Portland Staff

Tony has lived and studied skills and concepts of sustainability his entire life. Even as a teenager he cultivated a 3/4 acre market garden based on principles of permaculture design and the study of ecology through tracking. The extensive Italian family Tony grew up with was one of the greatest influences on his core philosophy of the value of community and family. His focus at the Evergreen State College was how humans connect to the land around them through participatory experiences. This, coupled with 16 years of extensive work and cutting edge development as a contractor and consultant in the field of environmental education, lead him to found TrackersNW and the Trackers Family of programs. Based on his work, research and experience in survival, bushcraft, traditional skills and tracking, Tony also taught extensively for the graduate sustainability program at Portland State University, including founding their Naturalist Training Program. He has facilitated wildlife tracking, outdoor entrepreneurial and adventure education workshops for the Forest Service, Audubon Society of Portland, countless parks and interpretation agencies, universities, colleges and much more. Currently, he is a lead facilitator for the TrackersTEAMS Immersion Program. Tony is also authoring a definitive guide and workbook on tracking and naturalist training with Michelle Keefer, set to publish in fall 2009.

Jason grew up in rural Maryland, spending most of his free time in the woods hunting and scouting on the same piece of land his family lived on for over two-hundred years. Together with his grandfather, father, uncle and cousin he helped hunt and forage for all of the family's meat. Bringing in around fifteen deer every year using bows and black powder rifles. Even though his extended family subsisted on at least two meals of meat per day, he had only eaten store bought or domesticated meat a handful of times before the age of eighteen. By the age of twelve he was already running a trap line and as a teen drove a pickup truck with a gun rack on his way to becoming a "hard working’ farm boy and all-around redneck". In his late teens Jason began to seriously consider a career as a wildlife illustrator but his paintings grew darker and more emotional as his passion to explore the world around him waxed. Jason attended the Pennsylvania College of Art & Design to gain new perspectives on art and culture. When this did not satiate his desire to truly learn, he hit the road, tramping around the country on foot and freight with no money and no destination. Stopping now and then in a friendly town scavenging both wild and recycled meals, he squatted local plots of land and wore a loincloth with leggings and a capote, attire in which he both slept and lived in lieu of a sleeping bag. On occasion Jason took respectable work in kitchens, intensively training at the de facto skin on frame boat building school, Spiritline/Skinboat School, and in leather craft shops. After spending several years training and then working with a high end boot maker, he began is own custom shoe making business called Laughingcrowe Leatherworks. Somewhere in there he had a beautiful baby girl and is the proud papa of the coolest young individual he has ever known. After years of wandering, Jason now calls Portland, Oregon his home. He is involved in a couple of musical projects, the foremost being A Minority of One. Jason is a lover of good home-cooked food and good friends to share it with. He is fascinated with and strives to "remember the way folks lived before this current age of convenience and forgetfulness, when we worshiped the wind and felt the spirit that moves in all things move though us".

Shaun was born and raised in Pennsylvania where he spent his youth playing in the fields and forests that surrounded his small neighborhood. There he roamed free and wild, getting dirty, building forts in the woods, climbing trees, catching salamanders, and fishing for bass. Shaun attended the Maryland Institute College of Art where he studied painting, drawing, sculpture and fiber arts. In addition, he spent a semester in Aix-en-Provence, France refining his skills with a small group of artists. Being a self-employed entrepreneur afforded him time to perfect his skills in ultra-light backpacking, bicycle touring and wilderness survival. Not only has he backpacked and cycled through much of the US and Oregon's varied terrain, self-training primitive and bushcraft skills, but he has done it with gear that he made with his sewing skills. His personal backpack, tent, sleeping bag, camp stove, water filter and clothing are all made from scratch with personally tanned hides, furs and recycled fabrics. Shaun has started many successful businesses including Deller Designs, which offers unique hats for cyclists from recycled wool and cotton garments. Shaun teaches workshops with TrackersNW in the study of bushcraft skills such as: wild edible and medicinal plants, hide tanning, shelter building, felting, dyeing, basketry, navigation, tracking and backcountry travel. He also spends his days working an urban trapping line in Portland, OR, removing invasive species such as nutria and serving them to guests of wild food potlucks of which he is host. His experience as an artist, small business owner and adventurer has made Shaun a key component of the TrackersNW experience. He is currently a lead instructor in the Trackers Teams 9 Month Immersion Program and the evening primitive skills workshops. Shaun has a blog that tells the story of his hat business and work with TrackersNW.

