Living monument reveals the treasures of Appalachian forests

Today is the opening celebration for the Forest Botanicals Region Living Monument Story Walk Trail. Which is a series of ten interpretive signs placed along a two mile loop at Flag Rock Recreation area in Norton, Virginia. The monument is offered as an alternative way of thinking about this region, because this is one of the most biodiverse places on the planet. And the forest herbs and the wild foods that grow in the Appalachian woodland forest understory have sustained societies for a millennia. "Everything you would need to survive you could get from this forest." Indigenous peoples have long tended herbs and have had relationships with hundreds of plant species, and are still stewarding those populations today. Enslaved peoples of African descent used many of these herbs and learned how to use these herbs medicinally to treat illness, especially on the underground railroad routes to freedom. Many people living in Appalachia today harvest medicinal herbs as supplemental income. Many people in Appalachia grow these herbs. I hope that people who walk this nature trail and people who who visit the online exhibit. I hope that they will see all of the biodiversity and the treasure that exists in Central Appalachia. This is also an opportunity for people who live in this region to hopefully be able to share in that celebration of cultural traditions and history. We hope that other places throughout Central Appalachia will want to do something similar to celebrate this treasure of biodiversity that exists in the Appalachian forests.