2024 Organizer Team

  • Michael "Skeeter" Pilarski

    Is a life-long student of plants and earth repair. His farming career started in 2nd grade and his organic farming career began in 1972 at age 25. Michael founded Friends of the Trees Society in 1978 and took his first permaculture design course in 1982. Since 1988 he has taught 36 permaculture design courses in the US and abroad. His specialties include earth repair, agriculture, seed collecting, nursery sales, tree planting, fruit picking, permaculture, agroforestry, forestry, ethnobotany, medicinal herb growing, hoeing and wildcrafting. He has hands-on experience with over 1000 species of plants. He is a prolific gathering organizer and likes group singing.

  • Anna Pallotta

    Anna has been working under Skeeters wing and with Friends of the Trees since 2017. She juggles many hats and mostly works behind the scenes helping manage the Friends of the Trees Botanicals herb farm business, as well as organizing many grass-root events from small workshops to large gatherings. Passionate about community building and helping people feel more connected to nature. She was part of the 2021 NWHF core team and is excited to be back organizing for the 2024 gathering! She was a core organizer for the Wildcrafters’ Rendezvous in 2023 and the Global Earth Repair Conference in 2019. Thanks to her herbal mentors over the years, she's started a small wildcrafting business called Ramble Botanicals.

  • Burke Mulvany

    Burke Mulvany is the Executive Director of the Peace Through Music Foundation, a Washington State Non-Profit.

    Burke has had the honor of being part of the NW Herbal Fair production team since the events inception in 1996. He was Director of the NW Herbal Fair in 2003, 2005, 2022, and 2023 and collaborated on the NW Herbal Council with Skeeter Pilarski and many other amazing humans since 1999. In all those years Burke has been the dedicated “Stage Coordinator & Emcee” a dharmic role he cherishes deeply.

  • Josephine Dow

    Josephine Dow is an Empowerment Facilitator at The Rhythms Within, where she supports Women in gaining confidence and connection to the Handpan and Frame Drum. Besides being a facilitator she is also a recording artist/multi instrumentalist and has 3 self-released albums under the moniker “Jocean”. Josephine has been on the NW Herbal Fair production team since 2021 and helped Co-Direct the NW Herbal Fair in 2022 and 2023.

    As a teacher, she encourages her students to understand music first as a personal healing tool for self expression and connection to source. When music is created from this place it has a greater potential to positively impacting others.

  • Hudson Gardner

    Hudson Gardner is a writer & photographer who drinks a lot of tea in the woods, usually made with boiled creek water and whatever medicinal plant is growing nearby. He joined the Friends of the Trees crew in 2020. Since then he has supported a few events as well as maintained the website, and helped out with farming and wildcrafting.
    Website

  • Melissa Yaden & Stephen Bonnell

    Vendor Coordinators

    Melissa Yaden, EAMP, LMP, AP, is a lifelong herbal enthusiast and supporter who is classically trained in Traditional Chinese Medicine and Herbalism and Ayurvedic Medicine and Herbal practices. Melissa's husband, Stephen Bonnell is a musician and nature lover, who endeavors to spend more time around herbs, and the people who cultivate, steward and prepare them.

  • Janet Kingsley

    Registrar

    Janet is on the team to assist you with all your registration needs. She attended her first NWHF when it was just getting its start at the River Farm outside of Bellingham, WA, when the workshops were held in woodland nooks.

    Janet's passions are gardening, creating in the kitchen, preserving food for winter's use and offering Holotropic Breathwork® workshops. She is the office manager/registrar for Grof Transpersonal Training. She is a mother, grandmother, sister, daughter, granddaughter and friend.

  • Bear

    (they/them)

    Queer Disabled Regenerative and Rewilding Farmer dedicated to decolonizing and healing the ecosystems we call home. Bear’s magic involves art, community healing, tending to the dead and the living.

    Certifications from OSU

    -Whole Farm Management
    -School Garden Coordinator
    -Permaculture Design

    Currently attending Earth Activist Training, a PINA program, to receive Advanced PDC and Regenerative Land Management Diploma.

  • The Friends of the Trees Botanicals crew is helping organize the 2024 gathering. Stop by their booth and say hello!

2023 Core Team

  • Josephine

    Josephine Dow is an Empowerment Facilitator at The Rhythms Within, where she supports Women in gaining confidence and connection to the Handpan and Frame Drum. Besides being a facilitator she is also a recording artist/multi instrumentalist and has 3 self-released albums under the moniker “Jocean”.

    As a Sound Healer and yoga practitioner she is passionate about the intersection of consciousness, music, and healing. Josephine believes that,

    “Music is a universal language that all humans understand at the core of their being — that music can transmute energy and emotions in such a powerful way.”

    — Josephine Dow

    She encourages her students to understand music first as a personal healing tool for self expression and connection to source. When music is created from this place it has a greater potential to positively impacting others. When Josephine is not teaching, producing, or practicing her many instruments, she can often be found on the trails of the San Juan Islands searching for a mossy spot to enjoy a delicious vegan lunch!

  • Burke

    Greetings, my name is Burke Mulvany, Executive Director of the Peace Through Music Foundation, a Washington State Non-Profit organization.

    My role is to expand the Peace Through Music network locally and globally, by assembling a sustainable, robust, and dedicated team of coordinators, volunteers, sponsors, donors, and community members who will wholeheartedly share the mission of Peace Through Music far and wide. Over the past 30 years I have had the joyously stressful opportunity to coordinate, direct, and manage dozens of festivals, concerts, benefits, and community rituals. I am honored to be in a position to use my energy in new and more expansive ways.

    I have been a Peace Through Music troubadour since that first fateful day when I purchased my first Peace Through Music sticker in a Portland guitar shop when I was 19. My life as a musical performer, festival producer, concert promoter and recording artist have all been encapsulated in my quest to share the joys of music with everyone, everywhere, all the time. I currently live on Orcas Island with my beloved, Josephine Dow, and our frisky cat Freddie, where days are spent visualizing the future of the Foundation and thinking about the next time I get to ride my e-bike through the valley.

  • Kaylee

    Hello Dears! I'm Kaylee, your NorthWest Herbal Fair Education & Community Coordinator. I’ll be coordinating and communicating with all of our incredible educators and keeping our community engaged and in flow. I also work with Josephine & Burke in helping to fine tune and finesse all the little details of the Fair.

    I feel deep gratitude to be working with the Peace Through Music Foundation and helping to produce this sweet gathering for lovers of Earth Medicine, Mythos, & Magick. What a privilege it is to contribute my gifts and energy to curating a weekend of connection, education, rejuvenation, and celebration with our herbal allies and teachers as our inspiration & guides!

    Aside from my work with PTM & the Herbal Fair, I offer Vedic Astrology & Archetypal Tarot readings for those who desire to deepen their Knowing of Self. My life's work and passion is reclaiming my chosen roles as Witch & Priestess and helping others to embrace and embody their inherent Magick and weave deeper meaning into their lives. I enjoy observing and imbibing the diverse elements of nature & culture, studying plants, stars, & mythology, wondering, wandering, holding rituals, circles, & ceremonies, and showering my adorable dog Shadow Lumière with love and belly rubs.