Rob is a 22 year Veteran of the United States Air Force and owns a small business in Northwest Louisiana which takes care of nuisance wildlife issues by using live removal and exclusion techniques primarily on bats and honey bees. Of course the added benefit of dealing with bats and honey bees are guano, wax and honey! Working with nature's critters requires an understanding of how they function.

He has long been interested in what makes a forest function so well without the input of Mankind. When he learned about the teachings of Bill Mollison, Geoff Lawton and many others, he sought out resources of that information and became a sponge; soaking up all that is involved in Permaculture. Rob has learned from several media sources and attended several Permaculture-centered classes with topics such as Earthworks (swale design and construction, site surveying, site design and development, natural irrigation design and development), plant selection, seed starting, seed inoculation, mulching, cover-cropping, composting, seed saving, collecting and storing and Plant Propagation (root cutting, air layering, tip layering, French layering, dropping, stem cutting, and grafting). He earned his first Permaculture Design Course Certificate (PDC) while attending a hands-on Permaculture Design Course at the Working with Nature Permaculture School in Plano TX and is currently enrolled in his second PDC with Geoff Lawton (2014 on-line PDC from PRI).

His current (main) project is developing a 5-acre Permaculture and Self-Sustainability Demonstration Site south of Bossier City Louisiana. The demonstration site will be used for training people about various permaculture techniques, water catchment, water recycling, earthworks, edible food forest design, raising livestock, proper grazing techniques, animal rotation, meat production, animal husbandry, plant propagation, and more. The property is in the process of being converted from a field which has to be mowed several times a year to an abundant Food Forest of herbs, nuts, fruits and vegetables which will provide sustainable bounty for years to come. It also has small livestock project in place with rabbits, chickens and Berkshire Hogs. The project will be documented and used as a template for others to learn from. We will be featuring teachings from several area instructors in order to promote Permaculture and Self-Sufficiency in the surrounding area.