I’ve been reading up on salal harvesting lately, and on similar industries, too. The umbrella topic is non-timber forest products (NTFPs): everything other than trees that people take from the forest to sell. For us that means salal, mushrooms, medicinal plants, berries, and whatnot.

One of the things I wonder about is the effect that harvesting salal has on the forest ecosystem. A gardening friend points out that if you trim a bush, it just grows back … so is there anything to worry about when people come to Gabriola and take a truckload of salal here and there? Sure there’s the trespassing and property theft issue to consider, but what about the health of the forest? Is salal harvesting harmful to the forest?

As I read up on this topic, I’ll share some of what I find with you here.

Today’s interesting article is from the Georgia Straight: Marketing of Forest Floor Has Consequences. The whole thing is worth reading; go take a look. Here’s just a little bit:

…harvesters are starting to notice that plants once considered impossible to overpick are becoming harder to find. Salal is one of the most common plants on the forest floor of coastal B.C. and it’s picked commercially as a floral green. There’s little threat such an abundant species would be wiped out; however, people who make a living harvesting on Vancouver Island are finding that near the end of the season there’s not enough commercial-quality salal left to pick. No one knows the impact the removal of NTFPs is having on animals and other plants in the forest, as there’s been very little research done.

Shore says that in the days when only locals were harvesting from the forest, most people had a sense of stewardship and took care of the land. But with transient pickers moving from place to place, she’s seen problems with overharvesting and with people leaving garbage behind. Other veteran harvesters complain that [continue]

Tags: , ,