Lithia Park is a lively cultural hub in the heart of Ashland, Oregon. Each year, over a million people visit the bustling, yet peaceful park to stroll, jog, cycle, or just admire the landscape that winds along the brisk Ashland Creek. The 100-acre park also provides habitat and food sources for many species of plants, pollinators, animals, and fish. The well-balanced ecosystem of the park is attributed largely to the integrative maintenance practices that were put into place in 2010 which allows less than 1% synthetic herbicides and pesticides to be used within the park, and then only if there is a severe public safety hazard present. 

Ahead of their time and with no infrastructure to replicate from other park departments, the City of Ashland realized that the adoption of this policy at a scale this large would necessitate a volunteer program to be successful. Fast forward to 2023; thousands of individuals and businesses now offer their time and skills each year to help with the manual work that is needed to replace the previous chemical inputs. Mountain Rose Herbs is one of the businesses that the park system calls upon for this kind of support.

On a warm and sunny day this past May, the Mountain Rose Herbs Director Team donned their gardening clothes and thorn-proof gloves and set out to thin the overgrown vegetation and remove the invasive plants trying to take over the native plants of the area. In several hours, the eleven-person Director Team along with Owner and President, Shawn Donnille, removed about one cubic yard of “unwelcome” plants from the areas. Not only was this a productive day of work, but it also helped to solidify the camaraderie of those who help lead the way at Mountain Rose Herbs. These kinds of activities continue to unify the team and keep their mindset on putting people, plants, and planet before profit. It is a deeply rooted aspect of our company culture, and we are grateful to the City of Ashland for paving the way and offering an opportunity for our team to come together to do more good.

We hope that more communities will adopt policies that eliminate the use of synthetic inputs, especially in places where people gather for their health and wellness. We encourage other organizations to help support these types of initiatives through volunteer work and team-building experiences. It is not an easy path to sow, but the environmental impacts and health of our communities are worth it.