TrackersTEAMS Staff
TrackersTEAMS staff bring with them years of study and real world experience in the skills they teach. We encourage you to personally connect with each one in the process of choosing to join TrackersTEAMS.
Tony Deis, Founder & Tracking Instructor
Tony has lived and studied skills and concepts of sustainability his entire life. In his early years he intensively studied regenerative design through hands on projects and trained wilderness skills through backcountry travel. Beginning 1993 he has made his living as a contractor and consultant in the field of environmental education. Eventually he founded TrackersNW and the Trackers Family of programs. Learn more about Tony
Gabe Shaddy-Farnsworth, Core Instructor
Gabe’s love for the wilderness and the outdoors was born through the hiking, camping, fishing, kayaking and snowboarding he did growing up in Alaska. Since living in Portland, Gabe has worked as an organizer for various environmental organizations and as a volunteer for City Repair and Tryon Life Community Farm. He graduated from the TrackersTeams Wilderness Immersion Program and now works as an instructor for both youth and adult programs. Learn more about Gabe
Brian Schuch, Primitive Skills Instructor
Brian Schuch has been traveling, living, and teaching wilderness survival skills since 2003. He's worked and lived primitively in many environments including the jungles of Costa Rica where he built and resided in a bamboo tree-house for many months. Immediately after completing high school he did a year-long intensive course in primitive skills. He stayed for another year learning and teaching school groups and summer camps. During that time he also worked at a museum to recreate and demonstrate skills of indigenous technology. This included building a bark longhouse, bark canoes, dugout canoes, bows, arrows, 3 sisters gardens, maple sugaring and more. Brian eventually discarded all possessions other than his clothes. He spent his time traveling, living, and teaching around the country. Learn more about Brian
David Jacobson, Tracking Instructor
David has held a passion for the art and science of tracking all his life. He has put in countless hours of study towards every aspect of tracking. Along with a degree in botanical studies as they relate to wildlife habitat, his own immersive "dirt time" includes track geography (often referred to as pressure releases and gait analysis), intensive substrate analysis for aging and structure, tactical tracking and search and rescue, wetland ecology, stealth and camouflage, sustenance hunting and perfecting the art of trailing.
One critical aspect of David's educational philosophy is his attentiveness to safety of students and the requirement that every lesson needs to functional. "I will never ask a student to do something that does not have a real purpose. We learn about tracking to actually find the animal, not simply as an academic study".
David sees every aspect of wilderness skills as being relevant to the whole. "While we teach a tracking class," he says, "We also delve into the reality of survival skills. Our own understanding of how we live in the wild, foraging for food, sustaining our livelihood, is what truly tells us about the lives of the animals we are learning to both track and trail."
Jason Craban, Adjunct Instructor
Jason grew up in rural Maryland, spending most of his free time in the woods hunting and scouting on the same piece of land his family has lived on for over two-hundred years. He has practiced survival skills while traveling the country by foot and freight train and he has trained with some of the best leathercrafters and skin on frame boat makers in the world. Learn more about Jason
Liza Mahar, Metalworking Instructor
Liza spent her early years in New Hampshire where she frequented the White Mountains. She began making useful things when her grandmother taught her to sew. Now in Portland she still spends her time making, repairing or altering things in trade exchanges, teaching, demonstrating and researching, practicing yoga, and making food. She has taught metalworking techniques at Oregon College of Art and Craft and Multnomah Art Center. Learn more about Liza
June Rzendzian, Plants Instructor
June was raised in the wetlands of Southeastern Michigan, where she spent most of her youth exploring creek beds, hardwood forests and abandoned farm fields. She has her Masters in Educational Leadership from PSU's Leadership in Ecology, Culture and Learning and manages Fawnwood Farm, a local CSA and organic farm. Learn more about June
Emily Porter, Plants Instructor
Emily grew up next to the Allegheny National Forest, exploring the ancestral hills and rock shelters of the Seneca people. Like the fabled Yamabushi (forest warrior monks) her passions include herbalism and healing touch. She has a BS in environmental studies from the University of Pittsburgh. Making a living as a botanist, model, writer and educator, she keeps track of her undertakings on her blog Tracker of Plants
Shaun Deller, Trapping Instructor
Shaun was born and raised in Pennsylvania where he spent his youth playing in the fields and forests that surrounded his small neighborhood. Shaun attended the Maryland Institute College of Art where he studied painting, drawing, sculpture and fiber arts. He spent a semester in Aix-en-Provence, France refining his skills with a small group of artists. Being a self-employed entrepreneur afforded him time to perfect his skills in ultra-light backpacking, bicycle touring and wilderness survival. Learn more about Shaun
Sam Bisnette, instructor
Sam Bisnette hails from the Flint Hills of Northeast Kansas. His passion for primitive studies was lighted at an early age when John McPherson gave a presentation to his kindergarten class. Sam grew up roaming the rolling prairie: hunting, fishing, trapping and finding the occasional arrowhead along the Kansas river. While working on a dude ranch in southern Colorado, Sam found a love for horses. Sam learned to ride and care for horses at the Kaiser Dressage Academy. Sam then put his horse skills to use in Montana, guiding in the Bob Marshall Wilderness and Glacier National Park. Among his focuses are biking, surfing, indigenous studies, urban tracking, hiking, and knot tying. Learn more about Sam
Henry Stanley, Permaculture Instructor
Henry grew up on a small farm in a small town on the amazing Oregon Coast. He studied under Geoff Lawton at the Permaculture Institute of Australia. After college, Henry started gardening again on the Oregon Coast and was introduced to community building as a key community member of City Repair. Learn more about Henry
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