Our Team

Elisha Klco, Instructor

Elisha grew up around the Puget Sound region and has spent much of her life in Western Washington, which gives her a deep connection to the seasonal rhythms of this place. Elisha began teaching at Quiet Heart Wilderness School in the fall of 2015, there she teaches and designs classes for youth and adults. Elisha also has several years of experience teaching environmental science at the Mount Rainier Institute and North Cascades Institute. Elisha is passionate about passing on a love and understanding of nature to future generations. She teaches a variety of bushcraft techniques, including but not limited to native plant identification and medicinal uses, fire starting, carving and shelter building. Her love for plants has driven her to personally study forest ecology and traditional, edible, utilitarian and medicinal uses of plants. She has been making natural medicine for herself and her family since childhood and has gained much experience through experimenting and studying. She studied under Reisha Beck and Gabe Garms at Raven’s Roots Naturalist school, and received a Bachelor’s in science in Neuroscience with a minor in chemistry at Western Washington University. In her free time she may be found hiking, running, biking, cooking, and spending time with friends and family. She has a contagious love for the outdoors and strives to provide a safe and welcoming environment for people of all backgrounds to join in the learning. If you find Elisha out in the field, ask her about plants, if you get lucky she may even sing a silly song about them or do an interpretive dance!

Reisha Beck, Instructor

Reisha is a core instructor of the Wildcrafting and Weaving Our Dreams Immersions and Co- taught the Ethnobotany Immersion with Gabe for 5 years, as well as Growing Herbalist Immersion. She is the lead herbalist and basket weaving instructor at Ravens Roots. In addition to the immersion course, she also teaches short courses on basketry, natural dyes, wildcrafting and herbal medicine making. She is also the retired owner and operator of Wayside Botanicals, a permaculture based medicinal herb farm and wildcrafting business, which she ran for 9 years. She has a background in organic farming, permaculture design, Pacific Northwest ethnobotany, and bioregional herbalism. Born in the mountains of Colorado and raised in Western Washington, she spent most of her childhood outside and unsupervised in the forest.  Her love of nature and plants has taken her down a path of healing by connecting with the natural world and cultivating deep relationships with the plants she harvests and grows. She loves to open the door to the plant world to others, as her mentors have done for her. She is deeply committed to creating positive change through deep connection with the Land. You can find her weaving in her herb garden or wild harvesting in the Cascades with her family. Check out her herbal offerings at www.waysidebotanicals.com

Gabe Garms, Instructor and Co-Founder

Gabe is a guest instructor for the Ethnobotany and Fermentation Immersion courses as well as a co-instructor for the Wilderness Survival, Natural Medicine Making, Permaculture and Bird Language/Behavior short courses. His greatest loves in the natural world are plants and birds and he believes permaculture is one of the only ways that we can heal the damage that we've done to this planet. He's originally from the Midwest and honed his nature skills in northern Michigan, the Northwoods of Wisconsin and along the Mississippi River in northeastern Iowa. He has certifications in permaculture design, wildlife tracking and wilderness ecology and has co-taught 4 permaculture design courses. As a core instructor at a wilderness ecology and survival school in Monroe, he taught short term survival skills, ethnobotany and bird language in addition to permaculture. He is passionate about fermented foods, natural medicine and teaching people how to grow their own medicinals/food within a permaculture system. He regularly goes on short term survival trips with peers to hone in on his skills for the short courses and in his spare time, he is an avid fermenter and frequently birds, goes on plant walks, gardens and plays guitar/sings.

Jeanette Wickell, Instructor

Jeanette has lived in the Pacific Northwest for her entire life and is deeply familiar with the plants of the area. She completed a Permaculture Design Certification course in 2008, as well as many other classes and tours at Inspiration Farm, Feral Farm, Cloud Mountain Farm Center, Chuckanut Center, and Raven’s Roots, including their Ethnobotany Field Immersion and Growing Herbalist Immersion classes. She has 12 years of experience teaching adults at Western Washington University and enjoys developing rapport with students and helping create a group dynamic where everyone feels comfortable asking questions and coming as they are. 

Jeanette loves to spend time in her suburban food forest, where she grows over 130 different species of edible, medicinal, and pollinator plants. She offers regular garden talks and tours, and has a burgeoning plant nursery, Plant Friends Permaculture. For this nursery Jeanette has found a particular interest in propagating plants, especially perennial vegetables and other hard to find plants. She loves sharing the excitement that comes from learning about the abundant gifts the Earth has to offer. 

Jeanette is pictured here in her garden next to two of her favorite plants, Nettles (Urtica dioica) and Caucasian Mountain Spinach (Hablitzia tamnoides).