About Tony
“One of the most important things I want people to understand is that they are capable of creating animal habitat.
We have the materials all around us and we can be creative.” ~Tony McGuigan
Spore Lore helps empower people to make a positive difference in the world by providing them with the knowledge, resources, and inspiration to create much-needed animal habitat right in their own yard. Whether it is on an apartment balcony, an urban patio, a suburban garden, or country acreage, Spore Lore helps people think creatively about inexpensive and easy ways to provide and enhance ecosystems upon which animals of all shapes and sizes depend. Through its publications, website, presentations, and landscape design and installation services, Spore Lore inspires well-informed, yet creative and fun approaches to increasing and diversifying gardens and animal habitats in yards, neighborhoods and communities.
Tony McGuigan brings his many diverse skills and passions to Spore Lore’s products and services. His experience as a registered nurse and background in early childhood development, accounting, building, plumbing, sustainable landscaping and gardening—along with being a papa, avid outdoorsman, and enthusiastic student of life—infuses his work as a writer, photographer, editor, and publisher with a uniquely creative perspective, courageous out-of-the box thinking, and immense humor. Related to gardening and ecological landscape design, Tony holds a Sustainable Landscape Professional Certificate from Sonoma State University and a Permaculture Design Certificate from Regenerative Design Institute. Although grounded in cutting-edge research and literature of the field, Tony is pragmatic, not a purist, is unconventional in his landscaping approach yet has an eye for the aesthetic, is a master of reuse and recycling, and is a keen observer of nature and nurturer of relationships—animal, plant and human.
One of my goals is to help people get out of their “stuckness” about creating habitat and to empower people to spend time outdoors, in the garden, and to observe, play, and have fun with it.
–Tony McGuigan
Spore Lore, a publishing and habitat consulting company (a sole-proprietorship) founded in 2001 by Tony McGuigan in Sebastopol, California
Spore Lore Publications
- Habitat It And They Will Come: A FUN and EASY how-to guide for creating and increasing animal habitat, written by Tony McGuigan.
A focus of the book is to shed some light on available resources for creating a compassionate lifestyle. I want to leave people with a lot of optimism.
–Tony McGuigan
Habitat Landscape Services
- Site assessment and consulting
- Animal habitat design and installation
- Sustainable landscape and Permaculture design
- Driftwood installations—artistic, habitat-creating and/or functional
- Organic gardening with an emphasis on food production and native plants
- Soil development and composting (worm bins, compost piles, mulching)
- Mycoremediation . . . use of mycelium, spores, mushrooms
Presentations
- Hands-on workshops for all ages
- Multi-media presentations
- Readings and book signings
I want to leave people excited to share their experiences, and to be social with their excitement . . . talk to family and friends, look for people and organizations in their community to connect with. I want to encourage people to action, to be engaged not only in their garden but in their community. –Tony McGuigan