In the early 1990s, a Vermont herbalist was walking through the forests of Appalachian Ohio when she came across what may have been one of the last large wild clusters of goldenseal left in North America. The herbalist was Rosemary Gladstar — called by many the “Godmother of American Herbalism” — and what she saw in those woods convinced her that an organized, urgent response was needed. North America’s native medicinal plants were disappearing, and almost nobody in the mainstream was paying attention.
Today, United Plant Savers (UpS) is the country’s leading nonprofit dedicated to protecting native medicinal plants, fungi, and their habitats.
Headquartered in Rutland, Ohio, and operating a 370-acre botanical sanctuary on the same Appalachian landscape that moved its founder to tears, UpS works at the intersection of conservation science, herbalism, and community stewardship to ensure that the plants humans have relied on for healing throughout history will still be here for generations to come.
Mission & Origin
United Plant Savers is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit founded in 1994 by herbalist Rosemary Gladstar to protect native North American medicinal plants from habitat loss and overharvesting. The organization was born at the 4th International Herb Symposium, where Gladstar and fellow herbalists confronted a stark reality: the surging popularity of herbal medicine in the 1990s was creating enormous commercial pressure on wild plant populations that had no formal protection.
The problem was specific and solvable, but only if someone built the infrastructure to address it. UpS set out to do exactly that — identifying which plants were most at risk, raising awareness in the herbal community and among consumers, creating sanctuaries where at-risk species could recover, and building supply chains that didn’t depend on unsustainable wild harvest.
UpS’s official mission today is to protect native medicinal plants, fungi, and their habitats while ensuring renewable populations for future generations. Its vision extends further: a world where medicinal species are readily available and harvested with practices that embody, as the organization puts it, “reciprocity, right livelihood, and biocultural diversity.”
Rosemary Gladstar served as the organization’s founding president through 2008. The UpS sanctuary in Rutland, Ohio — part pristine forest, part revegetated coalfield — is now home to more than 500 species of plants, 120 species of trees, and 200 species of fungi, and remains the physical heart of the organization’s work. It is open to visitors and hosts workshops, volunteer workdays, and educational programs throughout the year.
Programs & Impact
The Species At-Risk List
At the core of UpS’s work is its Species At-Risk List — a curated, research-backed inventory of the wild medicinal plants currently most vulnerable to human impact in North America.
The list evaluates scientific research, environmental pressure, and commercial industry demand to identify which species face the most urgent threats from habitat loss, overharvesting, and wildcrafting. Current list members include household names in the herbal world: American ginseng, goldenseal, black cohosh, bloodroot, slippery elm, wild ginger, and more than 40 others.
The list serves multiple functions simultaneously:
- An educational resource for consumers who want to make ethical sourcing decisions
- A policy tool that UpS uses in conversations with industry and regulators
- The organizing backbone of nearly everything else UpS does
The At-Risk List is freely downloadable from UpS’s website; subscribers to the organization’s email newsletter receive a copy automatically.
The Botanical Sanctuary Network
One of UpS’s most grassroots and tangible programs is the Botanical Sanctuary Network (BSN), which now counts more than 300 member sanctuaries across the globe.
BSN members are individual landowners, farmers, educators, herbalists, and community organizations who have made a formal commitment to steward their land in ways that restore habitat for native medicinal plants and the broader web of life — pollinators, birds, amphibians, and fungi — that depends on those plants.
The network operates on a beautifully democratic premise: a botanical sanctuary doesn’t require vast acreage or institutional resources. It requires intention, care, and a shift in how one regards the land underfoot. A backyard garden, a woodlot, a prairie restoration, a school grounds planting — all can qualify. Many BSN members have created teaching centers or open their sanctuaries for public education.
The network includes an interactive map so community members can find and visit nearby sanctuaries, and UpS regularly publishes member stories to share techniques, challenges, and inspiration across the network.
Community Grants, ranging from $200 to $500, are available to BSN and UpS members to fund educational planting projects in their communities. Grants may be paid in money, seeds, or plants, and recipients are asked to return seeds, research results, or photographic reports to UpS so the broader community can benefit.
