Responsible Wildcrafting Guidelines

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Wildcrafting, also sometimes referred to as foraging, is the practice of harvesting plants from their natural, or 'wild' habitat, primarily for food or medicinal purposes. It applies to uncultivated plants wherever they may be found, and is not necessarily limited to wilderness areas. 

I met with my friends, the Herbal Underground, an herbalist collective that works with growers, educators, and makers to protect the tradition, plants, integrity, and economic accessibility of nature’s original medicine, to discuss the creation of responsible wildcrafting guidelines. We’re going to take you through a more conscious process to engage with this practice. 

Wildcrafting from a Holistic Perspective

As herbalists, we work from the beliefs that all living things (including plants and land) contain their own unique spirit and purpose, and that all life deserves to be respected and honored. We understand wildcrafting as a sacred practice that should always be approached with much care. 

In herbalism, we understand how plants heal by way of their signature. A plant’s signature is the way it has adapted to its environment in order to survive, which also reveals its healing properties. For example, observe the way St. Johns Wort is in relationship to the sun. This sunny flower is a remedy for depression. Just as plants need to be in right relationship with their environment in order to survive and thrive, we too must exist in harmony within our ecosystem. This means bringing humility, receptivity, and the awareness of the whole system from which we are living within. This symbiotic relationship with nature is something that we can observe within many indigenous traditions. However, the dominant white, capitalist, settler mentality is not oriented around reciprocity, rather it is oriented towards unconscious entitlement. 

Viewed from a capitalist lens, only those who have land access can wildcraft. We’d like to suggest that this practice is more about honoring the relationship between yourself and ecosystem. The practice need not be focused exclusively on the outcome (e.g., medicine) but on the reciprocal relationship with the plants, land, as well as the larger sociocultural landscape. 

Plant medicine is the people’s medicine. If we truly want to honor the sacred relationship between people and plants, let us support the practice of wildcrafting with integrity. 

The Main Tenets of Responsible Wildcrafting

We feel that a truly holistic model for wildcrafting includes the following sociocultural and ecological implications. 

Sociocultural implications

Wildcrafting can be a joyously transformative ritual, and we feel that working towards a stronger holistic methodology is not only good for the medicine, but for the people, plants and entire ecosystem! In order to be sensitive to how wildcrafting intersects with social and cultural considerations, it is helpful to consider a number of factors related to capitalism, colonization, ancestry, and appropriation. Decolonizing wildcrafting means we must call into question all those places where the white settler mentality may perpetuate itself--White people especially, must hold themselves/ourselves accountable here. 

Sociocultural questions to consider: 

✷ What groups am I supporting by wildcrafting?

✿ What groups am I harming by wildcrafting? 

❀ If I’m thinking only of “my” needs, can I be open to the needs of the community? E.g., “I should harvest this Chaga because people are putting it in their coffee now and I can make a good profit” vs. “If I participate in this trend, then the demand for Chaga could lead to it becoming endangered.”

✤ Am I deriving monetary gain from this practice? If so, how do I create a reciprocity with my wildcrafting? (Ex: Gardening to offset what I’m taking. Making monetary offerings to the lands and native tribes who were the original stewards of the land where I am working. Offering reparations to BIPOC herbalists, farmers, businesses, etc.)

✼ Where is this practice honoring my ancestry? 

✷ Where might I be borrowing from other ancestries that are not mine? 

✿ What is the ethnobotanical and historical context of the plants I’m working with? Can I research what stolen land I’m on so I can offer a land acknowledgement? 

❀ Can I be aware of who is already attached to certain land? Is someone already harvesting from there?  Are they Indigenous to that land/using as sacred space? Are there altars or other offerings already present (Ex: When wildcrafting in VT, I acknowledge that this is Pennacook and Abenaki land, and their sovereignty was never ceded)?

