What is Sustainable Foraging?
Sustainable Foraging means to gather organisms from the wilderness in a way that does minimal, or no damage to their reproductive success. It is important to think about the difference between a single organism and a whole species when talking about foraging in a sustainable way.
At the broadest level, practicing sustainable foraging can mean not doing harm to an entire species reproductive success in any given area. Here in the Green Mountains of Stowe Vermont, that could mean not decreasing the amount of any given species. Let’s say the Orange Milk Cap for the sake of this conversation. So on the most basic level, in order to sustainable forage for orange milk cap mushrooms here in Stowe, I would need to gather the mushrooms in a way that did not decrease their numbers.
On the other side of the spectrum would be looking at the individual species reproduction. Here I am talking about picking an individual orange milk cap, and ensuring the reproductive success of that particular fungus. This may seem like a pretty severe level of sustainable foraging, and it is, but I will explain why it is important to keep in your mind in the next section.
Why is Sustainable Foraging Important?
Sustainable Foraging is important because if we don’t practice it as a community of foragers, then we will all need to find new hobbies. Plain and simple – that’s the truth. Let’s say that all of a sudden there is a craze for orange milk cap mushrooms here in Stowe. Us Vermonters just can’t get enough of this fungus. They start to command a very high price at farmers markets and restaurants, and people are just gobbling them down on the spot. Well when this happens, this poor fungus (Lactarius deliciosus btw) never gets the chance for its mushrooms to get big or old enough to produce and release spores. So then the fungus slowly declines until there is no more orange milk caps for anybody in Vermont!
Now touching back on the individual species level. So here, the point is this: every species of fungus has genetic diversity even within the same species. Of course these differences are often more exaggerated over long distances (like different states or parts of the country). But even at the local level, it would not be wise to not at least consider each and every individual you harvest. Do I think you should never pick a mushroom if it hasn’t already released its spores? No, I don’t think that. But if you are picking a dozen orange milk caps from the same square foot of forest, maybe only take the ones that have started to release some spores!
How Can I Forage in a Sustainable Way?
So now that you know what exactly sustainable foraging is, and why it is important, let me tell you how you can practice it. Below is a few generalized methods to practice whenever you are foraging for anything.
Don’t take every last one.
It doesn’t matter what you are collecting, don’t take them all! You don’t need them all and leaving at least two (or better yet, half) behind isn’t going to hurt anything you are trying to do.
Don’t take all the young ones.
If you are foraging for something and it has not yet gotten to the stage of its life where it reproduces, be more cautions and more reserved in your takings. This is when it is most important to leave a few behind. They will tell stories to their grand kids about that one forager who spared them!
Give it a shake!
Don’t be afraid to help a fellow organism out. if you are taking some mushrooms, shake some spores loose. If you are taking a branch of berries, knock some on the ground.
Carry your findings in a way that allows them to say goodbye to their forest.
Yes, that’s right, as you walk out of the wilderness, your findings will want to say goodbye to their home one last time. But they can’t do that if you have them all zipped up somewhere, so let them breath (better for eating later anyways), and give them away to drop a few bit throughout their forest.
Leave the roots or bulb
If the root or bulb of the plant you are harvesting is not an essential part of the edible – as is the case for something like ramps – then leave it in the ground and cut the stem. For perennials, this will allow the plant to regrow next year for you to use again!
Know your organism.
Each and every organism is different. This means that many of the have different requirements they need to help them reproduce. It may be something very simple that you could be doing to help ensure the success of the next generation, so read up!
