Who we are

We are a multi-disciplinary group of plant enthusiasts who are dedicated to raising awareness about plant and tree consciousness and our inter-dependent relationship with the natural world. We are of the mold just different parts of one.

 

A little about why we came together as one

In the summer of 2016, we came together in response to our perceptions of plant-blindness and the untoward actions on the ecology that surrounds us. Yes, the climate crisis, endangered animals and plant species, health equity and equally so, to be transparent when it comes to mental and structural colonialism. So we came together. We share our diverse skills. We walk, talk and emulate equality and justice for and invite diverse backgrounds to join our efforts and work - Black, Indigenous, Latinx, Asian American, Muslim, Jewish and LGBTQ+. Our focus is for what is happening today, to be respectful, honor and give attention to each other…for all in Nature, are we.

At Plant Pioneers, our primary classroom is outdoors. Music of the Plants, a bio-resonance electronic device liberates plant frequencies into sound and is an interface between humans and plants, a bridge to connect our hearts to Sacred Plant Geometry. We use and teach numerous techniques that influence human-plant relationships and communication. Such as dowsing, breathwork, altered mental states of consciousness for greater human-plant comprehension. And update and disseminate plant research for the benefit of all (see Resources.)

 
 

The Way In – Linda Hogan

Sometimes the way to milk and honey is through the body.

Sometimes the way in is a song.

But there are three ways in the world: dangerous, wounding and beauty.

To enter stone, be water.

To rise through hard Earth, be Plant desiring sunlight, believing in water.

To enter fire, be dry.

To enter life, be food.

Marguerite Uhlmann-Bower

“We each are continental extensions of Earth’s mantle witnessing Herself.”

Greetings, my name is Marguerite Uhlmann-Bower, I am co-founder of Plant Pioneers, a human-Plant relations movement and growing people collective who are interested in living rightly for Nature. As a Clinical Herbalist consultant and retired Registered Nurse, my Earthist values speak for and relate with the-Nature-that-surrounds-us. As co-creator of EarthSchool teachings at the Root Cellar, this is my life, not my job. I’ve always been in this place with Nature.

In my early childhood years, the landscape that informed me was the backyard garden in the city-scape of Manhattan, on the unceded Lenape territory known as Mana-Hatta – “Hilly Island”. I am deeply grateful and respectfully acknowledge indigenous teachings about Earth and Plants on what I know today, through my teachers who handed down this knowledge to me as well as viscerally receiving ancestral impressions from this city-scape backyard. I believe it is what informed my relationships I have today with Plants, Trees, Land and Nature and is why I ended up in the Catskills of New York with my family, for the last 45 years of my life.

I have to admit, there was a time when human exceptionalism attempted to divide and insulate me from my original teachers. Somehow, we kept a lifeline going. One that nourished and influenced me to keep remembering to be a voice for Plant and Tree realms. But also for human to human relationships as well. Because I know, as I listen to the voice of Nature I come to know this language is relational language. As I relate with them, Plants and Nature, my misguided trainings decolonize. As I wildcraft, I deconstruct, dismantle ideologies of superiority, privilege, extractive mind, human supremacy and exceptionalism and my own human to human separation.

Here at EarthSchool, I’m one of many lead project trainers and researchers in the human-Plant relational exchange. Through many teachings we remember. Some through those of Jose’ Silva’s Altered States of Consciousness, Burt Hellingers Systemic Constellations, Deep Listening work of Pauline Oliveros, and the work of Coherent Thought Sequencing by Dr. Steven Greer also known as Remote Viewing and more. And the teachings of Plants and Native Elders themselves. All this work is for making sense of Nature frequency impressions through our inner and outer sensory channels, and surrendering of our ego so that true and congruent messages can emerge from this sensory exchange. It is here where we remember our inter-relationality and reciprocity with all that is. We drop our having to perform. We begin to healing into unity consciousness and living rightly for Earth materializes. It is here we become committed to ecological, racial, and social justice issues. Being accessible as the Plants are for us.

As a radical wild-crafter and forager I undo the ways I was taught to treat the Earth and Plants by colonial mind. Instead, I am on a relational path. What that means is not just a flaccid thank you when I’m gifted a wild-crafted Plant or Tree, but a commitment to bring them into my life, and to the decision making tables. If you’re curious about this, then, you’re in the right place to inquire, my contact is below.

This main field of work we do at EarthSchool is to support humans in the resurrection of their innate sensory abilities for better inter-species dialoguing. And it is “Cultivating Cognitive Agility with Our Plant, Tree and Nature Allies” that will get you there. There is a have a 4 day program and a One year training program to become a trainer at EarthSchool or for your own community. Other works in the offering is to commission me for a land and place ancestral clearing. Music of the Plants installation for youths, schools or groups.

  • Carolyn Clark Pierson

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    Uprooted, rootless, if I still have any tendrils connecting me to the Earth, they are withered and weak. Like many European Americans, I have a history of picking up my roots and moving on. I’ve lived in seven places on two continents. I got a BFA in sculpture, but making art fed my ego, which I prefer to keep subdued, and not my bank account, so I’ve earned a living in many ways – as a travel agent, a maid, a salesclerk, a teacher, a waitress, a manager, a makeup artist & wigmaker (my favorite) and am now an English tutor at SUNY Delhi. I was born a liberal but raised in a conservative family, an environmentalist who continued to live as if she weren’t, a feminist in a long line of “eccentric” women. The last man I accepted money from was my father, but artist friend JG sorrowfully informed me, “That’s what men a FOR, dear.” I am in fact struggling financially, so maybe she was right (… Naaa). I’ve tried many different modes of thinking and ways of looking at our World, but have stubbornly held onto 3 beliefs: (since age 4) Plants are sentient beings; (age 13) there are too many humans on Planet Earth; and (age 15) the Greenhouse Effect/Global Warming/Climate Change/Climate Emergency, whatever we have chosen to call it, we made it, it’s real and it’s been adversely affecting our home planet since well before I was born around 70 years ago. I’ve spent my entire adult life grieving for our losses. We can’t seem to save ourselves, much less our nonhuman neighbors, so maybe the Plants can. I am certain they are far more intelligent than we, and certainly more reciprocal and benevolent, so I still have hope – in the Plants.

