United Plant Savers turns 25 in 2019, and we are launching our biggest outreach campaign for conservation of medicinal plants: CREATE, CONNECT, CONSERVE. We intend to highlight those that communicate activism thru the arts (music, visual, poetry, photography and writing), thus creating and connecting in an authentic capacity the message of conservation. We have three events, International Herb Symposium, Planting the Future at Herb Pharm and the grand opening of the first Center for Medicinal Plant …
Read More

Spring and Fall UpS Internship Program “My experience at UpS has literally lifted the veil on this beautiful earth! I look at everything so differently and have the feeling of being reborn.”  April Covington, UpS intern Fall 2018 “Since arriving at the sanctuary for the internship I have been smiling ear to ear nonstop. We are currently at the half way mark and I have already surpassed every dream and goal I came here with …
Read More

In and of itself the United Plant Savers (UpS) Botanical Sanctuary is a refuge for most of the At-Risk native medicinal plants in this region.  Without human interaction, the plants would carry on and their populations would ebb and flow with the natural cycles of the forest.   We are fortunate, however, to be stewards of this land where we welcome UpS members and interested others to observe, spend time with, and learn more about these …
Read More

Groundbreaking for the UpS Center for the Conservation of Medicinal Plants The Center will house the Sanctuary herbarium collection, library, displays featuring medicinal plant conservation and the history of herbalism in Appalachia, teaching kitchen, classroom and office.  The Center will be ready for a Grand Opening and UpS 25th Anniversary Celebration on September 21, 2019 Pictures don’t really capture the stunning wood – locally cut Ash from dead trees on the land – the views …
Read More

by Ann Bond A tiny osha sprout grows from roots left over from earlier harvest in a research plot on Missionary Ridge. Daniel Gagnon, left, owner of Herbs Etc. in Santa Fe, and Maggie Riggs, a volunteer from Lawrence, Kansas, prepare to plant flags to mark the levels of osha regeneration in study plots on Missionary Ridge. National forests supply Americans with many natural resources – timber, livestock forage, minerals, energy – and increasingly, medicinal …
Read More