News & Reviews

March 1, 2021

Albuquerque Herbalism Founder and Yerba Masna project Director Dara Saville’s new book, The Ecology of Herbal Medicine: A Guide to Plants and Living Landscapes of the American Southwest, published by University of New Mexico Press, features ecological/botanical story-telling and a detailed materia medica. Order your copy now.

April 22 to September 22, 2021

Join Dara at this year’s virtual conference for 2 sessions:

• Organizing & Implementing Native Medicinal Plant Restoration on Public Lands
• Anemopsis californica: A Plant’s Ecological, Cultural, & Medicinal Importance

Get the details and register here.

Once again, Dara will be at the annual Plant Healer conference. Join her for:

• Medicinal Shrubs: The Medicine of Our Times
• Tales from the Land: Medicinal Plant Landscapes
• Medicinal Plant Walk

Get the details and register here.

Take a listen to Christine Salem’s interview with Dara about The Ecology of Herbal Medicine. Listen here.

Thanks to Georgina Hahn from KSFR 101.1 FM Santa Fe Public Radio for this uplifting piece of journalism. Listen to her interview with Dara in her garden (wearing masks): Earth’s Cycle of Community Fed by Positivity.

Presentation & Panel Discussion: February 24-26, 2021

Dara will be presenting Native Edible and Medicinal Shrubs for Landscape Resiliency: Keepers of Our Biological and Cultural Heritage at this year’s Land and Water Summit. She will also be a panelist for a discussion on Plants and Pollinators for a Changing Climate. Find out more here.

Dara and the West Mesa by Asha Canalos

Interview with artist and environmental activist Asha Canalos: Read the story of Dara’s connection with place and her relationship with Albuquerque’s West Mesa. Read or download here on page 34.

See Dara’s Yerba Mansa monograph, published in the spring 2020 issue of the Journal of the American Herbalists Guild. Download and read it here.

Ground Shots: May 2020

Dara discusses yerba mansa, invasive species, restoring plant communities and land connection along the Rio Grande on the Ground Shots Podcast with Kelly Moody: Take a listen here.

Growing Forward: December 2019

Dara shares her philosophy, work, and what motivates her on the Growing Forward Podcast with Bethany Aviv Latham: Take a listen here.

How are plants part of a systems or landscape approach and how do they work as medicines inside of us? What is herbal health and vitality? How does place inform health? Basmati.com sat down with Dara in 2017 to talk about love of nature, natural healing and herbalism. Listen here.

Samantha interviewed Dara in August 2017 to discuss the Yerba Mansa Project, the Rio Grande Bosque, and high desert herbal remedies. Read the interview on her blog here.

The Journal of Medicinal Plant Conservation published by United Plant Savers featured an article about The Yerba Mansa Project in the Spring 2017 isssue. Written by Dara Saville, the article entitled “The Yerba Mansa Project: Community-Driven Native Plant Restoration in the Rio Grande Bosque” outlines the project’s methodology including how to work on public lands, organize your community, and undertake restoration work. Download and read the article here.

The Gutierrez-Hubbell House, a historic Camino Real family property and museum in Albuquerque’s South Valley, hosted the exhibit Folk Healing Traditions of New Mexico: Medicinal Plants of the Middle Rio Grande from November 2016 to April 2017. Co-created by Yerba Mansa Project Director Dara Saville and Herbalist Dianne Rand, the exhibit highlights the local curandera tradition and important medicinal plants from the Rio Grande Bosque, the Chihuahua Desert, the Sandia Mountains, and the agricultural/urban areas around Albuquerque.

June/July 2016: A Tale of Two Plants by Keiko Ohnuma:

“Yerba Mansa and Osha owe much of their magic to their environments. However, the current fragility of these environments requires humans to intervene–both by cultivation and by managing native habitat–to ensure the plants’ survival.” Read here starting on page 72.

Albuquerque Journal’s Life in New Mexico Sunday Magazine, August 16-22, 2015:

Medicinal Herbs Thrive in the Wild and in Backyards

June 2015

For the Plants’ Sake: Restoring the Bosque, The Yerba Mansa Project

by Dara Saville

Albuquerque The Magazine, Going Green, February 2014:

“Herbalist Dara Saville digs up dirt on some of Albuquerque’s most useful and plentiful herbs.”

Edible Magazine Blog, Weed Feast, June 4, 2013: Photo and blog post by Gail Guengerich.

KOB/NBC 4, Good Day New Mexico, March 7, 2013

Daily Lobo, Do It Yourself Living…, Dec. 6, 2012

Alibi, Spice Up Your Sick Life, October 25-31, 2012

Albuquerque The Magazine, Bringing Back Bees, August 2012