  • Miki Aso

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    Miki grew up in Tokyo and Los Angeles. Feeding off city energy she moved from one big city to the next eventually landing in NYC where she fried her nervous system before fleeing to the Hudson Valley. Miki's sense of Nature was shaped by 80's horror movies set in the woods, she was afraid of the dark and Nature until a few years ago.

    She has a B.S. in Environmental Science and worked as a Human-Centered Designer and Researcher. Her job was to deeply understand humans and their experience of things, like receiving cancer care or working on a construction site, so she could make recommendations to keep what’s working and improve what’s not.

    While doing this work, Miki's heart began to ache. She couldn’t ignore the consequences of excluding Nature as a living, breathing, sentient being that our very lives depend on any longer.

    She wondered if she could deeply understand Nature the way she could understand humans. Could we communicate with Nature? How could we hear them? Will we understand their language?

    Miki began apprenticing with Marguerite Uhlmann-Bower in March of 2022 and completed Cultivating Cognitive Agility training in July 2022. Marguerite’s deep wisdom and nurturing guided her back to what is innately in each of us, in each of our cells, the ability to sense, send, and receive information from the natural world. Miki continues to work with Marguerite, now as peers and partners, to restart EarthSchool in a renewed form. As co-creator of We Are All Kin (link : weareallkin.earth) she facilitates Plant kinship experiences to support our remembering and sense of belonging.

    Miki lives nestled among the Sugar Maples with her loving and furry family of human and more-than-human kin no longer afraid of Nature or the dark.

  • Barbara Aspland-Wolf

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    Barbara Aspland-Wolf is an Herbalist, Flower Essence Practitioner, and Reiki Master/Teacher. Becoming a member of Plant Pioneers is a wonderful melding of her science background, work with plant medicine, and energy work. Plants as beings are a part of her education to others. She is the owner of Garden Gate Herbals and an herbal teacher with an education background in high school earth science, geology, and chemistry. She has taught at Sage Mountain, Herbstalk, the Northeast Herbal Association retreats, and local Adult Learning Programs. In addition to nature walks, she has written for United Plant Savers, the Northeast Herbal Association journal, Aroma Culture e-magazine, is co-editor of the Northeast Herbal Association newsletter, and writes a monthly blog. Barbara is past President of the Northeast Herbal Association, a member of Plant Pioneers, the Northeast Herbal Association, United Plant Savers, and the Native Plant Trust.

  • Lacy Johnson

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    Lacy is an herbal practitioner, metalsmith, biologist and creator of Foxtooth Alchemy. She has properly studied herbalism with Marguerite Uhlmann-Bower, a trained herbalist/retired R.N., and Dr. Lori Rose.

    Her herbal training and personal journey has led her to the birth of Foxtooth Alchemy where she creates herbal products with bioregional ingredients that she feral-harvests or grows in her own garden. She also uses metal and stone to create talismans and jewelry. She is most at home when working with plants and being in nature.

    In her free time, Lacy enjoys camping/hiking, making jewelry, & being in the company of her pets, loved ones and garden.

    IG: @foxtoothalchemy
    Email: foxtoothalchemy@gmail.com

  • Judith Millar

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    Judith Millar is an herbalist, educator (public school & university), Reiki master, and environmental educator. She has recently retired from a home-based practice in NJ, through which she worked with clients and offered classes and workshops in foraging and herbalism. She has also held monthly women’s gatherings for over 10 years.

    As Judith shifts her working structure, she hopes to devote more time and focus to plant intelligence, and how to work in harmony and reciprocity with Nature. She is moving from suburban NJ to Michigan, to live in the forest overlooking a lake. Judith happily anticipates this immersion in Nature and looks forward to the many teachings that it will offer.

  • Iruka Toro

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    Iruka María Toro is a visual artist, herbalist, healing arts practitioner and researcher. Originally from Puerto Rico, her Caribbean ancestry is a huge part of her protection and power. She is interested in devotional rituals, community medicine and magick.

  • Bonnie Kavanagh

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    Bonnie Kavanagh is a second generation nurse and herbalist with over 35 years experience in health care. Bonnie is a graduate of the Rosemary Gladstar Art and Science of Herbology Apprenticeship and now teaches this program and other herbal and gardening classes at 7 Arrows Farm in Attleboro , Massachusetts where she is the community herbalist. Bonnie has been a presenter at many conferences including the Northeast Women's Herbal Conference, the Mid-Atlantic Women's Herbal Conference, the International Herb Symposium and the Rhode Island Herbal Conference. She loves to introduce people to the many benefits living a plant inspired life can offer. In addition to her herbal work Bonnie is the Director of Sales and Marketing for Fairland Farm, LLC a privately owned cranberry farm in Southeast Massachusetts. Bonnie is a member of the board of directors for the Hope Street Farmers Market and is passionate about educating people on the benefits of supporting local agriculture and artisan food businesses in her community. Being a part of the Plant Pioneers Movement is a dream come true for this consumate plant lover.