Charles “Chip” Osborne, Jr. is the President of Osborne Organics, LLC, and Founder of the Organic Landscape Association. He has over 10 years experience in developing sustainable landscapes through natural turf management, and has 35 years experience as a professional horticulturist.
Chip has become a regular lecturer for the Northeast Organic Farming Association (NOFA), is a board member of Beyond Pesticides, and Chairman of the Marblehead, Massachusetts’ Recreation and Parks Department. In 1998 Chip and Pat Beckett co-founded The Living Lawn Project in Marblehead, MA, one of the United States’ first natural lawn demonstration displays. This project is a nationally-recognized, living example that abundant, healthy grass can be grown without the use of pesticides and synthetic fertilizers.
Hugh McLaughlin, PhD, PE has a professional consulting practice in Chemical Engineering. He is a biochar engineer and the inventor of the NextChar Machine. Hugh has numerous publications on biochar and biomass derived heat production. He co-authored “All Biochars are not Created Equal and How to Tell them Apart” (2009) and “U.S. Focused Biochar Report: Assessment of Biochar’s Benefits for the United States of America” (2010).
Bruce Fulford is the owner of City Soil and Greenhouse, a company based in Boston that works on agricultural projects ranging from community gardens to commercial farms. Bruce’s publications, educational outreach, and presentations have contributed to the development of more efficient and equitable resource management.
Bruce works closely with organizations focused on land remediation and agricultural business development. He chairs the Massachusetts Audubon Society’s (MAS) Boston Nature Center the Environment Committee, is a member of the MAS Council and its Climate Change committee, the Ecological Landscape Association, and the US Composting Council.
Paul Wagner is the president of Greener Pastures Organics, a property care company located in Southampton, N.Y. He has over 15 years of experience in science-based organic tree, shrub and lawn care. Paul is a Board Certified Master Arborist, as well as a NYS Certified Nursery Professional with a degree in Ornamental Horticulture.
Jim Laurie, Restoration Ecologist, is a biologist from Rice University and a pioneer in biological remediation of waste water. He was the technical manager of the world’s largest “Living Machine” project to clean raw municipal sewage with no toxic chemicals. The facility, through a grant from the EPA, processed 80,000 gallons/day using the “living machine” methodology invented by ecological visionary, and Buckminster Fuller Award recipient, John Todd.
Prior to that, for twenty years Jim was a biologist and trainer in the chemical industry in Houston, TX, where his work with living machines resulted in processing effluent cleaner than possible with conventional technology. Jim has also been a passionate advocate for Holistic Management of grasslands in the past decade. He began studying with Allan Savory twenty years ago in Texas, has spoken about Holistic Management at Harvard, MIT, Tufts, the Stockholm Environment Institute, and at meetings of the Massachusetts Climate Action Network (MCAN) and Northeast Organic Farmers Association (NOFA), and has been instrumental in spreading the message in New England. Jim is also co-founder of a lively and sophisticated Google Group, Soil-Age, and he invites you to join!
Bryan O’Hara intensively farms three acres of market vegetables in Lebanon, Connecticut, at Tobacco Road Farm. He began his career in 1990, and over the years, through trial and error, has developed an extremely successful no-till, pesticide-free system. He was named the Northeast Organic Farming Association’s (NOFA) Farmer of the Year in 2016.
O’Hara is the author of No-Till Intensive Vegetable Culture: Pesticide-Free Methods for Restoring Soil and Growing Nutrient-Rich, High-Yielding Crops. This book is a helpful guide for all aspects of gardening, with a particular focus on no-till techniques.
Eric T. Fleisher is the Director of Horticulture for the Battery Park City Parks Conservancy. Battery Park City is an urban area located in south Manhattan in New York City. This park is a 92-acre planned community created through regenerating healthy soil and reusing local materials. As the Director of Horticulture for over 25 years, Eric’s vision for Battery Park City’s ecological approach has made this community a role model for other urban and rural areas.
Courtney White is an author and regenerative land management activist. In 1997, he cofounded the Quivira Coalition, a nonprofit in Santa Fe, New Mexico, that works with progressive ranchers and farmers on regenerative agriculture, ecological restoration, and collaborative conservation. As Executive Director, he helped implement these practices as well as explain their hopefulness in numerous publications and speaking events. In 2015, Courtney left the organization to become a full-time writer. His specialty is explaining complex topics via compelling stories.
