Megan is from the Harbor Springs / Petoskey region. Growing up on the shoreline, knowing the taste of the seasons, the water, and what it means to support your neighbor. Megan’s passion for land was written into who she was early on in life.
In her younger years, Megan moved often but always returned to northern Michigan. While she attended college at a small liberal arts school in Kentucky, Megan’s parents moved their life to the Traverse City and Leelanau region, which brought Megan to a new level of passion for caring and protecting the land, water, farms, and culture of our region. She found solace, connection, and community amongst the lands here in a way that meant something different than what she knew growing up further north. It felt like home despite desiring to see the world in her twenties.
When she returned to the region herself in 2016, after she and her husband Mike Gilger had their first child, Megan took up responsibility for recuperating their 15 acres in Leelanau County that had been decimated in order to be a ski resort. The land shifted her passions and what she called work. Having her hands in the soil taught her that nature is a powerful healer and teacher. Ultimately it set the course for her to shift from a career in marketing and graphic design to instead go back to school to study permaculture, get involved with small farming practices, and rethink how we perceive nature in our modern world.
Nearly 10 years later, Megan is a certified Permaculture Designer through Cornell University, has participated in Carbon Farming programs through Crosshatch, was a founding member of the LC Collective, and owns her own landscape design and permaculture design studio, Perma Studio, based in Leelanau County.
Megan is passionate about the lands we call home and define the culture and community of Leelanau, as she raises her young kids alongside her husband on their acreage in the southern part of Leelanau. She teaches within the community on land reading, gardening with nature, and how to build closed loop farming systems that place people and earth at the forefront. Currently, she is passionate about rehabilitating an acre of nearly 20-year-old grapes.
Recently, Megan was named a Radical Designer at TC Design Week for her permaculture-focused landscape designs and has earned acknowledgement for her designs in rethinking the systems we use in viticulture. She often uses her knowledge of permaculture to help look at the systems in our communities in unique ways that may question how things have been done in the past and how they may work in the future as our climate changes and we feel the impacts of development in our region.
Megan is an avid downhill skier, cross-country skier, land steward, plant enthusiast, and observer of the natural world. She deeply believes our health, prosperity, culture, and future is defined by the health of our natural spaces, our connection and access to them, and that the way we farm and supply our food to our community is vital to prioritize in any land stewarding practice.
