Behind the beauty and peacefulness of Earth Sanctuary is an exemplary team of experts in wetland ecology, restoration, landscape design, and Feng Shui.

Michael Angelo
Michael Angelo is involved in both the physical and spiritual aspects of Earth Sanctuary. He helps clear trails, cut down dead or fallen trees, build the sacred spaces and care for the plants. Spiritually, his Native American prayers help create the spiritual atmosphere of Earth Sanctuary. He recently led the creation of a traditional Native American Medicine Wheel and has brought Native Medicine Plant teachings to our restoration efforts.

Heidi is responsible for managing the planting, maintenance, care of our ambitious tree program - to replant the entire Earth Sanctuary property with the optimal mix of trees.

Dan Borroff (left) and Dave Schmidt (right)
Dan Borroff is Earth Sanctuary's landscape designer. He created the landscaping for Earth Sanctuary's sacred sites and its House, determining hardscaping as well as plantings. He is also the lead on Earth Sanctuary's revegetation project and supervises its implementation. Numerous articles have featured Dan and his award-winning work. An enigmatic character, concerned with the stewardship of the Earth, Dan's been described as "a fascinating mix of scientist and artist, idealist and pragmatist." He is the principal of Dan Borroff Landscape. Dave Schmidt has been in the horticulture business all his life. At Earth Sanctuary he's assisted with plant selection, and with his wife, Catherine, has done all the planting at Earth Sanctuary-nearly 7,000 plants. Dave built the Earth Sanctuary Labyrinth and contributed to the Dolmen's hardscaping. He has a Masters degree in Restoration Ecology from the University of Washington and is interesed in working more with wetland and restoration ecology.

Wetland, river and forest restoration expert. Kevin is one of the most experienced professional wetlands ecologists in the Pacific Northwest. Kevin is a consultant specializing in forest, wetland, and river ecology. He brings to the Earth Sanctuary 15 years of experience designing, constructing and monitoring wetland restoration projects. The Earth Sanctuary 500-Year Plan is the result of his collaboration with landscape designer Dan Borroff. The result is an ecological design synthesizing state of the art ecosystem science and landscape design.

As a Crystals expert Collen provided recommendations for which minerals to be placed beneath each of Earth Sanctuary's sacred sites, and assisted with their installation in several cases. As a professional environmentalist, Collen has worked with land use planning, electromagnetic fields, hazardous chemicals, salmon fisheries and air pollution studies. For seven years, Collen wrote the monthly column "Messages in Stone" for The New Times and co-authored the book Crystalline Communion 2000. As a psychic, Collen works with astrology, tarot, geopathology, and earth healing. Collen teaches Reiki, meditation, and the healing properties of minerals.

Yvonne and Johnny Palka are among Earth Sanctuary's closest neighbors and are serving as naturalists and tour guides. Both are biologists by training, recently retired from academic careers, and have a deep love for the land and its restoration. Yvonne was a professor of psychology at Antioch University Seattle and worked in building bridges and connections between body, mind, environment and spirit for many years. Johnny was a professor of biology at the University of Washington and helped to found the new Program on the Environment which is broadly interdisciplinary and includes components from the natural and social sciences, law, business and the humanities. He also helped to launch the Restoration Ecology Network whose students have worked at Earth Sanctuary. Prior to this he had a long and distinguished career both as a researcher in the neurosciences and as an innovative teacher. Since moving to Whidbey Island both Johnny and Yvonne have been active with the Whidbey Institute, Friends of Freeland, the AuSable Institute, Beachwatchers, and Earth Sanctuary.

Bre Pettis is a media-maker, video-blogger, creative consultant, artist, and school-teacher. Bre is founder, editor, and reporter at We Are The Media. Bre writes and produces videos for his I Make Things blog. Bre is also in charge of video production here at Earth Sanctuary.

