At Mountain Rose Herbs, botanicals are our business, and the industry has been growing year over year as more people realize the health-supporting benefits of our plant allies. Sounds great, doesn’t it? In many ways, this is a wonderful return to valuing the abundance the natural world has to offer while utilizing the myriad benefits that botanicals provide. Unfortunately, the ongoing and increasing impact of overharvesting wild plants has left many of our native populations at significant risk of decline or even extinction. For this reason, we have invested our time and energy in striking a balance between increasing the availability of the number of botanicals we offer and supporting the conservation of the most at-risk plant varieties.
If you have been following our blog, you are aware of our efforts to support the preservation of botanicals through many different initiatives. Whether it’s upholding CITES regulations to determine how we source herbs and spices or supporting groups like Appalachian Sustainable Development to pioneer methods for the cultivation of plants like goldenseal, we focus on working with values-aligned individuals and organizations to ensure the sustainability of a lifestyle grounded in right-relationship with the planet we all call home. United Plant Savers (UpS) is an indispensable ally to achieve these goals.
UpS is a non-profit organization focused on research, education, and conservation of native medicinal plants, fungi, and their habitats while ensuring renewable populations for use by generations to come. Among their many efforts and accomplishments is the creation of the Species At-Risk List, which highlights the wild medicinal plants that are currently most sensitive to the impact of human activities. We worked closely with UpS and their Executive Director Susan Leopold to develop the Mountain Rose Herbs Seed Stewardship Project.
The goal of the Seed Stewardship Project is to raise awareness about at-risk plants that need our help. We hope that a solution-oriented approach of supplying free seeds to those able to plant them will help rebuild populations of these special plants. Now, when you place an order on Mountainroseherbs.com, you will have the option to select one of several seed varieties from the UpS At-Risk List. You will have the power to sow your own seeds and effect positive change for these botanicals. Whether in a window box, backyard, or a natural area where these plants once thrived, we can ensure their survival one seed at a time.
Mountain Rose Herbs will seasonally rotate the varieties of seed available through this project, continually focused on increasing these populations while improving awareness of how to care for the plants. For those of you that are willing and able to partner with us to support these plant allies, we thank you for choosing to be a seed steward in your community and for helping us to create a ripple of change for people, plants, and planet.
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