Learn more about us…
Meet Paul & Heather.
Working as a human rights lawyer and mediator, Heather Unger and Paul Kruse have sought ways to create balance in relationships among people and with the earth.
Encountering permaculture, they were delighted to find it is possible to not only sustain the earth as it is, but to restore, to regenerate, to heal the earth. Paul and Heather founded Northern Grove as their offering within the emerging regenerative economy, providing holistic tree care and permaculture design, consultation and education.
Heather and Paul live at their 40 acre permaculture homestead, northeast of Winnipeg, where they apply the permaculture principles they teach.
Rather than seeing human activity as necessarily damaging to the earth, Paul and Heather seek to partner with earth to be a benefit - to regenerate ecosystems, create ecological and economic resilience, and benefit their community. In that sense, they hope to make as large a ‘footprint’ as possible.
A bit more about Heather
Throughout her studies and work in international development and human rights law, Heather has looked for ways to facilitate systemic change and restore relationship among people and with the earth. She now helps people re-define their place in nature through permaculture design, consultation and education.
Heather imagines a world where ‘life springs up underfoot wherever we tread’, and so is pursuing certification in soil regeneration - an area that carries immense possibilities for the flourishing of all life.
When her hands are not in the soil, Heather works as a McGill-trained human rights lawyer. She also enjoys making big art, and starts plants and propagates trees compulsively.
*Heather studied Permaculture Design with Geoff Lawton of Australia. She is currently pursuing certification in soil regeneration under Dr. Elaine Ingham.
A bit more about Paul
Paul has a long history of working with trees. In his younger years, Paul spent six summers tree planting and running tree planting crews in northern B.C. and Alberta. His career has come full circle, and he now takes care of trees in their maturity in his home province of Manitoba.*
Paul also cares about the health of earth systems and food security. He has matched his tree work with certification in permaculture design, and so approaches his tree work with the bigger picture of tree and ecosystem health and resilience in mind.
When not in trees, Paul works as a conflict resolution trainer and mediator. He also keeps honey bees and grows mushrooms.
*Paul is certified through the Manitoba Arborist Training Course through the University of Manitoba and is currently working toward his ISA (International Society of Arboriculture) certification. He maintains full insurance to protect against injury and property damage.
We gratefully acknowledge that we work with trees and ecosystems on Treaty 1 land, the ancestral lands of the Anishinaabe, Cree and Dakota Nations, and homeland of the Métis nation.