PHI Director Marc Williams was at the United Plant Savers (UPS) Botanical Sanctuary May 6-8 to teach a brewing with non-timber forest products workshop. Aside from that, any excuse to get to UPS is a good excuse.
It’s hard not to be awestruck visiting UPS, unless you are intimately familiar with its beauty as Paul Strauss certainly is. He’s devoted over 40 years of his life to creating one of the most incredible privately held areas of temperate native plants east of the Rocky Mountains. This sanctuary is not only sacrosanct to plants, but all forms of life, especially birds, which Paul believes is due to the astonishing abundance of red fruit producing plants i.e. natives like Spice Bush (Lindera benzoin), Dogwood (Cornus florida), Burning Bush (Euonymous americana) and the exotic invasive Autumn Olive (Elaeagnus umbellata). You can learn more about United Plant Savers at their website and can learn more about Paul Strauss and his work through the movie The Sanctity of Sanctuary or his book, The Big Herbs.
Friday found Marc, Chip (intern manager and ginseng expert), the interns, and I on a plant walk through the Goldenseal Sanctuary. The combined knowledge of plants in that group was quite the treat, as was the diversity of plants apparent during the walk. Some highlights included the tree id quiz, in which 15 trees had numbers attached to them, with a key of answers identifying the trees at the end of the trail. It was a real treat to view the land with the aid of Chip’s experience surveying properties for ginseng, learning the various plants that are associated with ginseng. It was also fascinating to hear insights into recreating prairie (plant cup plant (Silphium sp.) only if you really want it, as it will spread). A cursory plant list of this walk is included at the end of this article.
