At the Intersection of Environmentalism and Traditional Naturopathy

For Clayton College, environmental conservation and traditional naturopathy intersect about 85 miles north of our Birmingham headquarters — in the Bankhead National Forest. Containing one of the few remaining areas of “old growth” forests in the eastern United States, the Bankhead was threatened in the 1990s by overlogging and mismanagement. Through its support, Clayton College was instrumental in the successful effort to protect the Bankhead and preserve this precious resource for future generations.

Read more about CCNH’s Environmentalism efforts.

With its oak/hickory and beech/hemlock forests sheltering ginseng, goldenseal, yellow lady slipper, and other medicinal plants, the Bankhead National Forest is not only part of our environmental heritage, it represents in a very real sense the fertile ground out of which traditional naturopathy grew in the United States. Old growth forests like the Bankhead were the source for many of the herbs and folk remedies rooted in the traditions of American Indian healers, African-American healers, and early European settlers. These Appalachian folk healing practices, passed down through generations by traditional healers like Alabama’s renowned Tommie Bass, are an important part of America’s unique contribution to the field of traditional naturopathy.

Today Clayton College is proud to be both a guardian and a repository of these American folk healing traditions, which we are preserving and passing down through the teaching of traditional naturopathy.

Yours in natural health,

Lloyd E. Clayton, Jr.