[MPWG] Fw: Into the Forest - Allison Perrett discovers a model for land conservation in our own backyard.

[Patricia_DeAngelis at fws.gov]

From: 
http://www.newlifejournal.com/aug07/buy-local-land-conservation.shtml 

Into the Forest 
Allison Perrett discovers a model for land conservation in our own 
backyard.
In the far reaches of Western North Carolina, in a relatively remote and 
wild valley carved out by a tributary of the Little Tennessee River, Robin 
Suggs grows native medicinal plants. His business, MoonBranch Botanicals, 
supplies raw botanical ingredients valued for their medicinal qualities to 
medicine makers and herbal practitioners.
This is not your typical operation. At MoonBranch Botanicals, you won’t 
find greenhouse nursery production. On 32 acres of forested land, Robin 
cultivates plants in their naturally occurring environments. Home to more 
than 3,000 native plant species, this area of the southern Blue Ridge 
Mountains is botanically rich, and Robin’s business depends on maintaining 
the integrity of this biodiverse natural system.
Ten years ago, when Robin began working on this land, he used conventional 
means of production. Several years ago, he began to explore alternative 
methods. “I began to see that the way I was approaching my production was 
an uphill battle. I was working against nature,” Robin says. “Rather than 
modifying the natural system to fit the crops, I started to modify my 
production practices to fit the natural system. It makes perfect sense. 
Natural systems are the result of hundreds of thousands of years of trial 
and error. The native plants I work with are perfectly adapted to the 
conditions of this region.”
On a recent visit, Robin led me along one of the trails that traverse his 
land. I followed Robin as he crossed over a meandering stream that veered 
off the path into a veritable sea of green. To my inexperienced eye, each 
plant looked the same. Not so for Robin, who has been working with plants 
for over 25 years. He pointed out bloodroot, American ginseng, mayapple 
and witch hazel—just some of the plants he cultivates. He then stopped and 
kneeled down in front of the plant he was looking for: black cohosh; its 
root is sought by herbalists to treat symptoms associated with menopause.
Robin cleared organic debris from around the base of the plant, then 
pulled out a clawed tool to break up the earth so that he could use his 
hands to gently free the root. Before placing it in his satchel, Robin 
broke off a piece of the root and replanted it. He told me that replanting 
is an essential and basic step in his harvesting practice. “My production 
relies on stewardship of a naturally occurring system. Taking steps to 
maintain its integrity ensures the forest system’s ecological health and 
also the viability of my business.” The root Robin dug during my visit 
will supply an order from one of Asheville’s local grocers, like Greenlife 
or the French Broad Food Co-op, or for a local herbal practitioner, while 
the replanting will generate new growth.
Working Forests: A Renewable Resource 
Driving along the main road of his community, Robin and I counted the 
number of real estate signs advertising home sites for sale. “Things are 
really changing. When I moved out here a decade ago, it felt like I was 
living in a remote place. It doesn’t feel like that anymore. More roads. 
More second homes. If we keep heading this way, we’re going to lose it,” 
he says. We followed one of the signs up a freshly cut road to a cleared 
home site. Robin commented on the view. “Who wouldn’t want to live here? 
Look at it. People come here because they want to live in a beautiful 
place, to get away from crowded cities. The irony is that the sale and 
subdivision of the land is destroying the very thing that attracts people 
to this region.”
At a time when our forested areas are shrinking, Robin’s model of 
production offers a means to protect them from further development. North 
Carolina currently leads the nation in loss of forested lands. A recent 
report published by the North Carolina Division of Forest Resources 
reports that pressures related to the expansion of urban areas have 
contributed to the loss of more than 1,000,000 forested acres since 1990.
“A line of thinking that dominates discussions on land use is that 
wildlands are valuable for their development value,” Robin notes. “If you 
want to base their worth purely on the bottom line, then their value lies 
in their natural state. Working forests managed properly can be renewable 
and profitable sources of medicine, food and fiber.” 
As the name suggests, working forests are not nature preserves. Forested 
areas are utilized for their resources—timber and nontimber—in a way that 
maintains ecological integrity and that can potentially enhance biological 
diversity. “One of the best ways to preserve wildlands is to make them 
economically productive, to manage them as working forests,” Robin 
believes.
Studies conducted by the American Farmland Trust support Robin’s 
statement. These studies, which compared the costs of providing 
infrastructure and services to residential property versus farm, forest, 
and open lands in 83 communities across the country, demonstrate that 
residential land uses are a net drain on municipal funds. It costs local 
governments more to provide services to homeowners than what residential 
landowners pay in property taxes. By contrast, working farms and forested 
lands generate more in local tax revenues than they require in services (
Cost of Community Services Studies: Making the Case for Conservation, 2002
).
As I collected my notebook and camera to make my journey back to 
Asheville, Robin gathered up his equipment to go back out into the forest. 
“In our society,” he told me, “we have become so disconnected from the 
land, people forget that they are just part of one living world.”
His statement captures the reciprocal relationship that binds owner and 
forest on working lands. Forest products provide landowners with a source 
of income; forested land owners steward and build a natural resource.
For more information about MoonBranch Botanicals, visit 
http://www.moonbranch.com.
Allison Perrett is a PhD candidate in applied anthropology, works for 
Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Project, and teaches at Warren Wilson 
College. Send comments to allison at asapconnections.org. 


Robin Alton Suggs
MoonBranch Botanicals
5294 Yellow Creek Road
Robbinsville, North Carolina 28771 
USA

Telephone: 828.479.2788
moonbranch at earthlink.net
www.moonbranch.com

Member:
American Herbalist Guild
Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Project; Farm Partner
Co-op America 
Green Products Alliance 
National Network of Forest Practitioners
North Carolina Consortium on Natural Medicines 
North Carolina Goodness Grows/NCDA&CS 
North Carolina Natural Products Association
Southwestern North Carolina RC&D Council
United Plant Savers 

"We have no choice but to respect that which sustains us."
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