We are excited to be a part of the new West Virginia Forest Farming Initiative, a collaborative project of the Yew Mountain Center, Sprouting Farms, Appalachian Sustainable Development, Rural Action, United Plant Savers, and Natural Capital Investment Fund. This project will help WV take its rightful place as a leader in responsibly supplying non-timber forest products to the world. Stay tuned for more! Forest Farming is the practice of cultivating non-timber forest products that have medicinal, culinary, or decorative uses. This practice can help protect wild population of sought-after plants, enrich and restore forest ecology, and provide income to owners of woodlands.
The goal of the Yew Mountain Center's forest farming project is to provide support for small-scale, low-capital, ecologically-sound forest farming through study, demonstration, and training.
Our educational forest farming project is supported by the WVDA Specialty Crop Block Grant, USDA Beginning Farmer and Rancher Development Program, Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation, One Foundation, and Sacharuna Foundation. We are also grateful for the generosity and expertise of local native plant growers such as Barry Glick of Sunshine Farm and Gardens, and Ed and Carole Daniels of Shady Grove Botanicals. Paul Strauss of Equinox Botanicals, Tanner Filyaw of United Plant Savers and Rural Action have donated technical assistance. These supporters and our volunteers have enabled us to plant beds of goldenseal, black cohosh, ramps, Solomon's seal, and over a dozen other native plant species. Signs help visitors identify these and other native plants of interest along our tails.
With the help of volunteer botanist, Ken Hiser, and a team of trained volunteers, we are doing an inventory of plants with a focus on the "at-risk" and "to-watch" species identified in this list from United Plant Savers.