Helen Atthowe
Our keynote speaker, Helen Atthowe is author of the newly published book: The Ecological Farm: A Minimalist No-Till, No-Spray, Selective-Weeding, Grow-Your-Own-Fertilizer System for Organic Agriculture. She has worked for 35 years to connect farming, food systems, human and crop nutrition, land stewardship, and conservation. Helen has owned, operated, and co-operated with her late husband, 3 certified organic orchards and vegetable farms ranging from 30-211 acres, in 3 states; California, Montana, and Oregon.
Helen currently farms and does no-till soil– and natural enemies’ habitat– building research on her new 5-acre farm in Western Montana. Her on-farm research includes ecological weed and insect suppression, reduced tillage systems, managing cover crops and living mulches for soil and habitat building. She is a contributing writer to The Organic Gardener’s Handbook of Natural Pest and Disease Control and other books. She has served as a board member for the Organic Farming Research Foundation. Atthowe has a master’s degree in horticulture from Rutgers University and has worked in education and research at the University of Arkansas Fruit Experiment Station, Rutgers University, and Oregon State University. She served as a horticulture extension agent in Montana for 17 years, where she annually taught an organic Master Gardener course and ran an IPM program for nurseries and landscapers.
Keynote Address:
Workshop: Deep Observation: What to look for in your fields & orchards
Conference Session: Balancing Soil Health, Tillage, Fertility, Plant Nutrition, & Yield
Brian Allen
Brian Allen is an Assistant Research Specialist with the University of California Cooperative Extension. He conducts research on virtual fencing for livestock and resource management on California rangelands.
Conference Session: Virtual Fencing
Jaime Beechum
Jaime Beechum is a daughter, sister, partner and auntie extraordinaire. Through many years working as a professional photographer, she has cultivated a deep observational practice that invokes inquiry and refinement of relationship with Place. Her current iterative practices include gardening; visual communication; habitat restoration in her business POSITIVE EFFECTS; and community organizing as a steward of Traditional Foodways, Island Allies of Indigenous Lifeways, and SOURCEpaper. Jaime is deeply committed to the work of decolonizing herself, as an embodied offering towards hospicing modernity
Conference Session: Island Allies of Indigenous Lifeways
Lauren Bigelow
Lauren Bigelow is the executive director of the San Juan Islands Agricultural Guild and Chair of the San Juan County Agricultural Resource Committee. Her work aims to strengthen the local food system through direct programs, fiscal sponsorships, and county-wide systems coordination so island farmers can flourish and the local food system can be more resilient and vibrant.
Conference Session: Food System Plan for SJC: Advocacy and Coordinated Action
Angela Broderick
Angela Broderick serves as the County’s Climate and Sustainability Coordinator in the Department of Environmental Stewardship. Her work has included leading the development of the county’s first baseline greenhouse gas emissions assessment and the new Climate Element for the Comprehensive Plan. This year, she is overseeing the development of the county’s Climate Action Plan and Integrated Water Resource Management planning efforts. An island resident for the better part of 26 years, Angela is passionate about supporting this community’s collective efforts toward a sustainable future.
Conference Session: Agrisolar in Practice & Policy
Morgan Brown
Morgan Brown is a Tsimshian–Ukrainian ethnoecologist, environmental educator, curriculum developer, and OSPI-certified teacher in Indigenous Science. Her work centers kinship ecosystem restoration, bringing land, language, and people back into relationship. Morgan works alongside Indigenous youth and community, sharing knowledge of traditional plant medicine, first foods, seed rematriation, and language revitalization. Her current passions include her language Sm’algyax, Gwishalaayt weaving and natural dyeing, seaweed camp, tending the wild, and the revival of ancestral trade routes and relations.
Conference Session: Food Sovereignty and Thriving Indigenous Plant Communities
Nayeli Campos
Nayeli Campos is the Community Outreach and Policy Coordinator at Zero Waste Washington, a non-profit organization focused on sustainability and waste reduction. She has contributed to a wide range of community-based projects, focusing on reducing waste, promoting reusable systems, and addressing toxic chemical exposure in durable products and waterways. She has also played a key role in guiding local businesses, communities, and youth toward more sustainable practices. One of her main projects involved researching agricultural waste challenges and implementing pilot projects that divert non-organic farm waste from landfills, benefiting both the environment and farmers.
