Who We Are
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!
INSTRUCTORS
Alison Meehan
Alison is the creator 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 an expert at identifying trees, tracks, and wild edible and medicinal plants. She has received training from 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 from college courses and clubs. 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.
She lives with her husband and three kids in Short Pump, Virginia.
David Meehan
David is the co-dreamer, editor, and back-up manager of 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 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.
Mackenzie Sanders
Mackenzie is passionate about teaching, and all things wild. She has been leading edible and medicinal wild plant walks since 2012 as well as using wild plants and mushrooms to feed her own family, cutting her food bill in half some months. She teaches identification and use of wild plants, at home herbalism, and safe, beginner’s mushrooming skills.
She has been featured on NBC.
Leigh Hulva
Leigh Hulva is a Registered Nurse, a trained herbalist, and a mother of two. She spent a year running her own organic farm and selling produce. Now, she gardens only for her family and raises backyard chickens.
She lives in Short Pump, Virginia with her two daughters and husband.
Peter Yencken
Peter is an experienced bowyer and craftsman. He grew up on a sheep farm in Australia, worked as an instructor at the Tom Brown’s Tracking and Wilderness Survival School, and received a degree in Chinese medicine.
He has taught bow making and other crafts to both children and adults in Australia and the United States for more than 15 years.
He believes that making things by hand that are usable in our everyday life brings a profound sense of enjoying far greater than purchasing an item. He has founded Village Living Skills.
Tracks and Roots has been featured in Richmond Magazine in 2018.