Topics and presenters:
1. How we manage our lands and grow our foods can heal the planet. Role of regenerative agriculture, Tim LaSalle, co-founder, Center for Regenerative Agriculture & Resilient Systems, Adjunct Professor of Agriculture, CSU Chico
2. What we can do in our own backyards. Examples from local growers: Teresa “Tree” Lees, garden educator
3. What we can do to expand healthy soils for carbon sequestration to heal the planet. Legislative advocacy, Greg Haas, District Representative, Congressman Salud Carbajal (CA 24th District, member of House Committee on Agriculture)
4. Your questions and answers.
This graceshop (called that because climate solutions from healthy soils come via the grace of creation) is offered by the volunteers on the Earthcare team at St. Benedict’s Episcopal Church and open to the whole community, near and far. The sacred ground theme comes from Interfaith Power and Light, which includes all major religions (www.interfaithpowerandlight.com ), for Faith Climate Action Week, April 16-25.
Registration link: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZcud-urrT8qGtxasQ4JCR1yTPP9HpJ11Thg We look forward to your participation.
More detailed biographies for presenters.
Tim LaSalle, co-founder, Center for Regenerative Agriculture & Resilient Systems, Adjunct Professor of Agriculture, CSU Chico
Tim LaSalle has served as the first CEO of Rodale Institute, Executive Director of the Allan Savory Center for Holistic Management, consultant, advisor, and research coordinator for the Howard Buffett Foundation in Africa on soils and food security for smallholder farmers. He is Professor Emeritus of California Polytechnic State University, and former President/CEO, of the California Agriculture Leadership Program where he arranged educational leadership programs in more than 80 countries with heads of state, ministers, and community leaders.
Teresa “Tree” Lees, Garden Educator
Teresa has firsthand experience in permaculture, classroom teaching, Garden Based Learning (GBL) in school gardens and nature based education. She has woven together a career that combines her love for children and their education with her love for the planet. Teresa, aka “Tree” is the CREEC Network Coordinator at the San Luis Obispo County Office of Education where she serves as the clearinghouse for environmental education curriculum and green schools throughout Region 8 (SLO, SB, Kern and Ventura counties). Teresa connected kids to nature in the Laureate School garden where she was the Life Lab teacher for three years. She also served as the Chairperson of the GBL committee with the San Luis Obispo Master Gardeners for ten years, conducting teacher trainings in the Sunshine Demonstration Garden, disseminating curriculum resources and providing consultations to local school gardens. She also has been both a classroom teacher and a Naturalist for outdoor schools. Teresa also spent a decade as the Children’s Education Coordinator at the San Luis Obispo Botanical Garden where she created interpretive garden areas and kids’ programs including a children’s Food Forest, Native Peoples & Plants garden, solar fountain, and straw bale benches. She currently organizes the SLO Permaculture Guild and the Global Family children’s garden at City Farm where she conducts the FARMGIRLS Summer Camp. She also is a Garden Nutrition Educator with the UCCE CalFresh program. She is the facilitator of the GEE Symposium, bringing together all school garden and farm to school stakeholders in our region in October 2017.
Congressman Salud Carbajal, U.S. House of Representatives, CA 24th District
In Congress, Salud has demonstrated a strong commitment to protecting our natural environment and resources, enhancing public safety, creating economic opportunities, and working regionally to address our transportation, housing, and workforce challenges.
A long-time advocate for our environment, Salud’s first act in Congress was the California Clean Coast Act which bans future offshore oil and gas drilling on California’s coast. He also is a member of the bi-partisan Climate Solutions Caucus, which serves as a working group dedicated to advancing proposals that will mitigate and reduce climate change, while at the same time encouraging economic growth and job creation. Salud serves on the House Committee on Armed Services, the House Committee on Agriculture, and the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, where he was elected to serve as the Vice Chair. Carbajal graduated from the University of California at Santa Barbara (UCSB) and also holds a Master’s Degree in Organizational Management from the Fielding University.