Conference Session: Reducing Plastic Waste (in Ag)
Addie Candib
Addie Candib serves as Western Managing Director for American Farmland Trust, overseeing programs and policy advocacy in the Pacific Northwest, California, and Texas. She lives with her family in Bellingham, WA.
Conference Session: Reducing Plastic Waste (in Ag)
Zachary Chan
Zach has lived on San Juan Island for 30 years. His first commercial farming experience began in 2015 during an internship at Nootka Rose Farm on Waldron Island, where he discovered a deep affinity for small-scale, intensive, diversified agriculture. In 2019, he founded New Hannah Farm, which has since expanded from a 3,200-square-foot garden into two acres of veggie production. The farm is transitioning to no-till practices, currently operating with minimal machinery, relying primarily on a BCS walk-behind tractor. Every year, they hire up to six employees (many of whom work part-time).
New Hannah Farm doesn’t advertise beyond their website and has grown a strong customer base primarily through word-of-mouth. They now serve over 400 customer accounts, most of which are full-time residents. All produce is sold twice per week through farm stands and customized online orders.
Through his work, Zach has discovered that farming is ultimately an exercise in holistic systems engineering. He approaches the farm as both a food-producing landscape and a living laboratory for purposeful design, continual improvement, and community benefit. His long-term goal is to develop innovative, replicable models that support other growers and strengthen the local food system.
Workshop: Effective Systems for Any Farm
Matthew Davis
Matthew is a fourth-generation Oregon dry farmer (walnuts and prunes) and a faculty research assistant at Oregon State University. Matthew began his career in farming in 2004, lifting catch wires and training grape vines at a vineyard in southern Oregon. He has also worked as a farm laborer in walnuts, Christmas trees, and nursery crops. He received a B.S. in Biology at University of Oregon in 2012 and a M.S. in Sustainable Forest Management at Oregon State University in 2018. He started working on dry farming research in 2019 with Dr. Alex Stone.
Conference Session: Dry Farming in the PNW
Jenny DeWitt
Jenny started her shepherding journey to help rehabilitate her depleted pastures, but found herself in love with her sheep, natural fibers, and promoting wool. Describing herself as a wool enthusiast she will talk to anyone that will listen about the benefits of wool, from garments (even underwear!) to wool pellet fertilizer and insulation. She has raised Shetland sheep since 2019, using a WA state mill to process the wool into yarn and roving. The value-added nature of offering WA grown and milled yarn helps balance the books for her and her husband’s farm. In addition, Jenny is the board president of Twisted Strait Fibers, a cooperative working towards offering more milling options in the Pacific Northwest.
Conference Session: Growing Fiber in the San Juan Islands
Katie Fleming
Katie Fleming is in her fourth year as San Juan County’s Solid Waste Program Coordinator, bringing with her a career rooted in environmental education, stewardship, and community engagement. In her role, she manages the County’s solid waste program – working closely with island waste facility operators, strengthening recycling consistency, coordinating hazardous waste collection events, leading litter-reduction efforts like the Great Islands Clean-up, and planning for long-term composting and organics recycling systems. Her work also includes collaborating with local and statewide partners to advance progressive waste-reduction policy.
Katie holds a BA in Telecommunications from Indiana University. A childhood fascination with Southern Resident Killer Whales drew her from the Midwest to the Pacific Northwest, where she later earned her M.Ed. in Environmental Education from Western Washington University. She began her sustainability career with RE Sources for Sustainable Communities in Bellingham and later served as Community Engagement Director for Friends of the San Juans in Friday Harbor before joining the County. Outside of work, Katie enjoys exploring the islands with her partner, two young boys, and their dog.
