05/08/2015
Wildcrafting Bioethics Reminder
I'd like to share something with you that was shared by another forager, Mona Rae Hill, on the Middlebury Front Porch Forum
"Wildcrafting Bioethics Reminder
While it is spring and so, bountifully beautiful, caution and a goodly dose of common sense still needs to rule the day..........
I was out walking today and noticed that the place where fiddleheads have always come up, is now over harvested and the usual spring greens that have been there for years, are now extinct.
This makes me really sad (not to mention hugely annoyed)......frown emoticon
It's easy to look at a 100' x 100' area of fiddleheads and think that it is possible to have several meals and make some money, too, by harvesting loads and then selling them........
This is definitely NOT the case. It is actually easier to over harvest a plot of fiddleheads then it was to over harvest the entire state, of its ginseng! And I won't even go into how easy it is to over harvest wild ginger! That's for another post...... frown emoticon
Factoids about fiddleheads:
It's a numbers game with these delightful ferns, so despite the fact that a mature fiddlehead can have thousands (maybe millions) of spores, the area where they are blown by the wind, has to be generally undisturbed for several seasons, in order for them to propagate.......the seeds sit on the ground, and the only way they don't get blown away (again) is if they get covered by leaves and other forest detritus.
If all goes well, and they can begin to establish themselves..........the crown takes 3-5 years to get big enough to send out even a couple of shoots and these are so tiny, that the chances of them having enough mature seed (spores) to propagate, is very low......... less then 60%......and that's often only after a couple of winters of striation.....
Additionally, they do not like to be transplanted and seldom come back that way (although I try to move them every year, when I w**d my gardens, in hopes that maybe even one will 'take'), so it's fair to say that if a plot is over harvested, they will not return.
It's also pretty unlikely that any store buying pounds of them, without knowing the harvesters habits, is not being mindful of these facts, since if harvested ethically, a 100'x100' area of fiddleheads is only big enough for maybe a single meal for a few people.
This is the way I was taught to harvest, by my various and sundry mentors..........
If the crown you are looking at, has 2 shoots, don't take any. If the crown has 3 shoots, only take one. If the crown has 4 shoots, still only take one. If the crown has five or six shoots, then by all means, take a couple. Use a sharp knife, (or scissors) and be mindful not to slice the other shoots on the crown.
If you are on privately owned land, don't forget to thank the owner.......regardless of whether or not it is public or private land.........thank mother earth and father moon for providing you with this bounty.
Seriously. (It's called respect). - Mona Rae Hill"
Kelly here. This is also true about ramps (wild leeks), maybe even more so. I have been hearing the suggestion that one should only harvest 1/10 of a patch every 10 years! This seems a little extreme - but I haven't done the research. Suffice it to say that you should be taking only 1/10 or less of any patch and ideally you should move a few of the smaller ramps you disturb to a new area about 3 feet past the patch you are digging from to help them spread. -K
