Moss-colored Glasses

Image by woong hoe from Pixabay 

We’ve spent a long time knowing each other, mosses and I. In telling their story, I’ve come to see the world through moss-colored glasses.-Robin Wall Kimmerer

We have harvested a number of specialty forest products, or non-timber forest products, from our own land over the years. Conks, a type of mushroom, was popular a few decades ago, and we sold Douglas fir seed cones for a time. Cascara bark and moss were other items we engaged in foraging and marketing. 

Moss is actually big business. Folks, beginning with local indigenous tribes, have long found good uses for the many varieties of moss found in the Pacific Northwest forest. Currently moss, as an industry, is centered around the floral and decorating markets, used in gardens, aquariums and various types of décor. 

I would like to offer my Etsy shop customers more in the way of moss sustainably harvested from our own private forestland. There is a small hiccup, however. Moss is slow growing. Back in the 70’s the state of South Carolina banned the wild harvesting of moss from Pisgah and Nantahala National Forest because they realized too much was being taken and it was detrimental to the health of the forest and the creatures that depend on it. 

Wild harvesting moss in the Pacific Northwest and Appalachia for commercial purposes is a world unto itself, a sort of underground economy. Honest moss collectors will get the required permit or contract to harvest from national or state forestland or get permission from a local landowner. Not all collectors go to the trouble of doing that, however, so the amount of moss actually collected is uncertain. Estimates run in the millions of pounds, though – and millions of dollars. Because of the uncertainty of how much is actually being taken, and how much can safely be taken, permits for federal or state lands are restricted in many places, if not banned. 

Which, of course, does not stop those who would harvest without a permit. We still have a huge underground economy, often shrouded in secrecy.

As a private landowner, what issues are there if I want to sell to the floral or decoration market? What do we face? 

Theft? We have a large, isolated tract of land and security is an ongoing concern. Not only have we had game poached off our land, but we had a rash of vine maple thefts a few years ago, which would have been sold to the landscaping market as native plants. We haven’t made patrolling for moss thieves a high priority, but it is something to keep in mind. 

How much is too much? For landowners with a stake in the health and sustainability of the forest, learning more about the secret life of mosses is paramount. We could harvest some moss for floral sales, but how much and how often?

Image by NaoYuasa from Pixabay Moss ball

Agro-forestry? Moss, while slow-growing, is actually pretty easy to grow. Perhaps part of the solution is agro-forestry rather than foraging. And how does that look?

One proposal is to grow moss in nursery-type settings instead of wild harvesting it, but what does that require in the way of investment and support? 

A great deal of study and research needs to be done: a moss inventory to determine how much actually grows in our forest, testing to determine how fast it grows back…

In the meantime, we enjoy the lush moss carpet beneath our feet, the witchy strands of old man’s beard flowing from alder branches. 

Moss is worth getting to know.

Margaret