Conference Session: Reducing Plastic Waste (in Ag)
Angie Freeman Shephard
Angie Freeman Shephard is a 5th generation rancher with a BS/MS in rangeland ecology & management and an NRCS farm planner certification. Working with her family she has raised beef, pork and lamb using regenerative methods and selling to wholesale and retail clients for the past ten years. She’s managed land and restoration projects for universities, absentee land owners, agencies and NGO’s for multiple uses and goals. Most recently she is wrapping up a project as restoration manager for The Nature Conservancy restoring weedy old fields to native plants on Santa Cruz Island. In 2026 she is looking forward to some prairie restoration consulting and starting farming operations on her own farmland Honeycomb Farm on San Juan Island. In her off time she enjoys time with her family , caring for her Shetland sheep, making music and fiber arts.
Conference Sessions: Strategies for Livestock & Pasture Management, Growing Fiber in the San Juan Islands
Josiah French Feld
Josiah French Feld is the Vice President of PKOLS (Preserving Knowledge of Land and Sea), a nonprofit dedicated to restoring Indigenous place names, stories, and relationships across the Salish Sea. He is Straits Salish SENĆOŦEN W̱SÁNEĆ and Pyramid Lake NUMU Paiute from STOLȻEȽ (San Juan Island). His work brings together family lineage, community organizing, and language renewal to bridge generations separated by borders and colonization. Through storytelling, ceremony, and environmental education, Josiah uplifts ancestral teachings that remind us the land and sea are living relatives — carrying memory, law, and love.
Conference Session: Food Sovereignty and Thriving Indigenous Plant Communities
Jenny Glass
Jenny Rebecca Glass is the Diagnostician at the WSU-Puyallup Plant & Insect Diagnostic Laboratory. She has been responsible for diagnosing plant problems on Pacific Northwest crops and ornamentals, ranging from adverse growing conditions to plant pathogens and arthropod pests. She helps people understand the available management options and places an emphasis on promoting human and environmental health and safety. Jenny also teaches plant pathology, diagnosis, and integrated pest management to Master Gardeners and other audiences in western Washington. Her favorite pathogens include late blight on potatoes and downy mildew on blackberries. Her other interests involve vegetable gardening, reading, walking, and working with community youth.
Workshop: Plant Pathology for Growers
Blake Guard & Melissa Guard
Drs. Blake and Mel Guard own Guardian Veterinary Hospital, a mixed animal practice that serves the San Juan Islands. They have a unique perspective when it comes to food animals. Their own family has been ranching on San Juan Island for the past six generations. The Drs. Guard focus on many aspects of animal health. Their practice has unique expertise in laparoscopic artificial insemination in small ruminants, equine and bovine reproduction, equine sports medicine, and internal medicine. Together with ranchers and farmers they help to develop valuable de-worming protocols, herd management and selection tools, and nutritional guidance to build strong herd health.
Workshop: Livestock Vet Care & Handling
Micha Ide
Micha Ide is the Small Farm Direct Marketing Specialist in the Regional Markets Program at the Washington State Department of Agriculture. She has over a decade of experience working in and supporting agricultural producers in Washington. In her role Micha assists farmers and ranchers with accessing resources, business development, regulatory guidance, facilitating market connections and more.
Workshop & Conference Session: Dive Deep Into Direct Marketing and The Future of Agritourism in WA
Sara Jones
Sara Jones is a co-owner and farmer at Jones Family Farms on Lopez Island, Washington, where she has been farming for over 25 years. Raised on a dairy farm in New York, Sara comes from a long lineage of farmers. Jones Family Farms currently operates on 250 acres of owned and leased land on the southend of Lopez, producing grass-fed meats, grass hay, pastured eggs, forage crops, and orchard fruit. Jones Family Farms practices emphasize multi-species, rotational, and seasonal grazing, ethical animal care, and science-based land improvement and resilience. Sara also works in the district office of the Lopez School, coordinates the school garden and the LIFE program, is a mother of four children and a proud grandmother. Sara is keenly aware of both the challenges and opportunities of agriculture in San Juan County and is deeply committed to strengthening island agriculture through changing times.
Conference Session: Strategies for Livestock & Pasture Management
Tiffany Joseph
Tiffany Joseph is an advocate for the wellbeing of W̱SÁNEĆ territory through her learning and teaching of the interconnectedness of W̱SÁNEĆ people, SENĆOŦEN language, pollinators, sea-life, and terrestrial flora and fauna that are Indigenous to the W̱SÁNEĆ ÁLEṈENEȻ. This learning and teaching intertwines SENĆOŦEN language, feminism, biodiversity, trauma-informed healing, environmental science, and more which have been shared with her through intergenerational teachings, and relationships with environmental scientists, anthropologists, linguists, counsellors, and more through her own learning and healing journey. She shares this knowledge in alignment with the elders’ teachings to share what you know.
