ety of beliefs and practices, the efforts to preserve the
ecosystem, to use the plants ethically and to use them to
help heal come up again and again.
For Sierralupe, the herbals offer the unhoused and oth-
ers in need that she works with at Occupy Medical a via-
ble alternative to pharmaceuticals that may be problem-
atic for them. Like Brounstein, she is a proponent of
Oregon grape — good for sinus infections, she tells me.
On our summer morning walk we were looking for
yarrow, but she notes for next year that we’ve come to
Bristow too late in the season. Yarrow has azulene in it,
which is a potent anti-inflammatory compound, she says.
The plant is astringent and works great for wounds.
As we wander through the park, she carries her basket
with a cloth to cover the plants, pruners and scissors for
harvesting and containers for what she picks, among other
things. She points to plant after plant, which look ordi-
nary but are extraordinary in their usefulness: oak leaves
can be used to make a soothing “snotlike” salve for stings,
St. John’s wort can be used for those with PTSD, birch
can make a footbath to help those with diabetic ulcers,
lemon balm helps with anxiety.
She echoes Brounstein’s admonishment that wildcraft-
ing is more than just the plant’s uses. It’s preserving its
ecosystem; it’s being ethical.
Wildcrafting is stewardship, Brounstein repeats. “It’s
not a one-night stand.”
STEVEN YEAGER OF
MOUNTAIN ROSE HERBS
AND COLUMBINES
SCHOOL OF BOTANICAL
STUDIES EXPLAINS
HOW TO IDENTIFY
PLANTS BY THEIR
LEAVES ON THE
HARDESTY TRAIL
W
s
d
i
K Wild
in
Whole Earth Nature School
goes wildcrafting
hole Earth Nature School tries to raise awareness by sending people outside
for a better connection to the natural world. “Wildcrafting is a piece of what
we do,” Executive Director Rees Maxwell says.
Part of what the school teaches is primitive skills and homesteading; and
part of that, Maxwell points out, is food and medicines.
On a recent excursion, the kids of Whole Earth Nature School harvested
and processed blackberries. “In our community, not being a big farming
community, we have less of an understanding of where our food comes from,” Maxwell says. And he
says for some kids, “All they see is food from the fridge, food from the store.”
The school takes them out to harvest the berries, understand the ingredients, make jam and bring it
home. And in this way, Maxwell says, the kids feel like they contribute to their families.
Engaging kids outside through wildcrafting, if done well, is not only inspiring and encouraging, it
also “gives them an idea of how they can help take care of nature spaces around them as well as their
family,” Maxwell says.
What is motivating, he says, “is getting their hands and tongues and noses involved in the process. It
benefits them and the plants and the nature community they are harvesting from.” And they learn that,
“Even as a kids you can wreck an area and damage it, or make that space better for the whole natural
community.” — Camilla Mortensen
For more on Whole Earth Nature School and its camps and programs, go to wholeearthnatureschool.com.
eugeneweekly.com • September 7, 2017
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