The Grassroots Garden Learning Centre is located on a 1.1 hectare parcel in Port Hardy, British Columbia
The centre is a project of the Grassroots Garden Society, a nonprofit incorporated in British Columbia.

Our Board of Directors:
Regina Duesterloh, David Lang (President), Ricki-Lyn McCrae, Dawn Moorhead and Laverne Knopp
Executive Director: Dawn Moorhead

Biographies

Regina Duesterloh, Board Member
Regina was educated in Germany in the field of commerce and economy. After working for a Company manufacturing industrial batteries as an industrial clerk, she was employed by the provincial government.
While raising her children she worked halftime as an administrative assistant in a law office. In 2002 Regina came to Canada. In Sidney she owned and operated a delicatessen. In 2005 after getting her diploma in interior design she planned and supervised renovations. She moved to Port Hardy in 2007. For her gardening is a lifelong passion. Most of her life she has lived in rural communities where growing vegetables and fruits in small gardens is common. Regina hopes to pass on her knowledge of healthy affordable nutrition and environmental awareness.

David Lang, Board Member, President Lang, President
David was educated at University College, London, University of London and the University of Aberdeen. He is an environmental manager and co-founder of ESPWA. His work has taken him around the world to more than 30 countries where he has inter alia advised ministers and worked with government organizations, NGOs and individual farmers. This work includes land use planning in farmland and forest, reviewing present land use, and developing organic responses and a series of environmental impact assessments of proposed land uses. He taught soil science to ministry agriculturists, foresters and farmers, was Resident Scientist and Adjunct Professor at Clemson University's Springfield Centre, and managed certified organic farms. He was instrumental in the formation of DOAM (Dominica Organic Agriculture Society.)
David is a member of the Port Hardy Joint Advisory/Planning Harbour Commission and the Pacific Region Society of Soil Scientists. He is president of the Grassroots Garden Society and makes his home on northern Vancouver Island. Representative projects in his charge: soils information and analysis of proposed forest development plans in Nigeria; proposal for recognition of the Morne Trois Pitons National Park as a United Nations World Heritage Site ; land use evaluation of northern Zambia; Study Director of the Volta River Authority Farm Project at Kpong (planning, monitoring, soil and crop management programs for irrigated farm); FAO/UNDP Chief technical advisor/regional planner for the Mountain-River Lake office responsible for a new system of planning for Jiangxi Province, People's Republic of China - integrating ecology, economy to stabilize the environment: erosion control and river control, more sustainable agriculture and reduction of pollution through sensible industrial development.

Ricki-Lyn McCrae, Board Member
I was raised primarily on a small island in Collingwood Sound where we grew and harvested as much food as possible from the ocean, forest, and gardens. I studied neurophysiology and biology at University of Victoria (BSc 1985), then continued to work in a variety of jobs and do course work in a variety of fields (Small Business Ownership Development Plan – Vancouver Community College, psychology UBC, mathematics SFU, French/English Capilano College, Women in Management FDBB, Canadian History North Island College) before returning to Malaspina University College to do Post Degree Program in Education (BEd 1994). I have lived and worked on the North Island since that time, my central areas of instruction are Science and Foods & Nutrition although I have taught everything from accounting to zoology.

Dawn Moorhead, Board Member, Executive Director, Executive Director
Dawn was educated at the University of California, Berkeley; University of the Pacific, McGeorge School of Law; and New York University Law School. She co-founded and served as executive director of IVEX, an international aid organization. She was also a co-founder of ESPWA, and assisted in the formation of DOAM (Dominica Organic Agriculture Movement) .Her experience includes NGO administration, international logistics, organic seed production, organic plant propagation, project development, technical writing, organic farming, creation of community and school gardens, a demonstration composting project and seed collectives. She makes her home on northern Vancouver Island, British Columbia. Representative projects: homebuilding in remote rural western Kenya; rural development and employment project in Antigua; sustainable technologies & organic production in Barbados; community garden, forest trails, education projects in the United States; organic agriculture and forest trails in Dominica. Projects were undertaken in partnership with local NGO's and participants from Andorra, Antigua, Barbados, Belgium, Canada, Dominica, Finland, France, Germany, Japan, Ireland, Montserrat, Netherlands, Norway, Serbia, Trinidad & Tobago, the UK and the USA.