Morgan Pettis, In addition to becoming something of an accomplished cairn artist, Morgan works as our Restoration Project Manager. Morgan has a background involving federal facility environmental compliance and was awarded the 1999 White House Closing the Circle Award for Environmental Excellence, while honorably serving six years in the U.S. Coast Guard.

David's expertise with Feng-Shui helped to determine the placement of trails and landscaping elements at Earth Sanctuary. David has over 25 years of practical experience as a designer, builder, and project manager. His current work is primarily as a specialized consultant for community planning, green building design, and guideline and incentive programs that have a strong emphasis on resource conservation, healthy communities and healthy buildings. He is the author of Environmental by Design and Healthy by Design: Building and Remodeling Solutions for Creating Healthy Homes. David teaches Ecological Design at the University of British Columbia, and is the President of Archemy Consulting Ltd, Vancouver, B.C.

Known affectionately as "Rinpoche," His Holiness is Earth Sanctuary's Spiritual Advisor. Jigdal Dagchen Sakya was raised in Old Tibet to assume the role of "throne holder" of the Sakya School, a role third only to H.H. the Dalai Lama in rank. He is descended from a noble lineage, regarded in Tibet as an emanation of Manjushri, the Bodhisattva of Wisdom. His immigration to the United States in 1960 makes him one of the first Tibetans-in-exile in North America. In 1974 he co-founded the Sakya Monastery of Tibetan Buddhism[http://www.sakya.org] in Seattle. Since then he has guided the Monastery as a non-denominational and ecumenical center for teachings about Tibetan Buddhism.

Mike is the designer and fabricator of Earth Sanctuary's signs. Additionally, he's created the metal inlaid sundial near Earth Sanctuary House, and worked on Blackberry vine sculpture installations. For forty years, Mike has studied, taught and pursued the art of sculpture. Fifteen years ago, he began to branch into the design and manufacture of metal furniture. Today, Mike has a fabrication shop where he builds lines of furniture, which sell coast to coast, and fabricates custom furniture and architectural accessories for regional designers. Mike also maintains a studio for building sculpture and commission work using a wide variety of materials. Mike is the owner/designer of Shadow Maker Designs, a local custom metal fabrication firm.

Celia is the caretaker of Earth Sanctuary House. In addition to that, she introduces and orients people to the Earth Sanctuary land and leads Labyrinth Walks. When she's not at Earth Sanctuary Celia teaches kindergarten on Whidbey Island. A vocalist herself, she enjoys teaching music in school performing arts programs. Celia lives in a house next to Earth Sanctuary.

Praneet is a web developer for Earth Sanctuary and the BrandSolutions website (www.brand.com). In addition to that, he is working for J P Morgan Chase as a Lead Business Analyst. He has a great passion for web site development and has a background in developing websites for NASA, Cisco Systems, State of California Judicial System, etc.

Dolmen Installation Team (clockwise, from far left, Albert, Bre, Chuck, Morgan, Steven)
Albert Gabelein has operated heavy machinery for a number of projects at Earth Sanctuary - from the construction of access roads to the installation of the dolmen. Albert has a lot of experience in moving large stones for hardscaping, and helped build the Mutiny Bay Stone Circle. He's run his Albert Gabelein Construction company for 24 years on Whidbey Island. Bre Pettis one of Chuck Pettis' sons, started working on megalithic monuments at the age of four when he helped with the construction of the Ellis Hollow Stone Circle in Ithaca, NY. Bre was instrumental in the initial "harvesting" of Himalayan Blackberries at Earth Sanctuary. During the summer that he spent there he perfected techniques for Blackberry vine sculptures - many of which can be seen throughout the property. Bre is school teacher in Seattle and teaches music, drama, and dance. Morgan Pettis has put in many hours helping to restore the Earth Sanctuary ecology. Steven Gabelein enjoys working with his Dad and collecting rocks. He has helped with the installation and monitoring of bird nesting boxes, as well as brush clearing at Earth Sanctuary. Steven's favorite sports are cross-country running and basketball.