KEEPING MEDICINALS ROOTED IN THE WILD
Plant conservation, ethical sourcing, and the value of wildland stewards

By Lauren Ann Nichols Sheffler and WishGarden Herbs

Conservation in the medicinal plant world is, at its heart, a devotion to life’s continuity, protecting vulnerable species, tending habitats under pressure, and carrying forward traditions that sustain both plants and people. Even amid the real challenges of land loss, overharvest, and ecological strain, there is still much to learn from the steady, restorative ways conservation takes root. It lives in the patient reading of a woodland, in the wisdom to leave a plant for another season, and in the relationships between people and places that allow medicinal species to thrive in living landscapes. When practiced with care, conservation becomes more than protection alone; it becomes a way of participating in renewal.

Daniel’s work offers one such example. A forest farmer and wildland steward from a multigenerational farming community in the Midwest, Daniel tends land with the close attention of someone shaped by place. Alongside pasture and family farmlands, he manages privately owned woodlands for forest farming or cultivating medicinal plants and trees. There he wild-manages and cultivates goldenseal (Hydrastis canadensis) and sustainably harvests botanicals including wild cherry (Prunus serotina) bark and black haw (Viburnum prunifolium) bark. His work follows the rhythms of the forest itself—the movement of sap, the health of mature trees, and the promise of younger growth waiting beneath the canopy. His harvesting is guided not by convenience but by observation, with regeneration always in mind.

 “Harvesting isn’t just about taking,” he says. “It’s about managing what will be here after I’m gone.” – Daniel, FairWild Certified Forest Farmer and Wildland Steward 

Daniel holding Goldenseal (Hydrastis canadensis) babies in Early Spring 2025 

This is not harvest in its most extractive sense. It is selective tending. Daniel removes damaged or mature trees where younger ones are ready to rise. He rotates harvest areas. He observes regrowth. He repurposes unused wood into mulch for woodland medical herb beds. His methods reflect a way of working with the forest that is practical, intimate, and regenerative. In his woodlands, biodiversity is not separate from labor; it is the very condition of the work. 

For those concerned with plant conservation, this kind of relationship deserves more attention.

Too often, discussions of herbal supply remain distant from the people doing the slow, place-based work of tending wild and forest grown botanicals. Yet strong herbal supply networks do not begin in warehouses or formulation rooms. They begin in habitat and in the judgment of those who know how to gather without diminishing what remains. If medicinal plants are to thrive in the wild, then wildland stewards and forest farmers must remain part of the conversation, not at its margins, but at its center.

This is part of what makes Daniel’s FairWild certification so meaningful. With sponsorship and support from WishGarden Herb’s biodiversity initiative program, Daniel became the first North American FairWild certified operator in 2025. That milestone matters not only because it is a first on our side of the world, but because FairWild creates a clearer path of transparency from the wild to finished product. FairWild’s standards are focused exclusively on the complexities of wild ingredients, emphasizing conservation, sustainable collection practices, biodiversity, and resilient supply networks built through long-term receptacle relationships. 

That transparency matters deeply in herbal medicine. It helps show that an herb was not simply bought as anonymous plant material moving through an opaque market, but gathered through intentional stewardship, documented practices, and accountable relationships. It gives greater visibility to how plants are harvested, who cares for the land, and whether those methods truly support regeneration over time. In Daniel’s case, FairWild helps document the sustainable wild farming practices he already lives by, while also building trust in the herbal marketplace. Daniel pursued certification because he understood the growing importance of transparency and trust in the herbal market, even though he did not need certification to validate his own ethics. FairWild is also important because it helps ensure that wildland stewards like Daniel are properly valued. Ethical harvesting requires skill, restraint, ecological memory, and long-term commitment, yet that labor is often underseen. Certification brings recognition to the steward, not just the herb. 

Sarah Vito of North American FairWild Foundation says, “FairWild’s mission is to leverage the demands of industry to benefit ecology and humanity. Increasing pressures on our landscapes coupled with the romance of modernization puts wild plants and fungi at risk of overharvesting and endangers a way of living in concert with the landscape. FairWild certification confirms the value found in biodiverse landscapes and the human dignity of land stewardship. Tracing this value through the supply chain, from landscape to shelf, is a way that brands and their customers retain the vitality of the plants or fungi used in formulations, bringing them to the source. It is this connection that gives meaning to the product and the purchase.” 

It affirms that the person managing the woodlands, protecting future populations, and harvesting with care are essential parts of herbal quality and conservation. The FairWild microenterprise materials make this especially clear. The model was designed to include smaller wild harvesters, collectors, and land stewards and to make rigorous certification achievable, affordable, and practical for those operating on a lean scale. WishGarden’s role in this process adds another layer of meaning. We sponsored Daniel’s certification while assisting in documentation, audit assistance, and support through the certification process. That kind of partnership matters because many small-scale stewards carry extraordinary ecological knowledge but do not always have the time, staff, or administrative capacity to navigate certification alone. Supporting them through certification processes strengthens not only one supplier relationship, but the integrity of the wider herbal supply network for our herbal medicinals. 

Forest Farmer Daniel holding Wild Cherry Tree (Prunus serotina)

Daniel’s story also points to another fragile truth—this knowledge is not guaranteed to continue. Older generations are passing on, and fewer people remain engaged in this kind of forest-based work. And still, there are signs of continuity. His nephew rides beside him, listening to plant names and watching how harvest is guided by observation and responsibility. This, too, is conservation, not only preserving species, but preserving ecological relationships with the forest. His next steps include working with United Plant Savers’ Forest Grown Verification program to help preserve and carry forward his valuable stewardship knowledge.

WishGarden’s partnership with Daniel offers one example of how supply relationships can move in that direction. “Our ongoing commitment to ‘stay wild’ in our complex medicinal herbal supply network is only possible by uplifting wildland stewards through industry collaborations brought forth by the Sustainable Herbs Initiative,” says Lauren Nichols Sheffler, Senior Purchasing and Sourcing Manager. “We have to look toward systemic change together if herbal companies want to secure our specialized botanicals for years to come.” By uplifting a wildland steward and helping bring visibility to his methods, our company has participated in something larger than sourcing. It has helped affirm that biodiversity and herbal commerce need not stand in opposition when both are rooted in reciprocity, accountability, and care for place.

Conservation is not only a matter of advocacy, nor only of standards. It is also a way of remembering who keeps the living threads intact—who listens to the land, who works in reciprocity, and whose knowledge allows the wisdom of the forest to remain rooted in place. Wildland stewards like Daniel hold an essential key to our shared sustainable future, reminding us that herbal medicine is only as strong as the relationships from which it is gathered. The potency of a remedy begins not in the bottle, but in the intention, care, and integrity at its source. To keep medicine in the forest, we must also keep faith with the people who know how to tend it there.

 “To me, ethical sourcing is really about honoring relationship. Daniel’s stewardship shows that when we support the people caring for medicinal plants in their natural habitats, we strengthen not only our supply networks, but the living future of the plants themselves.”

Lauren, Senior Sourcing and Purchasing Manager for WishGarden Herbs 

Lauren and Daniel with Black Haw Tree (Viburnum prunifolium)

Lauren Ann Nichols Sheffler is an herbalist, wildland steward, and Senior Sourcing and Purchasing Manager at WishGarden Herbs. She cultivates education, community herbalism, and specializes in herbal distillation in her United Plant Savers’ Botanical Sanctuary in Denver, Colorado. Her work focuses on ethical sourcing, biodiversity centered supply relationships, and supporting the growers, harvesters, and wildland stewards, who help keep herbal medicine rooted in living ecosystems.