ECOLANDSCAPE 2012 - SPEAKER BIOS
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Paul Tukey "Reducing/Eliminating Harmful Inputs to the Landscape"
SafeLawns - for a healthier planet
www.safelawns.org
An international leader of the green movement, Paul Tukey, 50, is a journalist, author, filmmaker, TV host, activist and motivational public speaker, who is widely recognized as one of America's leading experts on landscape sustainability and toxic pesticide reduction strategies.
Winner of the prestigious Horticultural Communicator of the Year Award from the American Horticultural Society, Mr. Tukey makes upwards of 100-120 appearances a year across North America.
A former HGTV host, Tukey is lauded for his ability to turn a mundane subject — landscape care — into a rousing public discourse. He has been featured in thousands of media outlets from Good Morning America in the U.S., to the CBC in Canada, as well as National Geographic, Readers Digest and the New York Times, which called him "The godfather of the natural landscape movement."
His efforts to bringing the Canadian anti-pesticide movement to the United States were chronicled in the award-winning 2009 documentary film, A Chemical Reaction, which premiered at the prestigious World Film Festival and has since been shown in thousands of venues across North America. The essence of Mr. Tukey's award-winning presentations is to bring hands-on environmental stewardship into the minds of private homeowners, political and business leaders. His books include The Organic Lawn Care Manual (2007) and Toss, Kick & Run: 40 Classic Lawn Games (2012) both published by Storey/Workman.
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Jeff Lowenfels "We Must Sustain the Soil to Succeed"
Jeff Lowenfels is America's longest running garden columnist and author of Timber Press's award winning, "Teaming With Microbes: The Organic Gardener's Guide to The Soil Food Web.
A leading advocate of organics, Jeff is also an attorney and thus known as "America's Dirtiest Lawyer." His talks on the soil food web have converted hundreds of thousands of gardeners to gardening without chemicals.
Jeff is the former president of the Garden Writers of America and was made a GWA Fellow in 1999. In 2005, he was inducted into the GWA Hall of Fame, the highest honor a garden writer can achieve.
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Jim Borneman "How Sustainability Leads to Profitability"
Vice President of Education, Ewing Irrigation
www.ewing1.com
Jim Borneman has more than 35 years of experience in the Irrigation Industry, 30 of which have been spent training. Tens of thousands of landscape and irrigation professionals have attended his educational workshops.
He has worked for a variety of manufacturers and distributors, and is the former Director of Education for the Irrigation Association. Jim is a Texas Licensed Irrigator, and has held certifications as a Certified Landscape Irrigation Auditor (CLIA), Certified Irrigation Contractor (CIC) and Certified Irrigation Designer (CID) (steps 1 - 4). Based out of Fremont, California, Jim holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in business management from Saint Mary’s College.
Ewing Irrigation provides landscape, irrigation, and golf course professionals with the supplies they need to create healthy, sustainable environments. Founded in 1922 as an irrigation distributor, their breadth of products has evolved to include water management solutions, agronomic supplies, landscape lighting, water features, hardscape and erosion control. Ewing maintains branch operations in 195 convenient locations from coast to coast, and at each branch, there is a team of knowledgeable professionals ready to serve your business needs.
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Dave Alba "Market Opportunities for Sustainable Landscaping"
Oregon Tilth, Inc.
www.tilth.org
David Alba is the Oregon Tilth Accredited Organic Land Care Program Manager.
Oregon Tilth is a nonprofit research and education membership organization dedicated to biologically sound and socially equitable agriculture. Oregon Tilth offers educational events throughout the state of Oregon, and provides organic certification services to organic growers, processors, and handlers internationally.
Dave coordinates organic land care trainings for landscape professionals and manages the accreditation program. In 2009, he helped edit and publish the Oregon Tilth Organic Land Care Field Guide and the Oregon Tilth Organic Land Care Policies and Standards.
David has 20 years experience in organic horticulture, specifically in the areas of horticultural therapy, small farm management, and restoration.
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Pamela Berstler "Opportunities in Ordinances"
G3, The Green Gardens Group
www.greengardensgroup.com
Pamela Berstler is a sustainable exterior designer and landscape water
management expert whose firm, FLOWER to the PEOPLE, has designed award-winning
eco-restorative residential projects throughout the United States.