Conference Session: Food Sovereignty and Thriving Indigenous Plant Communities
Gretchen M. Krampf, MSOD, PCC
Gretchen is a weaver, leader, and catalyst for change. A process consultant and facilitator, she offers strategic and supportive guidance to leaders, accelerating engagement in service to enhanced communications, reduced conflict and achieving desired outcomes. She believes the essential skills of training are strong design, a repertoire of methods, deep listening, and authentic communication. Leadership development is her calling and craft.
As an organization/leadership development consultant and executive coach, she has more than 35 years experience working with entrepreneurs, family businesses, as well as corporate, community, governmental, and non-profit organizations. A resident of San Juan County since 1989, she is president of Leadership San Juan Islands and has been program faculty, developing San Juan County community leaders for the past nineteen years.
Workshop: Leadership and Change Making
Max Lambert
Max is the Director of Science for The Nature Conservancy in Washington State. His research focuses on diverse statewide and west-wide issues including responsible renewable energy deployment, recovering biodiversity, and protecting water resources.
Conference Session: Agrisolar in Practice & Policy
Caitlin Leck
Caitlin Leck is a mother, organizer, farmer, and facilitator who believes local food system work can be a forum for progressive social change. She is the Coordinator of the Food System Team of San Juan County, a steward of Island Allies of Indigenous Lifeways, co-founder of the Orcas Community Participatory Agriculture program, and serves on the Orcas Food Co-op board.
Conference Session: Island Allies of Indigenous Lifeways
Conference Session: Food System Plan for SJC: Advocacy and Coordinated Action
Sarah Lemon
Sarah works as the Local Meat Marketing and Capacity Specialist at the Washington State Department of Agriculture supporting small and direct marketing livestock producers and the meat processors they depend on. In addition to working on diversified livestock operations across the country, Sarah studied Food Policy and Sustainability Leadership at Arizona State University, where Sarah focused on Federal slaughter and processing regulations. She believes that animal agriculture is an essential part of an equitable, just, and sustainable food system and is proud to be able to support the Washington meat community. When not focused on all things meat, Sarah loves practicing Proper Stockmanship, all kinds of dancing, and exploring the beauty of the PNW. Sarah holds a B.A. in geology from Colgate University, an M.S. in Geophysics from University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Workshop: Waste to Worth: Turning Mortalities and Meat Waste back into Nutrients through Composting
Amy Lum
Amy Lum is the co-owner of Lum Farm, located on the SJC Land Bank’s Coffelt Farm Preserve on Orcas Island. She has been living and farming on Orcas since 1993, and has been at Coffelt Preserve since 2019. She worked as a vet assistant on Orcas for over 10 years, and during that time started her farm journey with a couple of sheep, a puppy and a flock of chickens. As her family grew, so did the menagerie in the backyard. Her two daughters were a part of the Orcas 4H club. Amy was a project leader and highly involved in 4H, as the kids led the journey into cattle and goats. Amy is a needlefelter and a partner of Bossy’s Feltworks, using the wool from her sheep to create hand crafted whimsy. Her quest for the perfect wool led to much research and learning about sheep breeds and also how to manage those sheep for high quality fleece through nutrition, grazing and shearing.
Amy’s focus on the farm is on animal health and husbandry, shearing, dairy management and working to keep the herds and flocks happy and healthy. Lum Farm is a diverse farm operation, raising grassfed lamb and beef, pastured poultry/eggs, hogs and goats. The farmstead creamery makes cheese, ice cream and yogurt with milk from their sheep and goat dairy herd. The farm has about 150 acres of pasture, and they lease other adjacent properties for grazing and haying as well. Amy and Eric have worked to improve all of the fields they graze through rotational grazing practices, haying and increasing fertility with compost.
