Amari Becker

VIDEO STORY: Yerba Mansa Project invites community members to bosque restoration event

On Saturday, May 3, dozens of people gathered near Tingley Beach to take part in Ravenna grass removal and Bosque restoration. The event was organized by the Yerba Mansa Project in partnership with Albuquerque Open Space. Families, students and community members took part in the event. Ravenna grass, commonly used as an ornamental shrub and to feed elephants, is considered an invasive species that spreads quickly through its fluffy seeds. It crowds out less aggressive native plants and its long dry dry leaves cause it to be a major potential fire spreader, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. Yerba Mansa is a paleo-herb that developed before the dinosaurs and bees, according to herbalist and Yerba Mansa Project founder, Dara Saville. Yerba Mansa evolved in wet boggy earth and acts to absorb and distribute water and add antimicrobial and purifying elements to the damp and slow-moving clay-rich soil of the Bosque, according to Saville’s book “The Ecology of Herbal Medicine.”