Instructors and Affiliates

Mark DuPont Founder of Klamath Knot Permaculture, has 25 years of experience in Permaculture as a farmer, nurseryman, instructor, consultant and organic inspector in California and Latin America. He is a founding Board member of the Mid Klamath Watershed Council and Director of the Community Foodsheds Program, and has worked on every level from small garden to large farm, village to watershed. He has grafted over 10,000 fruit trees and milked several thousand gallons of goat's milk. Together with Blythe Reis he is owner of Sandy Bar Ranch.

Blythe Reis has had her hands in the dirt for over 20 years, designing, planting and tending the Permaculture homestead at Sandy Bar Ranch. She loves working with plants, has a dried flower business, and makes lots of cheese from her goats' bounty. She is passionate about promoting in others a deep connection with our planet. She is a co-founder and President of the Mid Klamath Watershed Council. 

Andrea Lanctot holds a degree in Environmental Science/ Appropriate Technology and Community Organizing and Permaculture Design Certificate. She is a past Co-director and Project Manager for the Campus Center for Appropriate Technology (CCAT). She has spent years honing her Permaculture skills and building community through a variety of internships and workshops and as an active member in the Humboldt Permaculture Guild. Her passion lies in natural building and anything that allows for her hands or feet to be in contact with the earth.

Dan Equinoss is a Certified Permaculture Designer and owner of High Tide Permaculture, a full service, insured Permaculture design company with over ten years of experience in Humboldt County. He works with the Laurel Tree Charter School as a Sustainability Coordinator and organizes workshops for the Beneficial Living Center in Arcata.

Frank Kanawha Lake, PhD, is a Research Ecologist focusing on Traditional Ecological Knowledge, including enthno-botany and eco-cultural resource management practices. He cultivates a deep and passionate knowledge of his native Klamath watershed and Karuk culture, and has worked extensively as an ethno-ecologist and socio-cultural consultant.

Levon Durr, Fungaia Farm has been involved in Permaculture since 1996 as an instructor and practitioner, sharing his skills in wild food harvesting and processing, organic gardening, and seed saving. After training under Paul Stamets of Fungi Perfecti in Mushroom Cultivation and Mycorestoration Levon founded Fungaia Farm, which develops innovative mycotechnology solutions to restoration, education and Permaculture systems.

Lonny Grafman is an Instructor of Environmental Resources Engineering and Appropriate Technology at Humboldt State University; the Advisor for the Campus Center for Appropriate Technology; the Executive Editor of the International Journal for Service Learning in Engineering; and the Founder and President of the Appropedia Foundation, sharing knowledge to build rich, sustainable lives. Lonny has worked on hundreds of domestic and international projects across a broad spectrum of sustainability - from solar power to earthen construction, from micro-hydro power to rainwater catchment. 

Brock Dolman has taught over 50 Permaculture Design Courses and is a founding member of the Occidental Arts and Ecology Center OAEC), as well as director of  the  WATER Institute (www.oaecwater.org) and  OAEC's  Permaculture Design Program.   Living up to his specialized generalist nature, and rekindling the dwindling art of the peripatetic natural historian, his experience ranges from the study of wildlife biology, native California botany and watershed ecology, to the practice of habitat restoration, education about regenerative human settlement design, ethno-ecology, and ecological literacy activism towards societal transformation.

Penny Livingston-Stark is internationally recognized as a prominent Permaculture teacher, designer and speaker.  She has worked professionally in the land management, regenerative design and Permaculture development field for 25 years and has extensive experience in all phases of ecologically sound design and construction as well as the use of natural non-toxic building materials.  She specializes in site planning and the design of resource-rich landscapes integrating rainwater collection, edible and medicinal planting, spring development, pond and water systems, habitat development and   watershed restoration for homes, co-housing communities, businesses and diverse yield perennial farms.  

Michael G. Smith helped found the Cob Cottage Company in 1993 and the Natural Builders Colloquium in 1994. Since then he has taught hundreds of hands-on Natural Building workshops in the US and abroad. He is the author-or co-author of four books, including The Art of Natural Building and The Hand-Sculpted House.