Conference Sessions: Strategies for Livestock & Pasture Management and Growing Fiber in the San Juan Islands
Greg Meyer
Greg is a horticulturist and permaculture inspired landscaper. Greg has been farming, gardening, landscaping and studying permaculture design for over a decade. Included in that time are two seasons at the renowned Bullock Brother’s Permaculture Homestead on Orcas Island, and Manager at Dancing Seeds Farm on San Juan Island. Greg now owns The Planted Pantry LLC, and edible and ecological landscaping business in Bellingham, WA.
Workshop: Pruning Clinic for All Levels
Dr. Carol Miles
Dr. Carol Miles is a Professor in the Department of Horticulture at Washington State University and is based at the Mount Vernon Northwestern Washington Research and Extension Center. Carol is the Horticulture Specialist and specializes in vegetable crop production as well as cider apple production, and has a strong interest in alternative crops, sustainable cropping systems, and organic production. Her current research program focuses on sweetpotato production for northern climates, tea propagation, and using soil-biodegradable plastic mulch for vegetable and fruit production. Carol has her M.S. and Ph.D. in vegetable crops from Cornell University.
Conference Session: Reducing Plastic Waste (in Ag)
Rory O’connor
Rory O’Connor is a Research Ecologist with the UDSA-ARS in Burns, OR. He conducts research on virtual fence use and applications is dryland systems. He also conducts research on rangeland carbon dynamics in response disturbances as well as different land management practices.
Conference Session: Virtual Fencing
Sarah Pope
Sarah and her family run about 120 sheep of various pure and mixed breeds at Oak Knoll Farm and on grazing leases around the San Juan Valley. Sarah also buys wool from neighboring farmers who raise flocks with compatible fiber to produce high quality knitting yarns, spinning fiber, wool pillows, and more. She’s currently sewing canvas quilts with homegrown wool batting to make sound baffles for her kids’ school commons and will happily talk your ear off about the many virtues of this amazing sustainable fiber.
Conference Sessions: Growing Fiber in the San Juan Islands & Food System Plan for SJC: Advocacy and Coordinated Action
Anthony Reyes
Anthony Reyes is the Agriculture Program Manager at Oxbow Farm and Conservation Center in Carnation, WA. Anthony has a degree in Food, Agriculture, and Social Justice from UC Santa Cruz and nearly 20 years of experience in crop production, working for agriculture nonprofits up and down the west coast. Much of his work at Oxbow is centered on exploring climate resilience and adaptation in agriculture, currently focused on drought resilience in food crops and cover crops.
Conference Session: Dry Farming in the PNW: Principles and Practice
Anne Schwartz
Anne Schwartz lives and farms in Rockport in Eastern Skagit Valley. Blue Heron Farm produces certified organic berries marketed regionally and in Mt Vernon at the Skagit Food Coop.
Anne participated in the development of organic certification laws and regulatory development at the state and national levels for over 25 years. Anne was an active advocate in the creation of the Center for Sustaining Agriculture and Natural Resources (CSANR), at WSU, and has served on their Advisory Council since 1989. For many years she has served as an Advisory Board member for several of the Deans of the College of Agriculture, Human and Natural Resources at WSU- currently Dr Raj Khosla. She served on the Boards of Tilth Producers and Tilth Alliance for many years. He focus now is to advocate for research and public policy that supports organic agriculture through the creation of and as a Governing Council member of the Coalition for Organic and Regenerative Agriculture (CORA).
In her spare time, she trains and trials her Border Collies with livestock around Western WA.
Workshop: Leadership and Change Making
Conference Session: Food System Plan for SJC: Advocacy and Coordinated Action
Eric Spitzer
Erik is a 2nd year PhD student in Crop Science at WSU, studying buckwheat in the lab of Dr. Kevin Murphy and Dr. Deidre LaHue. His primary research goals are to develop varieties of common buckwheat (Fagopyrum esculentum) suitable for organic cropping systems in Western Washington with enhanced weed-suppression and seed-set, and to assess the potential role of buckwheat in mobilizing phosphorus. Erik is also developing perennial Tartary buckwheat by hybridizing it with a perennial wild species.
