Stephen Harrod Buhner

Stephen Harrod Buhner was an American herbalist and writer. Buhner was born July 15, 1952.

Buhner was first introduced to healers within his own family, including Leroy Burney, president of the Kentucky Medical Association and Surgeon General of the United States under Eisenhower and Kennedy. His most important influence was Elizabeth Lusterheide, a midwife and herbalist in southern Indiana in the early 1800s, and C.G. Harrod, his great-grandfather who began practicing medicine in 1911, and who inspired Buhner to become the kind of healer for which, according to Buhner, American medicine no longer has a place.

Buhner authored at least 23 books, scores of nonfiction articles, as well as fiction and poetry. His works focused on nature, sustainability, indigenous cultures, the environment, herbal medicine, Gaia hypothesis, and communication with nature. His book, The Lost Language of Plants, received a Nautilus award and a BBC Environmental Book of the Year Award. His book, Earth Grief: The Journey Into and Through Ecological Loss, also won a Nautilus award. [1] In 2022, he received the first annual McKenna Academy Distinguished Natural Philosopher Award in recognition of his life's work.

For over thirty years, Buhner was the head researcher for the Foundation for Gaian Studies. He was also a Fellow of Schumacher College, United Kingdom. He taught throughout the United States and Canada, and the Western European Isles. He served as president of the Colorado Association for Healing Practitioners and as a lobbyist on herbal and holistic medicines and education in the Colorado legislature. His work was featured in popular media outlets, including Common Boundary, Apotheosis, Shaman's Drum, The New York Times, CNN, and Good Morning America.

Buhner considered himself a polymath, and his life experience attests to this summation. He underwent wilderness survival training in Colorado, from 1972 to 1975. Buhner was also a fine woodworker and builder of custom furniture and res