Forest Grown Verified Program
When UpS looked at the supply chain pressure driving overharvest of wild medicinal plants, it recognized that market forces alone — without transparency — would never fix the problem. The Forest Grown Verified (FGV) program, established in 2014 and transferred to UpS full control in 2019, was created to address this directly.
FGV is a voluntary, third-party verification program for non-timber forest-grown botanical products — medicinal plants grown and harvested from forestland in the United States using sustainable, legal practices.
Producers who participate in FGV are verified by independent inspectors and earn the right to carry the Forest Grown Verified seal on their products. For consumers and herbal companies alike, that seal communicates something meaningful: this product came from a forest farmer who spent decades building and stewarding a living ecosystem, not from unsustainable wild harvest.
Notably, UpS has secured grant funding to cover enrollment and inspection fees for interested producers, removing a significant financial barrier to participation during the program’s growth phase. The FGV program operates in partnership with the Appalachian Beginning Forest Farmers Coalition and the Northeast Forest Farmers Coalition.
Journal of Medicinal Plant Conservation and Education Programs
UpS publishes the Journal of Medicinal Plant Conservation — a peer-reviewed publication covering research on the ecology, cultivation, and conservation of at-risk medicinal plant species. The journal serves as a knowledge bridge between academic researchers and the broader herbal and conservation communities, ensuring that the science of medicinal plant protection doesn’t stay locked in university libraries.
Complementing the journal is a robust educational infrastructure:
- The Partners in Herbal Education (PIE) membership network connects herbal educators who share a common goal of ensuring a renewable supply of medicinal plants
- The Medicinal Plant Conservation Certificate Program trains practitioners in conservation principles
- The International Herb Symposium — which UpS helps organize alongside other herbal education partners — draws hundreds of herbalists, farmers, educators, and conservation advocates for one of the field’s premier gatherings
- The Duke Ethnobotanical Library, hosted on the UpS website, provides free public access to a significant archive of ethnobotanical research assembled by the late botanist James Duke
Financial Snapshot
What is visible from UpS’s history and programming is an organization that operates with modest overhead relative to its programmatic footprint: its community grants, sanctuary operations, conservation research, publishing, and education programs are all delivered through a lean staff and a large network of members and volunteers.
UpS is headquartered on and directly operates its 370-acre Ohio sanctuary, which represents both a significant asset and an ongoing stewardship commitment.
Those interested in the full financial picture are encouraged to download UpS’s annual report or search its 990 on the IRS public database.
How to Get Involved
United Plant Savers is, at its heart, a membership organization — and its programs are strongest when more people are part of the network.
Become a member
Individual, family, and business memberships are available and directly fund UpS’s conservation, sanctuary, and education work.
Members receive:
- The Journal of Medicinal Plant Conservation
- Access to educational resources
- Member pricing for workshops and events
- Business and herbal educator members gain additional visibility and resources within the community
Join (or Create) a Botanical Sanctuary
Any landowner — whether tending a backyard, a farm, a community garden, or a woodland — can apply to become a BSN member and commit their land to native plant stewardship.
UpS provides a Botanical Sanctuary Resource Guide to help new members get started.
Apply for a Community Grant
Organizations and individuals with educational planting projects — especially those introducing at-risk medicinal plants to community spaces, schools, or public gardens — can apply for UpS grants ranging from $200 to $500.
Grant recipients must be:
- Current UpS members
- Proposals must demonstrate community benefit and educational merit
Visit the Ohio Sanctuary
The UpS botanical sanctuary in Rutland, Ohio, welcomes visitors and hosts hands-on workshops throughout the year on topics ranging from goldenseal cultivation to forest farming to medicinal plant identification.
Visiting — and volunteering — is one of the most direct ways to support and connect with the organization’s work.
Download the ‘At-Risk List’ and Share It
One of the simplest things anyone can do is subscribe to the UpS newsletter, receive the free At-Risk Plant List, and use it to make more intentional decisions about which herbs to buy, grow, or harvest. Sharing the list with fellow herb lovers, garden clubs, and natural health practitioners extends UpS’s educational reach at no cost.
For more information, contact United Plant Savers at PO Box 147, Rutland, OH 45775, by phone at (740) 742-3455, or via the contact form at unitedplantsavers.org. To virtually experience the breadth of their programs and initiatives, follow UpS on YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram.