Ecological Implications

We exist in a culture that often believes that anything that is green can be cultivated and grown annually in rows (as a garden). For some medicinal plants, this is true, but for many, many others they only can thrive in the conditions of the wild (old growth forests with strong mycelial networks, etc). Additionally, some plants need years and years (upwards of seven!) to even become established in an area, and need an additional number of years to grow strong enough for medicinal use. 

With rampant deforestation throughout the U.S. numerous populations of plants are being actively destroyed and as medicinals have moved into popular culture (like chaga coffee!) many are being consumed without regard to how/when/where/why they grow. Consider your relationship with capitalism. Try to step away from the idea that the value of medicinals exists in their capacity to heal human wounds/solve human problems. Plants do not exist for our “use” they were not given to us by a greater knowledge or god. They evolved on this planet with us. They learned to survive these harsh conditions alongside us. We have only just learned to manipulate them to benefit us. We have much opportunity in our medicine-making to create more reparative, restorative, and regenerative practices that will strengthen not only the medicine we are making, but also the interconnectedness of the ecosystem. 

Ecological questions to consider: 

✷ How am I supporting the plants and insects by wildcrafting? 

✿ How am I harming the plants and insects by wildcrafting? 

❀ What plants are on the “at risk” and “endangered” list? 

✤ Is the plant I want to work with poisonous? 

✼ How much plant material is needed for the medicine I want to make? How does this impact the land and ecosystem (Ex: 65 lbs of Roses are needed to produce just 1oz of essential oil, while just 4 ounces of Wild Rose can be made into 1oz of herbal tincture)?

✷ Can I remember the Rule of Four? For every 4 plants growing, I can harvest one.

✿ Did I ask permission to work with this plant? 

❀ Is someone already harvesting from there? Overuse? Over harvested area (E.g., an herb school)?

✤ How do the plants I wildcraft relate to the larger system? 

✼ What is the seed cycle of the plant I am taking? If it is right to harvest, can my harvesting method act as a pruning to strengthen the plant? After harvesting, am I making sure to replant some crowns that have some healthy buds? 

✷ Am I welcome in this (wildcrafting) space? Was I invited? E.g., if you’re being mercilessly attacked by mosquitoes, maybe you’re not welcome to wildcraft there. 

✿ What are you offering to the space? E.g., time, teaching restorative and regenerative practices, giving a portion of the proceeds of the medicine you make to an organization like United Plant Savers, cleaning up trash in the area you are working. 

Responsible Wildcrafting Vocabulary

Appropriation

The action of taking something for one's own use, typically without the owner's permission; Using knowledge from another tradition, culture, artistic work as if it is from your own culture, tradition and/or an original idea. (Learning from and/or being inspired by these practices is not appropriation. Learning/inspiration includes regular acknowledgments and appropriate crediting.) 

Colonization

The action or process of settling among and establishing control over the indigenous people of an area; White settler mentality; dominating peoples/land/plants for one’s own use, Actively removes the autonomy of those that came before you.

Reciprocity

Being in relationship with the natural world is a prerequisite for wildcrafting. Making medicine from wildcrafted plants is a radical act because it requires a mindset of cooperation and requires a commitment to being present without reward.    

Reparations

As it applies in the context of wildcrafting, White people especially have a responsibility to repair the centuries of harm we have inflicted not only on the Earth, but to BIPOC, who have been systematically oppressed and disenfranchised. Examples of reparations include: giving land back to BIPOC individuals, offering one’s time and energy to supporting BIPOC reparations (e.g, educating oneself, teaching others, supporting BIPOC businesses, joining movements and groups where appropriate), offering monetary donations. 

Sustainability

Avoidance of the depletion of natural resources in order to maintain an ecological balance.  

Conclusion

With the proliferation of herbal medicine and the trend towards natural and Earth-based practices, we are seeing an explosion of interest in wildcrafting, from individual people who want to enjoy more agency in their healing, to opportunistic businesses looking to profit off of Indigenous wisdom. It is a crucial time to bring more consciousness to wildcrafting. Let us honor the Earth, those who have and continue to steward the land, the medicine we make--and those we serve with it, by wildcrafting holistically.