Pamela currently devotes the majority of her time speaking with and educating a wide variety of audiences on landscape resource management and the role of media in fostering unsustainable landscape practices. In addition to maintaining her private design practice, Pamela is a co-founder of G3, The Green Gardens Group, an organization devoted to educating homeowners, design professionals, and the surrounding community in the
latest eco-restorative landscape techniques and promoting the principles of low-impact
design. G3 is focused on changing the paradigm of the BEAUTIFUL landscape from the water and resource-guzzling gardens of today to the climate and place-appropriate sustainable ideal of tomorrow through education and community activism.
Pamela received her MBA in Entertainment Management from The Anderson
School at UCLA and her BA in Psychology from The University of Pennsylvania.
She is an Associate Member of the California Landscape Contractors Association
(CLCA) and is Legislative Committee Chair of the California Chapter of the
Association of Professional Landscape Designers (APLD).
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Ed Laivo "Successful Sustainable Business Models" - Host and Moderator
Devil Mountain Wholesale Nursery, Sales and Marketing mgr.
www.devilmountainnursery.com
Ed has 33 years of diverse experience in landscaping, nursery production and retail and wholesale sales and marketing. His special areas of interests include sustainable and edible landscapes, market development and fruit trees. Since 1992, Ed has concentrated on helping retail nurseries become more effective at marketing fruit trees. His system of strategies and techniques called “Backyard Orchard Culture” has been adapted throughout the United States.
Formerly Dave Wilson Nurseries Sales and Marketing manager Ed has been actively giving product knowledge and marketing seminars for the nursery trade, as well as doing lectures, fruit demonstrations and radio and television gardening shows for the public. He has made frequent guest appearances on the popular HGTV show “Gardening by the Yard” hosted by Paul James. He has also made numerous appearances on the DIY network and PBS”s “California and Americas Heartland’. He is a popular author of many fruit related articles and a contributing editor of “Sunset Garden Book”.
In 1997, Mr. Laivo was selected as the California Association of Nurseries and Garden Centers Supplier Tradesman of the Year.
Ed now works with Devil Mountain Wholesale Nursery in San Ramon and Lodi California as the Director of Sales and Marketing. Currently his focus is on transitioning Devil Mountain Nursery into the future, in touch with distribution, environmental and water issues.
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Brent Bucknum "Successful Sustainable Small Business"
Hyphae Design Laboratory
www.hyphae.net
Brent Bucknum lives and works in former wetlands of West Oakland, California, where he founded the Hyphae Design Laboratory; an ecological design and civil engineering firm dedicated to bridging the gap between architecture, environmental art and applied biological research. The company is currently working on a diverse range of projects from affordable housing water studies, to living roof design, greywater system design, environmental sensor-based public art installations, rural sanitation in developing countries, and ultra-green data centers. Bucknum also regularly collaborates with greenmeme, an art collective in Los Angeles, and is founder and director of the Urban Biofilter, a local environmental justice non-profit, dedicated to urban forestry and green infrastructure.
Bucknum has experience managing large projects in the architectural, engineering an d consulting sectors and in the non-profit sector. From 2005-2008, Bucknum worked for Rana Creek, an ecological restoration and design firm based in Carmel Valley, California. He helped launch the Living Architecture department and served as its first design director. Bucknum's work includes the design of institutional, municipal, commercial, and residential scale living roofs, ecological landscapes, rainwater catchment systems, living walls, greywater systems and constructed wetlands. In the A/E/C sector he previously, worked for Greenfield International, a brownfield remediation company in Cambridge, Massachusetts; Organic Arts, a natural building firm in Minnesota; for Scully Construction, a custom building company in Vermont. In the non-profit and community sector, Bucknum worked for the Hayward Unified School District as a grant writer; and as assistant director to SMFN, a farmer-run food distribution and branding non-profit supporting 55 local farms. Bucknum also co-founded, The Chlorophyll Collective an environmental education group educating and researching about algae-based food and biofuels, in Oakland. California.
