivor Man" and many other TV productions, was featured in "Wilderness Way" Magazine, "Trail Runner" Magazine, and is a leader in his field.
To view courses taught by Matt, go to the Wilderness Courses page.
Eli Karetny
Secretary of the Board
Eli is a lecturer in international relations and political theory at Baruch College in New York City, a research fellow and program administrator at the Ralph Bunche Institute for International Studies and a PhD candidate at the CUNY Graduate Center. Eli also has a Master's degree in International Relations from New York University, and a JD/MBA in International Law. He has also taught various courses in social and political science at schools in Eastern Europe.
Eli is involved in exploring how True Nature's commitment to Sustainable Abundance can strengthen international efforts at meeting the United Nations Millennium Development Goals for sustainable development. His current research project explores the founding of the United Nations and the possibility of collaboration between local, self-governing communities and global institutions.
Eli lives in Beacon, NY with his wife and daughter and in his spare time cultivates a back-yard permaculture garden and explores the beautiful wilderness of the Hudson Highlands.
Kelly Magleby
Primitive Pottery Instructor
Kelly's love of Anasazi pottery started with her interest in primitive and survival skills
while working for Anasazi Therapeutic Expeditions in Arizona. Kelly has spent much of her time camping and hiking throughout southern Utah and in the Four Corners area.
Following her passion for the both the Anasazi culture and primitive pottery, Kelly began making hand-built pots on her own while learning techniques from traditional pottery teachers and visits to museums. It wasn't long before she was out digging and processing clay and firing pots, always trying to keep true to the original process and materials used by the Anasazi.
Kelly loves to read the stories in the old pottery shards found throughout the Southwest... the thickness of the pottery walls, the type of temper used, and the size of the vessel all tell a tale of where and when they were made and the advanced civilization that had the skill and knowledge to create something so beautiful and unique. She loves the idea that one can go out and dig up some "dirt", shape it, paint it and fire it all using only things found in nature.
Kelly now teaches traditional pottery classes at primitive skills gatherings and workshops in Utah as well as local private classes. She currently lives in Orem, Utah. Her work can be found online at: www.AnasaziPottery.net
To learn about workshops taught by Kelly, go to the Primitive Pottery Workshop page.
Matthew Cochran
Council Facilitator & Dreamwork Guide
Matt has followed land all his life, a conscious wanderer in community with place he has studied both Geology (BA) and Mapping. After traveling much of the Inner West he continued studies in Eco-psychology (MA) deepening his understanding of the relationship between people, the places they live in and how we live in them. This navigation between inner and outer geography is the heart of his work. Matthew is a geo-poetic writer, teaches dream-work, practices and implements Permaculture design (Sonoran Permaculture Guild) being especially interested in patterning.
Matt has experienced, apprenticed, and guided Rites of Passage and Vision Quests. He is also active in community holding Men's Councils, sharing and practicing martial arts such as Ninjutsu and Tai Chi, and tends to the surrounding wildlands through ecological protection and restoration.
Matthew is a stand for each person to live their unique truth and believes personal sustainability is the beginning of true resilience in a changing world. He lives in in Boulder, in alliance with a remarkable place and community finding vitality and contentment by adapting in accord with nature as best he can.
To view courses taught by Matthew, go to the Dream-Tracking page.
Constance Lynn
Gardening & Medicinal Plants Instructor
Constance is a dedicated organic farmer, gardener, and seed saver trained in dryland permaculture principles (Sonoran Permaculture Guild) and native ways. She has a variety of unique and embodied skills that help navigate us toward personal, community and ecological sustainability.
When it comes to food, the whole relationship starting from seed germination, harvesting, cooking and eating becomes a sacred practice. She is also a teacher and student of wild and organic medicinal herbs, handcrafting salves, lotions, and tinctures. Constance is a certified yoga instructor and therapeutic yoga practitioner working with Rites of Passage, meditation, Reiki and other energetic practices.
In the community she is active holding Women's Councils, initiating community, while also dedicated to the protection of surrounding wildlands and tending to the Other-than-human community.
To view courses taught by Constance, go to the Medicinal Herbs Workshop page.
Scott Brodie
Natural Building Expert
Scott has been a full-time resident of boulder since 1999, living in an off-grid homestead he built out of recycled and natural materials.
He is an active advocate of town-wide sustainability. As part of his involvement with transitioning Boulder into a more resilient community, Scott co-founded and built the Red House Farm – a community-based small organic farm.
He also serves as Boulder representative of Scenic Byway 12 Committee and the Boulder Community Alliance Advisory Committee.
Scott holds a BSBA Degree from West Virginia University. He is the creator of the Boulder Toolshare Program (a community tool "library") and the Boulder Community Freebox. Scott is a self-certified Master Scavenger.
To find out more about Scott's projects, visit the Red House Farm.
