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. 

Believe it or not, employee wellness programs have existed for the better part of the last 100 years. For much of this history, the programs have focused on the physical aspect of health while ignoring other facets of an individual’s wellbeing including mental health and work/life balance. In the past, wellness programs often included structured times throughout the workday to stretch or get some exercise, but research shows that programs such as these are often underutilized by the employees themselves. Why is this, and what have these attempts at workplace wellness been missing? At Mountain Rose Herbs, we recognize that the workday is just a fraction of the lives we all lead. If we want company-sponsored initiatives to effectively promote health and wellbeing, they must extend beyond the office to improve the overall quality of life.

As many of you know, longtime owner, Shawn Donnille, returned to an active role as CEO of Mountain Rose Herbs at the beginning of 2020, just as the first Covid-19 cases were reaching Oregon. Like so many companies, we were deeply impacted by the realities of trying to do business during this time. Now, after navigating Mountain Rose through a radical restructuring, Shawn is able at last to step back and pass the day-to-day operations to two trusted, longstanding employees. We want to express our gratitude to him for being the driving force that pulled us through such trying times, and we want to let you know about the exciting leadership changes we’re making.

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.

Spring is upon us, and many of us spent the cold and dark days of winter planning spring and summer gardens, selecting plant varieties, acquiring seeds, and getting a head start on sowing, germinating, and nurturing the young seedlings in our windowsills and greenhouses. Nowadays, we can buy everything from seeds and trees to full-grown flowers and shrubs at nurseries around the country. But not all nurseries are alike. A surprising number of the most popular suppliers of the seeds and plants we love give little regard to environmental issues. Don’t despair! There are guidelines and best practices we would like to share with the Mountain Rose Herbs community that will help you select seeds and plants that were grown using practices that support the health and vitality of our ecosystem.

We just returned from the American Herbal Products Association (AHPA) Annual Member Meeting at New Hope Expo West in Anaheim, California. Each year since 2006, AHPA recognizes individuals and organizations that have made significant contributions to the continued success of the herbal and natural products industries. We’re excited to share that longtime Mountain Rose Herbs Owner and President, Shawn Donnille, has been awarded the prestigious 2023 AHPA Environmental Impact Award!

As the focus on living sustainably increases, so too does the search for meaningful practices to incorporate into our lives. We often find ourselves presented with more challenges than solutions. Over time it becomes clear that the simpler and more approachable the solution, the better and more likely we are to stick to the new practice. We all know the importance of recycling and conserving resources, but did you know that there is a framework for eliminating the waste we send to the landfill? That framework is known as zero waste. What does zero waste mean and how does a company as large as Mountain Rose Herbs incorporate these practices into our daily operations? 

Readers of the Mountain Rose Herbs blog know that one of our primary concerns is the ongoing and increasing impact of overharvesting on wild plants. Some of the most popular medicinal herbs in the world—for example, goldenseal, bloodroot, black cohosh, trillium, and osha—are at risk and/or endangered. As well as rampant wildharvesting, these precious botanicals are impacted by land use issues and climate change, which are becoming more problematic. As a bulk herbs company dedicated to putting people, plants, and planet before profit, we believe it is our responsibility to do everything possible to find solutions for our herbal allies. One way we do that is to work within the regulations set forth by CITES—the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora.

Rain had been falling for the better part of the last week but on the morning of Wednesday, December 7^th, with the skies partially clear, the Mountain Rose Herbs Green Team was working to enhance the landscape at our new campus. By midday, we had carefully planted two Aspen, 24 Kinnikinnick, 34 Ponderosa, and 250 Camas bulbs into the expanding green space that makes up the western border of the property. Five staff members, working for a total of 10 hours, completed this work as part of our effort to build a vibrant landscape that blurs the lines between the commercial/industrial use of the facilities and an ecosystem that is representative of the southern Willamette Valley.

People often assume that sustainability is not compatible with the tenets of successful business management. However, Mountain Rose Herbs is an excellent example of how a company can be guided by the principle of putting people, plants, and planet before profit and how business decisions can successfully consider both the environmental and social impact of operational choices and costs. Keeping sustainability at the core of our business practices means we are aware of the full cost of doing business and we make decisions consciously to minimize any negative impact that our company might have on our community, ecosystems, and ultimately the planet. With a history rooted in environmental and social activism, we cannot imagine operating a business any other way.

In 2001, when we moved Mountain Rose Herbs from California to Pleasant Hill, Oregon, we made the move to be closer to our farm partners, wildharvesters, and processors. But another key factor in our decision was Oregon Tilth Certified Organic (OTCO), a Corvallis, Oregon nonprofit that was reimagining how the world’s food systems could work better for people and the planet. Founded on the fundamental belief that our food and agricultural systems should be sustainable and equitable, Oregon Tilth has spent nearly fifty years workingfororganic food and farming.