Bucknum regularly lectures on diverse topics from architecture to entomology. He has lectured at U.C. Santa Cruz, CCAC, Berkeley Extension and Merritt College. He has taught workshops on living roof construction, ecological design, stormwater management and earth building. He has also spoken and critiqued student work at U.C. Berkeley, Stanford, U.C. Santa Cruz, Cabrillo College, Sci-Arc, University of Maryland, West Coast Green, Planit Green, Green Roofs for Healthy Cities, and local USGBC and AIA Chapter meetings.
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Daniel Levy "Successful Sustainable Medium-Sized Business"
Gardener’s Guild, Inc.
www.gardenersguild.com
Thus far Daniel’s ‘professional’ path spans 2 continents and several distinct climates and includes: apprenticeship in Pomology (Kibbutz Urim, Israel—1979)--Avocado, Apricot, Peach, Lemon, Grapefruit, Orange, and Mandarin orchards and groves; B. A. from the University of Michigan (1984); production greenhouses of the Chicago Botanic Gardens (1986); 15 years in Israel’s Arava desert (1986-2001)—11in Kibbutz Samar, an anarchist agrarian commune where he gleaned experience in landscaping, farming, and early childhood and elementary school education (primarily through garden and landscape projects).
Since 2001, Daniel has been a part of Gardeners’ Guild, Inc—a full service, employee owned, commercial landscape company based in Richmond, CA. As a Field Supervisor and Account Manager he strives to inspire and instruct managers and crew leaders to apply a holistic (integrated, long term) approach to fostering healthy landscapes by feeding the soil, selecting appropriate plants, and managing water resources. Daniel served as interim manager of the company’s IPM division; is involved in education and outreach with customers and the general public; has developed and presented in-house training on ecosystem based landscape management principles emphasizing soil health; and is a practicing Qualified Bay Friendly Landscaper.
Additional professional/volunteer activities include: Horticultural consulting to Walker Avenue Nursery in Santa Rosa, CA (www.walkeravenuenursery.com) ; grant program to train IPM advocates for outreach in retail nursery and hardware stores educating employees and consumers about least and non-toxic materials and methods for pest management in homes and home gardens (volunteer); assistance with school gardens at Apple Blossom Elementary School and Orchard View Independent Charter School in Sebastopol, CA (volunteer); assist with landscape design, install, and management for Rebuilding Together Santa Rosa’s Hearn House (transitional housing for Vietnam veterans) (volunteer).
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Dave Phelps "Successful Sustainable Large Business"
Cagwin & Dorward Sustainability Manager
www.cagwin.com
Dave went to Cal Poly, SLO and got degrees in both Landscape Architecture and Ornamental Horticulture. He founded a residential design/build firm in Marin County that won many landscape awards.
He is a licensed Landscape Architect and Contractor, a Certified Arborist and Landscape Professional, a Qualified Bay-Friendly landscape advisor and rater, a Water Efficient Landscaper, and a Marin Master Gardener.
Dave now speaks, advises, and educates employees and the community about sustainable landscape practices. He is Sustainability Manager for Cagwin & Dorward Landscape Contractors.
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Documentary Film - A Chemical Reaction The Story of a True Green Revolution
www.safelawns.org/chemical-reaction/
Paul Tukey’s award-winning 2009 documentary film, A Chemical Reaction, will be shown. It tells the compelling story of Hudson, Quebec, the first town in North America to ban lawn and garden chemicals. Mr. Tukey and other local natural lawn care experts will be present to discuss natural lawn care and hands-on environmental stewardship.
There is increasing concern about the health and environmental effects of pesticide and herbicide use. In our efforts to rid our crops, homes, and gardens of weeds and pests, we have surrounded ourselves with mixtures of chemicals with only minimal understanding of how they affect our health.
Annually, Americans use more than 4.5 billion pounds of pesticides. Each year, thousands of people in the U.S. become ill as a result of acute pesticide poisoning. Yet we are just beginning to understand that even low levels of pesticide exposure can be hazardous. Studies have linked low level pesticide exposure to cancer, damage to the nervous and reproductive systems, developmental and behavioral abnormalities including AD/HD, disruption of normal hormonal function, and immune dysfunction. Three separate studies published last month linked pesticide exposure during pregnancy to decreased IQ in children.
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