My involvement in botanical medicine began some 50 years ago while a school boy …. maybe it was 60 years ago. I had a strong, very strong interest in plants and animals. My family was oriented to natural medicine. In making career plans I chose to study forestry and be a ranger, forest botanist or range manager. This career plan was the result of combining my interest in botany with the economic necessity of making my way in the world.
When I headed off to the state university I had but enough money for one term. Entrance examinations, not scholastic aptitude tests, were employed to determine acceptance, rejection and placement at the universities in those days. Apparently, I did not dishonor the family name with my performance. I was hot-boxed by the Engineering School and Chemistry School and lured away from Forestry by promises of being seen through if I went with them. Having only enough money for one semester I was an easy recruit.
A dozen years ago (1993) I began my retirement in Montana and had plants and animals a plenty at my fingertips and the motivation to learn all that was known about the flora and fauna indigenous to Buck Mountain Ranch.
So far I have failed to accomplish this goal but I did rediscover my interest in the medicinal properties of botanicals indigenous to the ranch. This led me to make medicines for the animals on the ranch. I breed horses which get cut up way more than one would expect. Burdock, Yarrow and Echinacea abound as native forbs on the ranch. These plants all have desirable vulnerary efficacy.