The mission of United Plant Savers is to preserve, conserve and restore native medicinal plants and their habitats of the US and Canada, while ensuring their abundant, renewable supply for future generations. To this end, United Plant Savers established one of our most important projects: the Botanical Sanctuary Network. As we became more deeply involved in the complexities of plant preservation, we realized that in order to preserve plants we must first preserve and protect the habitat in which our native plant communities thrive. What better way than to create a network of sanctuaries dedicated to restoring and preserving habitat for wildlife, both plants and animals.
To date there are over 70 Sanctuaries nationwide that serve as repositories of at risk native medicinal plants as well as educational and research centers helping to raise public awareness of at risk medicinals. The stewards of these sanctuaries actively restore the native ecosystems before unsustainable exploitation of these areas occurred—removing invasive plants and replacing them with natives, healing scars from mining and other extractive operations, assisting the restoration of riparian areas and prairie that have been over-grazed. Some sanctuaries are small, others very large, but we fervently believe they are critical refuges for many species of plants which are seriously at risk, as well as outright endangered. Plants ‘migrate’ so slowly that they cannot survive without safe haven.
Botanical Sanctuaries are refuges for plants primarily, but of course the plants’ wellbeing also depends on insects, fungi, worms and a host of other life forms. The intent of Sanctuary is to provide as natural an environment as possible, free of industrial and technological encumbrance, so the plants can thrive and people can study and use them sustainably for their traditional purposes as food and medicine.
Guidelines For Establishing A United Plant Savers Botanical Sanctuary
UpS is in the process of establishing a network of medicinal botanical sanctuaries throughout the country. Our goal is to help establish Botanical Sanctuaries that not only serve as rich depositories for `at risk' North American medicinal plants, but also serve as educational centers for plant conservation and organic cultivation. These Botanical Sanctuaries will also serve as important preservers of seed stock to be generated and maintained. Land, once acknowledged as a UpS Botanical Sanctuary, can use the UpS emblem to identify themselves as such. UpS Botanical Sanctuaries will also be eligible for special UpS planting grants and consultation services. UpS Botanical Sanctuaries will also be identified in the newsletter and on the website for educational purposes. To apply for UpS Botanical Sanctuary status, individuals and/or groups need meet the following criteria:
- Applicants must be current members (at any level of membership) of UpS and continue to maintain current membership to remain in the BSN network.
- A one-time fee of $100 must accompany the application to the BSN.
- The land needs to be either privately owned by the parties applying for the UpS Botanical Sanctuary status, in a previously established land trust or under special circumstances public land may also qualify.
- The land needs to be either already richly endowed with native species or be in the process of being planted with them. Some of the plants listed on the UpS `at risk' and/or `to watch' lists should be represented when appropriate to the Sanctuary's ecosystem.
- A major aspect of UpS Botanical Sanctuaries is the educational or land consultation aspect. What is your primary educational purpose for applying for UpS Botanical Sanctuary status? How do you propose to achieve this?
- Land considered a UpS Botanical Sanctuary should to be open to the public for a period of time for educational purposes (either one day a week, or one day a month, available to students, or other scheduled events). What is your prospective time for being open to the public? And how do you propose doing this? i.e, self guided herb walks, classes, events, workshops, planting projects, etc.? Does your program include working with children?
- Sanctuaries are places where research on native plants medicinal plant conservation and cultivation is undertaken. In what ways can you be part of this research?