Jeff Sanders
Animal Processing Workshop - Lead Instructor
Jeff followed the path well traveled from High School, garnering a Bachelor of
Arts degree, a Masters of Business Administration degree and a Law degree. Soon after
entering the "real world" he heard the path less traveled calling. In the midst of changing
paths he found his true passion, teaching about nature through survival skills, as well as primitive and low technology living skills. In 1999, the path led him to one of the premier survival schools in the country. He studied the survival arts as a student and then progressed through the instructor ranks. He soon became the Field Director, which gave him responsibility for the operations of the school. He never lost the passion for teaching and continued to develop lessons and curriculum. Eventually, his path led him to the position of Program Director through which he created additional programs for staff development and course development.
Jeff's trail went full circle in 2010, leaving the duties of the Program Director and returning to the field to once again follow his passion of leading students through transformational experiences in nature. He is working on several books focusing on the concept of "Living as Nature." He has designed, and teaches, a collection of animal processing workshops that are intended to show students that all parts of the animal are usable as well as how to do so.
Jeff lives a rural lifestyle with his wife and daughter in Boulder, Utah. It is here that they enjoy learning through nature in the mountains of their back yard and the desert of their front yard.
Warren Brush
Lead Instructor - Permaculture Design Certification Course
Warren is a certified Permaculture designer and teacher as well as a mentor and storyteller. He has worked for over 25 years in inspiring people of all ages to discover, nurture and express their inherent gifts while living in a sustainable manner. He is co-founder of Quail Springs Learning Oasis & Permaculture Farm, Sustainable Vocations, Wilderness Youth Project, Trees for Children and his Permaculture design company, True Nature Design. He works extensively in Permaculture education and sustainable systems design in North America and in Africa as well as in other countries worldwide. He has devoted many years to mentoring youth to inspire and equip them to live in a sustainable manner with integrity and a hopeful outlook. His mentoring includes working with those who are former child soldiers, orphans, youth from troubled families and situations as well as those youth from other varied and privileged backgrounds. He teaches courses including: Permaculture Design Certification, Rainwater Harvesting Systems, Ferro-Cement Tank Building, Compost Toilet Systems, Greywater Solutions, Water for Every Farm, Drought Proofing, Cultural Mentoring, Introduction to Permaculture Systems, Corporation Sole Formation, Food Forestry, and origins skills among other offerings. Learn more about Warren and his work at: www.permaculturedesign.us
To view courses taught by Warren, go to the Permaculture Design Certification Course page.
Owen Hablutzel
Owen Hablutzel is a certified Permaculture Designer and Registered PDC educator through the Permaculture Research Institute. Owen is also a Certified Educator with Holistic Management® International. He has been working as a consultant, educator, and group-facilitator throughout the western U.S. and also internationally - from North Africa to the Middle-East, Australia, Canada, and Mexico—since 2007.
With a focus on broad-acre and regional systems he enjoys integrating Permaculture with Keyline® Design, Holistic Management, and Resilience Science for a range of clientele. Whether engaging with farms, ranches, classrooms, non-profits, NGOs, government agencies/ministries, or other land managing entities, the core work and passion remains empowering people and communities to create robust land health, adaptive capacity, and resilience through stewardship. At Geoff Lawton's invitation Owen has been a director of the Permaculture Research Institute, USA since 2008. To learn more about Owen visit his profile at PermacultureGlobal.com.
To view courses taught by Owen, go to the Permaculture Design Certification Course page.
Cathe' Fish
Cathe' Fish is the founder and manager of the Practical Permaculture Research Institute (www.practicalpermaculture.com). She has been active as a Permaculture consultant and Permaculture teacher since she was certified in 1987. She has designed 40 acre farms to small suburban plots. She has owned two 40 acre Permaculture farms.
Cathe' has been a Master Gardener since 1988, through the Land Grant University system. In 2010, she earned her Sustainable Landscape Expert certification.
Until 1999, she lived for 25 years in the high desert of Arizona where she created a Permaculture homestead and food forest. She was the gardening editor for the Bisbee Observer for three years. She was the founder and original editor of the Drylands Permaculture newsletter in 1987 with Bill Steen, which later became the Permaculture Drylands Journal.
Cathe' loves Permaculture, especially food forests, particularly rare fruit trees, and she has planted 1000's of trees. She was the previous director of Cochise County Global ReLeaf. She is a member of the California Native Plant Society, NAFEX North American Fruit Explorers, California Rare Fruit Growers and the Local Food Coalition. Cathe' currently owns and operates a 5-acre Permaculture farm and demonstration site in northern California, where she lives and teaches practical Permaculture.
To view courses taught by Cathe', go to the Permaculture Design Certification Course page.
Brad Lancaster
Speaker - Integrated Local Harvests: Simple and Effective Ways to Enhance the Abundance of Your Home, Community, and the Larger World
Brad Lancaster is a dynamic teacher, consultant, and designer of regenerative systems that sustainably enhance local resources and our global potential. He is also the author of the award-winning, best-selling book series Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands and Beyond; the information-packed website www.HarvestingRainwater.com; and the 'Drops in a Bucket' Blog.