Melissa draws from an extensive background in self-employment and small business skills. Melissa has been teaching yoga for 5 years. She is a certified Hatha yoga and Kundalini yoga teacher, both at the 200 hour level. She has completed Integrative Yoga Therapy’s Professional Yoga Therapy Program at the 500 hour level, and is currently working to complete her 1000 hour certification in this discipline. Melissa has studied a variety of movement arts including somatics, yin yoga, restorative yoga, chair yoga, breathwalk, yoga for fibromyalgia, children’s yoga, and diverse styles of dance. She takes a special interest in the positive effects meditation can have on the mind and body. Melissa specializes in assisting individuals and groups to create movement programs that are responsive to their needs. In the past, she has worked with countless school groups, day cares, businesses, assisted living facilities, and continuing care communities. Melissa’s mother and grandmother have always told her “You can do anything you put your mind to”. This acknowledgement was always given as a gentle reminder of their faith in the human spirit, and never asserted any kind of pressure. She aspires to live and teach this philosophy in everything she does.

Molly has a passion for travel, foreign languages and culture, classical music, outdoors adventuring, and empowering people through self awareness and self defense. A native Oregonian, Molly received her Bachelors degree in German from Davidson College in North Carolina and spent a year in Germany, also traveling throughout much of Western Europe. She trains and teaches the martial arts, teaching kids and women about safety and strength. She is a self-defense instructor with our Women's programs and is a Trackers International safari representative to Botswana and beyond. Molly is also an avid cellist in the Central Oregon Symphony, snow boarder, fluent speaker of German, dabbler in languages such as Italian and Portuguese and lover of cats.

Taryn grew up playing in the mountains and rivers of the Northwest with her family. This passion for being outside led her to a study of ecology and environmental studies at Bowdoin College in Maine. She spent several years doing biological fieldwork in Western Oregon. This work deepened her connection with the natural landscape and revealed a particular affinity for the plant world. Over the last decade she has combined her interest in native plant communities with a study of sustainable agriculture and permaculture, gaining experience in organic farming and gardening, and earning an Associate Degree in Horticulture from Clackamas Community College. Taryn enjoys challenging herself to make her diet and lifestyle ever more bioregional and dedicates her time to exploring, wild crafting, gardening, and experimenting with projects relating to food preparation and household economy.

David enjoys eating good food and draws from his background in botany, wildlife ecology, and wilderness living skills in order to eat well on our programs. Combining urban, and wilderness foraging strategies he assists students in learning to create crawfish stew and wild crafted meads. David also graduated with a BS in Botany from the Evergreen State College. During his time as a "Greener" he took it upon himself to do extensive independent study contracts in pressure release study and other aspects of tracking and natural history.

One critical aspect of David's educational philosophy is his attentiveness to safety of students and the requirement that every lesson needs to functional. "I will never ask a student to do something that does not have a real purpose. We learn about tracking to actually find the animal, not simply as an academic study".

Emily hails from the Far East…Pennsylvania that is.

She grew up next to the Allegheny National Forest, exploring the ancestral hills and rock shelters of the Seneca people. At age sixteen she ran away in depths of the night…by canoe. Like the fabled Yamabushi (forest warrior monks) her passions include herbalism and healing touch.

She has a BS in environmental studies from the University of Pittsburgh, and is a certified Reiki II practitioner. Making a living as a botanist/model/ writer/educator, she keeps track of undertakings on her blog: Adventures in Feral Failure

June has been a naturalist in the Pacific Northwest for nearly 10 years.

She has explored tracking and wilderness crafts since 1998 and taught MESD Outdoor School for seven seasons. June has a Masters of Science in Educational Leadership at Portland State University’s Leadership in Ecology, Culture and Learning program.

Her rewilding with TrackersNW includes leading women and girls deeper into their relationships, hunting and gathering wild foods in urban and greener landscapes, storytelling and creating new ways to play, learn and give thanks every day.

From early childhood Miriam Burke has nurtured a lifelong passionate involvement in the natural world. After earning a B. S. in Botany and completing a four-year apprenticeship with local herbalists, she left Wyoming and came to Portland.

Since 2001 she has honed her skills as a naturalist and educator, connecting to the wild beauty of the Northwest and developing and teaching programs with various organizations including Portland Parks, Metro, and MESD Outdoor School. She recently spent a year in Java studying gamelan music and traditional dance. Miriam is a dedicated participant and facilitator in building community, creating art, making music, playing in the woods, telling stories, and myriad other celebrations of our world.

Michelle has been teaching outdoor education and recreation programs for youth, families and adults for over ten years. From a very early age she was drawn to the out of doors. Michelle's grandmother inspired her curiosity and captured her imagination by guiding her to trees with owls, searching for small animals and paying attention to the plants. Michelle holds a BA in Outdoor Recreation and an MS in Recreation Administration of Outdoor Programs. She worked all across the country, in such places as Shaver's Creek Environmental Center in Pennsylvania, the New Jersey Audubon Society, YMCA of Whatcom and Snohomish County, Cheney Parks and Recreation, Campfire Boys and Girls, Mile Hi Girl Scout Council, Kendall County Outdoor Education Center, McDowell Environmental Center, and Tillamook Forest Center. Michelle's passion is to provide a place for children and adults to feel safe as well as use their imaginations in the world around them. She is an ardent believer in humor, empathy and the power of play for all learning.