He is currently developing new buckwheat varieties with enhanced agronomic traits. To enhance seed-set and yield-stability of common buckwheat, he is introgressing the self-pollinating trait into four agronomic and culinary classes: soba-type (“Koto”), kasha-type (“Tinker”), crepe-type (“Harpe”), and cover-crop type (“Lincoln”). Ornamentals, including red-flowered and variegated varieties, are also under development. Breeding-lines have been initiated to improve agronomic traits such as lodging resistance, high leaf area, large seed size, local-adaptation, and dwarfing.
Conference Session: Buckwheat Breeding and Agronomy Research – WSU BreadLab
Jenn Tate
As owner and founder of Earth & Sky Studios, Jenn Tate brings over two decades of strategic marketing and communications expertise to the intersection of agriculture, tourism, and sustainability. A graduate of Western Washington University, she has been a driving force in Washington state’s tourism sector since the early 2000s, championing authentic connections between communities, landscapes, and visitors.
Jenn specializes in elevating agricultural brands—particularly in tree fruit, wine, and agritourism—while bridging the vital link between small farms and the culinary world. Her work encompasses strategic planning, destination development, and stakeholder engagement, always with sustainability at the forefront.
With a diverse skill set spanning campaign strategy, branding, technical writing, and creative direction, Jenn employs logic frameworks and innovative thinking models to deliver measurable results for clients. Whether crafting compelling copy, developing comprehensive marketing strategies, or advocating for small businesses in the hospitality and tourism sectors, she remains committed to fostering economic vitality and environmental stewardship.
Earth & Sky Studios reflects Jenn’s passion for creating meaningful narratives that celebrate place, support local economies, and promote sustainable practices across Washington’s vibrant agricultural and tourism landscapes.
Conference Session: Dive Deep Into Direct Marketing
Maressa Valliant
Maressa Valliant is the Eat Local First Director at Sustainable Connections, leading statewide outreach that connects consumers, businesses, and institutions with Washington farmers, ranchers, and fishers. She oversees the Eat Local First Collaborative and eatlocalfirst.org, home of the WA Food & Farm Finder, and leads flagship initiatives including Eat Local First’s annual CSA, Eat Local Month, and Holiday campaigns. Maressa also stewards the newly launched Eat Local First Network, aligning cross-sector partners to mobilize communities toward choosing local food – FIRST! She brings to the role over two decades of expertise in branding, marketing, community events, website development, and communications.
Workshop: Dive Deep Into Direct Marketing
Dr. Jeffrey Wall
I specialize in innovating and adapting methods and theories which bring the environmental and plant values of distinct cultures and traditions into meaningful conversation with each other. I have conducted impactful research on threatened culturally significant landscapes in numerous countries in the Near East, Central Asia and North America. From chestnut trees in the Caucasus to eel grass in Unama’ki/Cape Breton to mosses, lichens and berries here in Sapmi/Finland, I follow the plants and the people who care for them wherever it takes me.
Conference Session: Food Sovereignty and Thriving Indigenous Plant Communities
Dr. Rachel Wieme
Dr. Rachel Wieme is a soil scientist and regional Extension specialist with Washington State University Extension in Walla Walla County. Rachel’s Extension program supports resilient cropping systems and practices that promote soil health in southeast Washington. She also does outreach on composting livestock mortalities and meat processing waste.
Workshop: Waste to Worth: Turning Mortalities and Meat Waste back into Nutrients through Composting
Kate Yturri
Kate is a SJC Master Gardener volunteer who has had a vegetable and flower garden from the age of 4. When she was in the 8th grade, she and her father collected insects together in coastal South Texas. Her insect collection won first prize in the school science fair, and she found a previously unidentified beetle!
Kate gardened in college in a shady, treed back yard in Austin, in grad school in a driveway strip in Dallas, and ultimately gardened in a forest, growing veggies, tree fruits, and berries in SW Washington. Washington became her gardening paradise with its natural beauty and amazing plant and animal life, including insects. After retiring to Orcas Island, she had the time to become a Master Gardener in 2013. Kate loves to grow edibles and flowers almost anywhere. She also enjoys teaching others, especially children, about gardening and insects, but also loves spending time learning about insects and watching them in her garden.
Workshop: Plant Pathology for Growers