Welcome to Mountain Edibles

I have been wandering the mountains of Utah as an amateur botanist for many years, and I am now trying to share some of what I have learned with those around me. I am a user of many edible and medicinal plants, and I believe the edible plants are the least known area of my expertise. This blog is a way to increase the popular knowledge of edible plants.

I also do plant walks to teach about edible and medicinal plants in person. If you are in the Northern Utah area, and are interested in arranging such a presentation, you can contact me using the contact form at the bottom of the page.

Thank you for coming.

Wednesday, September 10, 2014

Foraging on Federal Lands

Forest Products Free Use Permit
It took me two months to work my way up the forest service bureaucracy, and figure out how to get a free-use permit for collecting edible plants on federal lands. Turns out, I don't need one. As long as I am only collecting small incidental amounts for personal use, no permit is needed.

Note that this flatly contradicts what every other (Wasatch) forest service employee has ever told me, so if you are planning to do much foraging, you may want to be equipped with information about what you are really allowed to do. On the other hand, if your personal sustainability rules are anything like mine, you will never encounter anyone while foraging, so the point is mute anyway.

If you want information on what you are allowed to do, or a permit to do it, the person to contact is the regional botanist for your national forest. (The botanist I spoke with said the position was changing soon, so I won't give his name here.) Whoever has that position should be well informed about regulations and how to issue permits. I started at the nearest forest service office, and they had me talk to the local botanist, because I was interested in plants, and they took a while to figure out how or who would issue a permit. The picture for this post is my Forest Products Free Use Permit, so you can see what one looks like.

(more after the break...)