Brad has taught throughout North America as well as in the Middle East, Asia, and Australia. His hometown projects have included working with the City of Tucson and other municipalities to legalize, incentivize, and provide guidance on water-harvesting systems, demonstration sites, and policy. He has likewise collaborated with state agencies to promote practices that transform local "wastes" into enhanced soil fertility. Brad's aim is always to boost communities' true health and wealth by using simple overlapping strategies to augment the region's hydrology, ecosystems, economies, local food and renewable power production, citizens' capabilities and cooperation, joy, and beauty.
Brad lives his talk on an oasis-like demonstration site he created and continually improves with his brother and neighbors in downtown Tucson, Arizona. On this eighth of an acre and surrounding public right-of-way, they harvest 100,000 gallons of rainwater a year where less than 12 inches fall from the sky. In addition, the site's sun-, wind-, and shade-harvesting systems power both Brad's and his brother's homes, and help power those of their neighbors. Brad is motivated in his work by the tens of thousands of people he has helped inspire to do likewise, go further, and continue our collective evolution.
To read more about Brad's talk, go to the Integrated Local Harvests page.
Speaker - Making Money with Sustainable Farming
Paul is one of the country's leading authorities on sustainable farming & Permaculture.
As a certified master gardener and a permaculture designer, Paul has written numerous articles (www.RichSoil.com) and founded the permaculture forums (www.Permies.com), which have since become the largest sustainable living & Permaculture website on the internet, offering how-to videos, discussion forums and pdcasts.
Paul dedicates all his time to expanding the network of sustainability & Permaculture around the world, and to sharing his vision of transitioning our ways of thinking and operating into viable models of sustainability.
Paul is an inspiring, though-provoking and knowledgeable speaker. To read more about Paul's work, visit the article in the Missoula Independent or go to his permaculture website: www.Permies.com
To read more about Paul's talk go to: Making Money with Sustainable Farming
Nate Downey
Lead Instructor - Rainwater Harvesting Workshop
Nate Downey is the author of the new and highly acclaimed book, Harvest the Rain: How to Enrich Your Life by Seeing Every Storm as a Resource. For a dozen years, Nate has written a popular monthly column called "Permaculture in Practice" for The Santa Fe New Mexican's award-winning 'Real Estate Guide.'
A frequent guest on public radio and a perennial presenter at green events, Nate is a seasoned teacher, speaker, writer, and businessman. He began teaching permaculture design certification courses with the Permaculture Drylands Institute in 1995, and over the years he has taught many workshops through various institutions including UNM, the Santa Fe Community College, SEED Institute, and EcoVersity.
Nate has been an active member of the International Erosion Control Association, chairman of the board of the Permaculture Credit Union and a long-time member of the board of Camino de Paz School and Farm. He is also a licensed irrigator and drainage-control specialist. Soon after graduating from St. John's College in 1991, he started Santa Fe Permaculture, Inc., with his wife Melissa McDonald. Since then, their beautiful, functional, and ecological projects have popped up regularly in prominent publications from Su Casa to Sunset. With their boys, Liam and Keenan, Nate and Melissa share a backyard brimming with bees, bunnies, chickens, all sorts of edible plants, lots of harvested rain, a greywater recycling system, and a nice little patio for building community.
To learn more about Nate Downey's work, visit www.harvesttherain.com
To view courses taught by Nate, go to the Rainwater Harvesting Workshop page.
Bill Plotkin, Ph.D.
Guide - Underworld Journey Vision Quest
Bill is a depth psychologist, wilderness guide, and agent of cultural transformation. As founder of western Colorado's Animas Valley Institute in 1981, he has guided thousands of women and men through nature-based initiatory passages, including a contemporary, Western adaptation of the pan-cultural vision quest. Previously, he has been a research psychologist (studying non-ordinary states of consciousness), professor of psychology, psychotherapist, rock musician, and whitewater river guide.
In 1979, on a solo winter ascent of an Adirondack peak, Bill experienced a "call to adventure," leading him to abandon academia in search of his true calling. Bill is the author of Soulcraft: Crossing into the Mysteries of Nature and Psyche (an experiential guidebook) and Nature and the Human Soul: Cultivating Wholeness and Community in a Fragmented World (a nature-based stage model of human development through the entire lifespan). His doctorate is in psychology from the University of Colorado at Boulder.
To view courses taught by Bill, go to the Underworld Journey page.
Geneen Marie Haugen
Geneen is a writer, wilderness explorer and guide to the intertwined mysteries of nature and psyche. Her work appears in many anthologies, including American Nature Writing and Going Alone: Women's Adventures in the Wild.
Currently a PhD student in Philosophy, Cosmology and Consciousness at the California Institute of Integral Studies, she is committed to the world-shifting potential of the generative human imagination.
To view courses taught by Geneen, go to the Underworld Journey page.