"A Penny a Mile" for the United Plant Savers

Some of you may have heard me talking recently about my desire to do more than just go for a walk in the woods. Every day I think about just how fortunate I am. I look for ways to give back to a cause.
After having just completed the most amazing internship at the United Plant Savers' Goldenseal Sanctuary in Rutland, Ohio, I have come to realize the cause to which I would like to contribute...

A group shot with my fellow interns at the Goldenseal Sancuary, May-June2011

"The United Plant Savers does a six week Spring and Fall internship program. Each session, 6-8 interns come to live and work immersed in one of the most ecologically diverse regions of the world. In these woods we find vast stands of Goldenseal, Bloodroot, Blue Cohosh, Black Cohosh, Wild Ginger, Virginia Snakeroot and other plants UPS deems ‘at risk.’ This land, like many of the other neighboring hills, was strip mined decades ago. Our ‘Talking Forest Trail’ includes paths that traverse these reclaimed channels onto neighboring lands of like-minded individuals. This makes the protected land not just 360 acres but up to 1000 acres or more. It is amazing to see the potential for land generation in this local ‘green corridor.’

  As interns, we come to connect to this place in a number of ways. We walk the forest learning plants with intern coordinators Chip Carroll and Sasha White as well as Paul Strauss. We take classes with local herbalists and neighboring landowners, learning herbal medicine and seeing sustainable land use methods in action. While learning from the land, we also do work for the land. Our work focuses on improving the sanctuary to help continue to give plants a place of respite but so that that others can keep learning from this place too. We do things like clearing invasives, weeding and maintaining shade house under story herb beds, trimming trails, seed saving and even doing building projects for the sanctuary. This Spring we had the opportunity to build a tent platform together in our prairie for future visitors and interns to use.  The trail network on the land is always in need of maintenance. It features signs labeling hundreds of plants as well as stories by herbalists on laminated sheets one can read as he walks through the forest. We spend a lot of time working on the trails, making sure the signs are holding up and the paths are clear. The internship for me has been a life changing experience, giving us the opportunity to live and work in a place where the way of life is different than most places. It has given me and the other interns would agree—a place to slow down and listen to what the plants have to offer."
          
-----see full article by Kelly Moody at  http://www.facebook.com/notes/kelly-moody/united-plant-savers-article-for-ecowatch-journal/10150268680697996

UPS Story

United Plant Savers was formed in the spirit of hope by herbalists and plant-lovers committed to protecting and re-planting "At-risk" healing plants. Our membership reflects the great diversity of American herbalism and includes wildcrafters, seed collectors, herbal products manufacturers, growers, farmers, botanists, practitioners, medicine-makers, educators, gardeners, and plant lovers from all walks of life.
The pressure on our wild medicinal plant communities grows yearly. Vast populations of plants are lost because of habitat destruction, urbanization and indiscriminate wild-harvesting. Many North American medicinal plants are exported to meet the demand in other countries where wild plants have already been gravely depleted.
We recognize that environmentally responsible cultivation, land stewardship, habitat protection and sustainable wild-harvesting are of critical importance to ensure an abundant renewable supply of medicinal plants for future generations.
In addition to assiting members of a nationwide botanical sanctuary network, the United Plant Savers engages in education, research, replantings, rescues, restorations.
The United Plant Savers also has a great website if your interested in learning more about this growing organization.

http://www.unitedplantsavers.org/

My proposal is "A penny a mile"
If you are interested in donating to my cause, we will agree on a penny for each mile I walk southbound from the beginning of the Appalachian Trail in Maine. In November/December if I reach trail's end in Georgia your balance due to me will be $21.75. I will accept pledges along the way whenever you are ready. Email is the best way to contact me. Just send me your home address and I'll put you on the list.

Here I am at the botanical sanctuary with Kelly and Hannah during our discovery of the chicken-of-the-woods mushroom.

This wonderful forest edible became a staple ingredient in our cooked meals.

Here I am shown with a drawknife. Stripping the outter bark of the Slippery Elm tree.

The final product are the medicinal inner bark strippings and a naked log. Slippery elm bark has a mucilaginous medicine that soothes mucous membranes of the body. It helps with the throat, lungs, and GI tract. This species, along with American Elm, is also affected by the Dutch Elm disease.