Darren Butler is a Consulting Arborist, Ecological Designer, Sustainable Landscaping Specialist, and Teacher. His recent projects include designing food forests in residential landscapes, which are forest-like systems that produce food with minimal maintenance once established. He has appeared on several episodes of "Weekend Gardening" for a large international television audience as an expert horticulturist and landscaper, on NPR radio, in newspapers, in other national media, and as an arborist expert witness. He has taught many courses on gardening, horticulture, sustainability, permaculture, design, and related topics in a wide variety of venues, including Sustainable Landscape Design and Diagnosing Plant Problems for the University of California Master Gardener Program in Los Angeles since 2006, and various courses for Descanso Botantic Gardens including Small-Space Food Gardening and Drought-Tolerant Landscaping. In 2008 he worked with the Getty Villa to develop a gardening-related workshop.
     He works as a consultant and designer for a variety of clients from celebrities to nonprofit organizations, volunteers hundreds of hours per year primarily to promote sustainable practices and to help low-income people grow and eat more nutritious food, and has recently acted as horticultural consultant for the Edible Walls project through urbanfarming.org for the homeless in downtown Los Angeles. Other current projects include development of ecoliteracy and permaculture courses for children, and new courses for adults on greywater design and installation, pruning and grafting, hands-on direct-solar-gain projects, ancient Greek rhetoric for modern persuasion, the enneagram, and others.
     He maintains many landscape- and plant-related certifications and licenses including ISA Certified Arborist, University of California Master Gardener, Certified Landscape Irrigation Auditor, Permaculture Design Certificate, and others. In 2007 and 2008 he developed curriculum for and taught certification programs in Sustainable Biointensive Gardening and in Edible Landscaping. From 2007 through 2008 he served on the Statewide Advisory Committee and currently serves on the Statewide Steering Committee for all University of California Master Gardener programs, and has been instrumental in having sustainability adopted as the primary focus for the California statewide Master Gardener program, which will influence the outreach efforts of 4,100 Master Gardeners statewide.
     He speaks frequently at events throughout California, recently at the 2008 University of California Statewide Master Gardener Conference. He has been gardening since childhood, and developing expertise in Southern California gardening since 1996.

Darren Butler is available for public speaking, special engagements, and workshops within the greater Los Angeles area and nationwide.