Our Mission

Julee was born in Korea and immigrated to Reno, NV when she was 5 years old. As a child, her parents made it a priority to take her camping and visit national parks to cultivate her sense of wonder with nature.  Julee's journey with self-reliance started with the desire to replace her chemical-laden shampoo with a more simple alternative. Fast-forward ten years and you'd be hard-pressed to find a household product (or food!) she doesn't know how to create. Julee has a MS in occupational therapy, working with children to improve their fine motor and sensory processing skills through interactions with the natural world.  

Christopher was born in the outskirts of Los Angeles county, at that magical intersection between urban and wilderness. Their earliest memories were of exploring the Oak-laden hills beyond the reach of the roads, wading through Stinging Nettle in shorts and becoming lost in the vast expanse of the landscape from dusk till dawn. Christopher holds a MA in integrative ecology from UNR, is on the board of the Nevada Native Plant Society and leads walks and workshops throughout the region. They are currently writing a comprehensive guide to edible and medicinal plants of the Sierra Nevada and is co-author to an upcoming book on California trees. 

Trash Panda Permaculture is a project that arose from a desire to become more mindful of our consumption and build a greater connection with the lands which we are a part of.  This sentiment carries forth to their current locale in the eastern Sierra Nevada where they live with two children and a farms-worth of animals on their permaculture homestead.