Background: The concept of ethnomedicine deals with the cultural interpretations of health and illness through analyzing and using indigenous perceptions/practices. Although the tradition of using medicinal plants in Ethiopia is practiced for a long time, the documentation is not as intense as its long history and exercise wildly. This study was conducted in districts surrounding Hirmi Vegetation to; document and identify medicinal plant species, record indigenous knowledge of the people on medicinal plants and conservation measures practiced in the study area.Methods: Data were collected using semi-structured interviews, guided field walks and focus group discussions. A total of 335 informants participated the data acquisition. Preference ranking, informant consensus factor, direct matrix ranking and t-tests in SPSS were employed to analyze the data.Results: About 85 medicinal plant species used to treat 71 human and 16 livestock ailments were documented. Herbs comprised the largest category (40%) followed by shrubs (35.3%) and trees (24.7%). Zehneria scabra (L.f.) Sond, Plumbago zeylanica L. and Zingiber officinale Roscoe were the most preferred medicinal plants to treat the abdominal disease which have the highest informant consensus factor values (0.95). Overgrazing, deforestation and expansion of agriculture were the most repeated threats to the medicinal plants. Growing in homegarden, fencing and replanting were among the conservation techniques used by the local community. There was a significant indigenous knowledge differences (p<0.05) on traditional medicinal plants between age groups, educational status, marital status and experience of informants. However, religion and gender did not exert statistically significant differences (P >0.05).

Mining is known in releasing of heavy metals and environmental pollutants due to their toxicity, persistence in the environment, and bio-accumulative nature. Leaching activity of mining has a major role in releasing of chemicals which toxify to the mining environment. Such activity contaminates the terrestrial ecosystems with toxic heavy metals that lead to the environmental problem of public health concern. In Ethiopia, even the mining trend is accounted long time, the environmental and social impacts are underestimated and not taken as an issue for a long time. However, these impacts are become very risky and problematic from time to time, since mining companies are not dedicated to their environmental and social impact assessment commitments. Being persistent pollutants, heavy metals accumulate in the environment and consequently contaminate the food chains. Accumulation of potentially toxic heavy metals in biota causes a potential health threat to their consumers including humans. Phytoremediation is more cost-effective than alternative mechanical or chemical methods of removing hazardous compounds from the soil. Vetiver grass is a perennial grass belonging to the Poaceae family with short rhizomes and a massive, finely structured root system. The deep root system makes the vetiver grass extremely drought tolerant and very difficult to dislodge when exposed to strong water flow. The main purpose of this study is to review the ecological impacts of mining in releasing leached wastes/drainages/ and the possible and effective techniques of treatment via Phytoremediation technology.