Planet Healers Path: Ecological Restoration Education for All
Planet Healers teaches ecological restoration to everyday people. Founded by Paul Morris (30 years field experience across temperate Canada and tropical Mexico) and Sophie Ortiz (agronomy engineer, co-founder), we run from Tsunul Reserve, a 39-hectare site in the Yucatan that went from overgrazed karst limestone to closed-canopy forest with 514+ documented species in ten years. The land proved what was possible. Now we teach how. Our core offering is the Planet Healer Path, a five-stage learning journey (Awakening, Seeing, Doing, Teaching, Building) hosted on Patreon, with an Access Fund for anyone who can't afford it. We also run the Introduction to Ecological Restoration (IER) course through the Soil Food Web School and Ecosystem Restoration Communities. All content is bilingual (English and Spanish). Our mission: get restoration knowledge out of the academic bubble and into the hands of people ready to act.
Project story
The Planet Healer Path is a five-stage course in ecological restoration built from 30 years of field work. It lives on Patreon, and it's open to anyone, anywhere. No science degree needed.
We started Acorus Restoration in Canada in 1995. Twenty years growing 350+ native species, supplying plants, restoring 100s of sites in Canada. Then we moved to the Yucatan in 2015. Bought 39 hectares of overgrazed karst limestone near Merida. People said it was wrecked. Ten years later, the site has 514+ documented species and a closed-canopy forest. The land did that. We assisted it.
That's what we teach. How to read a damaged landscape, figure out what it's trying to become, and help it get there. The Path takes people through five stages: Awakening (why this matters to you), Seeing (learning to read ecosystems), Doing (hands-on restoration skills), Teaching (passing it on), and Building (long-term stewardship). We also run the Introduction to Ecological Restoration course through the Soil Food Web School, a 16-lesson deep dive used by students globally and the Roadmap Training run by Ecosystem Restoration Communities.
Everything is bilingual. My partner Sophie Ortiz, an agronomy engineer from Mexico, reviews all Spanish content. We run an Access Fund, so cost is never a barrier.
Here's the problem we're solving: ecological restoration knowledge is stuck. It sits in academic journals, behind paywalls, written in language that shuts out the people who could use it most. The field is chronically underfunded because it hasn't reached beyond the converted. We're trying to change that.
What this funding would do:
The Path exists. The content is built. What we need is reach. This funding would go directly to:
Free scholarships through the Access Fund, removing cost as a barrier for anyone who wants to learn
Internship support for Global South students who want hands-on field experience at Tsunul but can't afford travel and living costs
Outreach and advertising to get the Path in front of people outside the environmental bubble, the audience that restoration needs most
Building community and critical mass around the Path so it sustains itself through people sharing, teaching, and starting their own projects
The land wants to recover. People want to help. This project connects the two.
Project updates
Team
Planet Healers Path: Ecological Restoration Education for All
Planet Healers teaches ecological restoration to everyday people. Founded by Paul Morris (30 years field experience across temperate Canada and tropical Mexico) and Sophie Ortiz (agronomy engineer, co-founder), we run from Tsunul Reserve, a 39-hectare site in the Yucatan that went from overgrazed karst limestone to closed-canopy forest with 514+ documented species in ten years. The land proved what was possible. Now we teach how. Our core offering is the Planet Healer Path, a five-stage learning journey (Awakening, Seeing, Doing, Teaching, Building) hosted on Patreon, with an Access Fund for anyone who can't afford it. We also run the Introduction to Ecological Restoration (IER) course through the Soil Food Web School and Ecosystem Restoration Communities. All content is bilingual (English and Spanish). Our mission: get restoration knowledge out of the academic bubble and into the hands of people ready to act.
Project story
The Planet Healer Path is a five-stage course in ecological restoration built from 30 years of field work. It lives on Patreon, and it's open to anyone, anywhere. No science degree needed.
We started Acorus Restoration in Canada in 1995. Twenty years growing 350+ native species, supplying plants, restoring 100s of sites in Canada. Then we moved to the Yucatan in 2015. Bought 39 hectares of overgrazed karst limestone near Merida. People said it was wrecked. Ten years later, the site has 514+ documented species and a closed-canopy forest. The land did that. We assisted it.
That's what we teach. How to read a damaged landscape, figure out what it's trying to become, and help it get there. The Path takes people through five stages: Awakening (why this matters to you), Seeing (learning to read ecosystems), Doing (hands-on restoration skills), Teaching (passing it on), and Building (long-term stewardship). We also run the Introduction to Ecological Restoration course through the Soil Food Web School, a 16-lesson deep dive used by students globally and the Roadmap Training run by Ecosystem Restoration Communities.
Everything is bilingual. My partner Sophie Ortiz, an agronomy engineer from Mexico, reviews all Spanish content. We run an Access Fund, so cost is never a barrier.
Here's the problem we're solving: ecological restoration knowledge is stuck. It sits in academic journals, behind paywalls, written in language that shuts out the people who could use it most. The field is chronically underfunded because it hasn't reached beyond the converted. We're trying to change that.
What this funding would do:
The Path exists. The content is built. What we need is reach. This funding would go directly to:
Free scholarships through the Access Fund, removing cost as a barrier for anyone who wants to learn
Internship support for Global South students who want hands-on field experience at Tsunul but can't afford travel and living costs
Outreach and advertising to get the Path in front of people outside the environmental bubble, the audience that restoration needs most
Building community and critical mass around the Path so it sustains itself through people sharing, teaching, and starting their own projects
The land wants to recover. People want to help. This project connects the two.
Project updates
Team
Location
Mexico