The Arctos School

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Portland, OR
The Arctos School

Our approach brings together the fundamentals of herbalism, botany, and ecology with meaningful interaction and practical experience.

Applications open for our 2025 program! The Arctos School of Herbal and Botanical Studies is a project of Gradey Proctor and Missy Rohs. We are forest lovers and gardeners, w**d whisperers and kitchen witches. We are as passionate about healing the planet as we are about healing people. We seek to connect people to the natural world in a holistic and vital way. Our community-based approach encoura

ges students to engage in their own learning while supporting each other. Our work reflects our values of stewardship of the land, connection with the plants, and healing and justice for all people. Strong communities are excellent preventative medicine.

09/06/2026

Time flies! Here are two aging photos of fungi, with one month between pics. I love going back to the same places in the forest and getting to know them deeply. In this particular case, I had the opportunity to check out some eye-catching mushrooms and see how they were faring after a month of growth & weather. I was surprised to see the first cluster still standing, and was impressed that the sweet baked-goods scent of the second mushroom was still emanating strongly as it decayed.

Fungi are really cool!

08/17/2026

Come on a plant walk this week! Herbalist & forager Missy Rohs will be leading a medicinal (& edible) plant walk this Friday, 11am-1pm, at Hoyt Arboretum. We’ll be checking out fruits, which in the botanical world encompasses seeds, berries, & all kinds of cool stuff. We might lean in to how to distinguish fruits from galls, how to harvest particular fruits for the best medicine, or maybe we’ll get to sample a fruit that you’ve never tasted. 😉 We’ll see where the trail leads us!

Registration is required — you know where to find the deets!

08/10/2026

I went on a stroll around Oaks Bottom today. I was surprised to see a fair amount of poison oak in more than one spot!

Poison oak is a native plant in our area, and it thrives on disturbance, sunlight, and heat. It’s fabulous at repopulating an area after a fire. So it’s not weird to see it in a landfill-turned-urban-wildlife-refuge, but I personally hadn’t noticed it before. There was a ton between the bike path and the river, and some along the trail by the Sellwood Park entrance. In places, it mixed right in with invasive blackberries and native Oregon grape.

With climate change, poison oak is becoming more abundant in the Portland area. Keep your eyes peeled at other local parks, like Mt. Tabor & Powell Butte, too! Poison oak typically causes an itchy, unpleasant rash when it touches skin, and that can definitely ruin your month. If accidentally ingested or inhaled as smoke, poison oak can become life threatening. Take care!

08/08/2026

Summertime

08/05/2026

It’s a doozy of a fire season this year, and our hearts go out to everyone impacted. Smoke has rolled in to western Oregon & Washington, which means it’s time for some herbal tips:

🌱 Demulcent (soothing or even slimy plants) are GREAT for times like these! Make an infusion from roots, leaves, or flowers of the marshmallow plant; eat some delicious okra; or simply grab a throat-soother tea from the grocery to sip.

🌱 Eat & drink aromatic or spicy foods & bevvies! Iced peppermint tea, tasty kim chi, warming chai, fresh pesto… so many scrumptious options! Aromatic and spicy foods support gentle expectoration. Think of how you need to clear your throat or blow your nose with good pungent foods.

🌱 Take mullein tincture or tea! If you make it yourself, be sure to strain it through a coffee filter so that the tiny hairs don’t irritate your throat. This lung tonic is super helpful.

🌱 Stay hydrated! Water helps our bodies to clear detritus. Rest well, and most importantly, breathe the cleanest air possible. I posted an air quality tips post on my personal page Missy Rohs

🌱 Contact me if you want some personal how-tos & herbal recommendations. I do sliding scale phone consultations or in-person ones here in Portland!

08/04/2026

Omg, an amazing wildflower day! Gentian, two species of native Hypericum, the legit TALLEST pipsissewa I’ve ever seen (ten whorls of leaves!), GIANT clusters of gnome plants, pinesap, and more!

Fun story about the lone amanita: We were walking off trail & startled a deeply adorable rabbit. When we looked at where they ran from, we found that they’d been munching on this mushroom! We can only imagine how it felt seeing two humans in that altered state. 😂

It’ll be the last hike day for a while for us — serious smoke rolled into northwestern Oregon today. For now, it’s windows shut, purifiers on. Stay healthy, y’all!

08/02/2026

It’s a hard time to be on this earth. Climate change leading to disastrous fires, floods, storms, tornadoes, die offs, and more… it’s heart wrenching. Our thoughts are with everyone dealing with losses or anticipated impacts of disasters right now. This first slide is the Grasshopper Fire in MHNF, which just claimed Flag Point Lookout last night. Thanks to the hard work of firefighters, no human or residence losses yet.

The other slides are… well, the amazing part of being on this earth. How amazing that we share a planet with flowers and pollinators and furry mammals and stealthy fungi and every single shark! The beauty is a balm when it’s this hard.

May this Lugnasadh season bring you bountiful reasons to rejoice and bountiful ways to create change for good.

07/31/2026

We’re in the middle of our first responder skills portion of the Herbal Immersion Program, and as always it’s a bit difficult to photograph. But: Please enjoy this pic of the goodest boy, Penny, as well as some gorgeous blue vervain and a quick snapshot of practicing taking vitals. 🐈🌱⏱️

07/25/2026

Tomorrow (Sunday) is the Montavilla Street Fair… and the surprise Day 2 of Gradey Proctor ‘s plant sale!! Swing by 10am-1pm for steep discounts on really great plants (nettles! native violet! baical scullcap!) and seeds, then check out the Montavilla Farmers Market & the street fair, just a block away.

Have questions about plant availability? Contact Gradey at Gradey Proctor directly!

07/24/2026

Gradey (Medicine Garden) is having a plant sale at Missy’s house on Saturday. In preparation, he dropped off a load of medicinal starts. Gradey didn’t account for the popularity of certain herbs with the local urban neighbors, though! Missy had to wrest some catnip out from under young Apollo’s nose.

Full details for the plant sale are on Medicine Garden's recent posts! Plants & seeds will be on steep summer discount.

Address

400 Se 78th Avenue
Portland, OR
97215

Website

https://www.arctosschool.org/

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