Our mission is to help children and adults form deep bonds with nature that will help transform and enrich their lives and their communities.
Nature awareness and wilderness survival courses are available for BOTH for KIDS and ADULTS!
s been featured in Richmond Magazine in 2018 on was on PBS in 2019.
INSTRUCTORS
Alison Meehan
As Seen on PBS!
Alison is the Founder of Tracks and Roots. She has her Bachelor’s of Science degree in Environmental Policy and Planning from Virginia Tech and has been an avid naturalist, wilderness survivalist, and tracker for 20 years. She is passionate about all things nature and especially bringing people of all ages and backgrounds closer to their ancestry, themselves, and the natural world.
She has attended Coyote Tracks, The Tracker School, the Mid-Atlantic Primitive Skills Group, the Firefly Gathering, the Earth Connection School, the Wilderness Awareness School, the Living Earth School as well as attended a few dozen wildlife college courses and ran a college club, the Nature Awareness and Tracking Stuff club. Most of her knowledge of nature awareness and survival has been passed down directly to her from two mentors, Mike Blackwell and Bill Sydor, who took her under their wing as a young adult.
To dive deeper into the world of herbal healing, she is also a student of the Chestnut School of Herbal Remedies, a world-renowned herbal medicine school, and has attended in-person classes by its founder, Juliet Blanketspoort.
She lives with her husband and three kids in Short Pump, Virginia and loves getting them outside year-round, in all weather conditions.
David Meehan
David is the co-dreamer and an instructor for Tracks and Roots. He has his Bachelor’s of Science degree in Crop and Soil Environmental Science and has completed 2 years of graduate level ecology courses. He is an avid gardener, a hobby naturalist, and a wild edible plant and wild mushroom expert. A trained martial artist and hobby war historian, he worked for the U.S. Army for 7 years as a military police officer. He resides in Short Pump, Virginia with his wife and three kids.
Lauren Bishop
Lauren Bishop grew up camping and hiking throughout Virginia’s Blue Ridge Mountains. She is a Virginia Master Naturalist, Riverine Chapter, as well as an herbal apprentice. Her herbal studies include The School of Evolutionary Herbalism, The Herbal Academy, and herbal workshops with Chestnut School of Herbs, Living Earth School, and Henricus. Lauren worked as an art studio teacher for over a decade in Baltimore and Richmond before pursuing herbal medicine. She holds a BFA from Savannah College of Art and Design and a MAAEd from Boston University. Her hobbies include hiking, gardening, open water, and renaturalizing her property with native plants authentic to the indigenous people and space.
