Local plants good for healing

Thomas Tracey points out a red and green leaved plant from the hill alongside Swan River Nature Trail.

Thirty people crowd around him as he begins to talk about it. The blue berries it produces are edible. The flowers that blossom from it are yellow. And the roots can be used as an antiseptic or an antibacterial.

Tracey repeated the process for 20-30 other native plants along the trail last Friday morning. He hosts a walk along the Swan River trail every year to educate enquiring minds about the medicinal properties of native plants.

Sue Hayes from Columbia Falls joined the hike because she wanted to learn more about how to identify, store and use the plants. She said she’s compared modern medicine with using natural remedies.

“A lot of this, it’s so ancient, and it seems like a lot of modern medicine is returning to this, even my physician approves it,” she said. “If you know what you’re doing, which is why I’m here, I think it’s safer, it’s more compatible.”

Yarrow can stop external bleeding if the dried leaves or powder is put on top of a cut. Larkspur is toxic if ingested but if it’s dried and mixed with alcohol (creating a tincture) it can be used to de-lice hair.

A tincture made with alum root and ingested can be used to help with diarrhea. Dried alum root can be used to treat infected and weeping sores.

Tracey picked out 10 plants within sight of the downtown Bigfork trail entrance. Above the din of the river he explained the variety of things each could be used to treat and the best way to use them. The plants he mentioned can all be found in his book, The Forest Pharmacy, now in its third edition.

The book contains over 200 plants that can be found in the northwest.

Tracey is a self-taught herbalist who has been studying natural remedies for the last 30 years. His shop in downtown Bigfork, Swan Valley Herbs, has seen business go up and down for the last two decades. But he said the last few years he’s seen the reason for interest in herbs change.

“I think people are fed up with prescription drugs,” Tracey said. “People are interested in making their own stuff.”

The majority of the herbs on Tracey’s shelves were harvested from the forest. He makes his own tinctures and salves and hosts an annual walk as something that can tie the community together.

“There’s a lot of interest in this kind of thing, especially in the last few years,” Tracey said. “Consciousness in the country has changed quite a bit.”

Hal Rostad, visiting from New York, joined last Friday’s walk after a friend told him about it. Rostad became interested in natural remedies in his early 20s and taught his children what plants could be used to heal.

“If you’re sick you’ll take a cup of tea rather than medicine,” Rostad said. “You still need medicine if it’s really bad, you still need to go to the hospital for a broken arm,”

He said most modern pharmaceuticals take their base from something that grows natural. Aspirin draws its roots from white willow bark.

“It’s natural healing,” Rostad said.