Wildcrafting Checklist

Columbines School of Botanical Studies

• Who are the indigenous people of this place? What is their contemporary situation?
• Do you have the permission or the permits for collecting at the site?
• Do you have a positive identification?
• Are there better stands nearby? Are you at the proper elevation?
• Is the stand away from roads and trails?
• Is the stand healthy?
• Is there any chemical contamination?
• Is there any natural contamination?
• Are you in a fragile environment?
• Are there rare, threatened, endangered, or sensitive plants growing nearby at any time of the year?
• Is wildlife foraging the stand?
• Is the stand growing, shrinking, or staying the same size?
• Is the plant an annual or a perennial?
• Is tending necessary and what kind?
• How much to pick? Is the stand big enough?
• Time of day? Time of year?
• What effect will your harvest have on the stand?
• Do you have the proper emotional state?
• Move around during harvesting.
• Look around after harvesting. Any holes or cleanup needed?
• Are you picking herbs in the proper order for a long trip?
• Are you cleaning herbs in the field? Do you have the proper equipment for in-field processing?

*Wildcrafting is Stewardship*

©HB 1995, 2012, HB & HB 2019. Feel free to reprint and distribute this checklist, as long as it remains intact with the headers and footers attached. For more information contact us at 541-687-7114 or write PO Box 50532, Eugene, Oregon 97405 admin@botanicalstudies.net, or visit www.botanicalstudies.net