About Us

Is a life-long student of plants and earth repair. His farming career started in 2nd grade and his organic farming career began in 1972 at age 25. Michael founded Friends of the Trees Society in 1978 and took his first permaculture design course in 1982. Since 1988 he has taught 36 permaculture design courses in the US and abroad. His specialties include earth repair, agriculture, seed collecting, nursery sales, tree planting, fruit picking, permaculture, agroforestry, forestry, ethnobotany, medicinal herb growing, hoeing and wildcrafting. He has hands-on experience with over 1000 species of plants. He is a prolific gathering organizer and likes group singing.

Anna has been working under Skeeters wing and with Friends of the Trees since Spring 2017.  She helps juggle many parts of the herb business, as well as behind the scenes for event organizing. She is passionate about wildcrafting, growing herbs and food, and exploring the backcountry. Thanks to her herbal mentors over the years, she's started a small wildcrafting business called
Ramble Botanicals.

In a nutshell.. She loves plants and puns. (Help! How did she get stuck in this nutshell?!)

Ashley Kehl was raised on a permaculture homestead, playing in the dirt and loving the wild around him. As luck would have it, he still enjoys these same things, spending much of his time on the farm or out wildcrafting. These past three years have seen him working to improve our systems on the farm and administration. His greatest joys include employing regenerative farming practices to grow ever healthier herbs, soils and sharing his knowledge with apprentices and in workshops. 

Jennimae has a deep love of plants and a fascination for the way they interact with humans. She brings 23 years of gardening and landscaping experience to the team, with a bit of kitchen witchery and a hand in event organizing. Jennimae delights in being of service to the web of life, helping to get plants into the hands of those who will appreciate and grow with them.

Roy joined our team in the summer of 2020. He has helped with many aspects, especially with processing many of our dried herbs by hand screening! A very tedious process and he rocks it. He is also a yoga teacher and massage therapist.

Mahala has been a great help over the years and always happy to jump in when we are short handed. Mahala’s passion for healing the Earth led her to the Perelandra methods of land healing and clearing, and she now has over 30 years of experience with this work. Her studies in Peruvian Shamanism and her dedication to the Goddess have also blended beautifully with the Perelandra work, and these three lineages give Mahala powerful and effective means of Earth Healing.