WILDCRAFTING ETHICALLY

Wildcrafting simply means foraging for your plants and herbs from the natural environment around you. As natural wild spaces dwindle in every growing cities and communities, it’s important to ensure that you forage ethically to preserve the natural habitat of the greenspace in your community. Doing so can prolong the longevity of the plants growing in the wild and have little effect on its growth and health. Here are some common ways you can wildcraft ethically:

Keeping It Simple

Familiarize yourself with more common herbs such as cleavers, dandelions, goldenrods, chamomile, violets, etc. Starting with more common herbs can help you feel more confident in your herbalism practices. This can also help protect rare species of native plants from being overharvested in your community.

Plant Identification

There are a lot of toxic, and highly deadly, plants that grow wild. Some can even look extremely similar to what can otherwise be an edible variety. For example, wild carrot looks very similar to hemlock. Wild carrot is edible, hemlock can kill you. Before you forage for wild plants, be sure you are 100% certain on the plant you are harvesting and it’s safety and uses.

Harvesting Only 10%

The general rule of thumb you want to apply when foraging for wild plants is to only take 10% of the plant. Leaving the majority of the plant in nature allows it to benefit pollinators, herbivores, and helps ensure the longevity of the plant. You’d be surprised how often you may see a common plant in your area only to find out it’s an endangered variety. Overconsumption and greed is a fatal flaw in human behaviour. Being an herbalist is understanding how much we should make an effort to leave as little of a footprint in nature as possible while still finding ways to benefit from it.

Pesticide Free

Before you pluck a weed or herb off the ground, be sure where you’re picking it from is not sprayed with pesticides or be close to other contaminations. Common areas like front lawns, parks, etc. tend to be chemically treated.