The San Juan National Forest, at 1.9 million acres, is a vast discount warehouse that attracts many shoppers in addition to the loggers who cut distressed timber in burned areas, ranchers who graze livestock and hunters, anglers and outfitters on the prowl for game.
Need some spruce tips? Some mushrooms? How about osha roots or pinecones?
These and more are all available on our public lands, and, depending on the demand and type, they’re free or available for a modest fee to individuals as well as commercial interests.
Some products can be classified as utilitarian, others as medicinal, ornamental or culinary.
Trees are perhaps the centerpiece of the national forest, and they serve many purposes. Junipers are favorites for fence posts; aspen or pine make good corral poles; aspen and white fir are often selected for transplanting; white fir are popular for Christmas trees; and Engelmann spruce is the choice for timber to build log cabins.
The demand for firewood is ongoing, but fluctuates with the price of heating fuel, said Gretchen Fitzgerald, the small-sales forester for the Columbine and Pagosa districts of the U.S. Forest Service. Frank Gonzales is her counterpart in the Dolores Ranger District.
Roots and leaves of the osha, arnica and Oregon grape have many medicinal uses among Native Americans and herbalists. Seeds from cones and flowers are much-sought-after, and rocks for landscaping are available.
Many items can be gathered free if they’re for personal use, although a permit may be required, Fitzgerald said. Collectors who plan to sell their harvests pay a fee.
“The demand for these products has been steady over the years,” Fitzgerald said.
A variety of collectors explore the national forest for their stock in trade.
For instance, Ken Martin, head brewer at Steamworks Brewing Co., needs a forest product to complete a recipe he swiped from the Vikings. He collects tips of spruce trees every summer to flavor the Spruce Goose beer that will be available Nov. 1.
The 2 to 3 inches of new growth on spruce boughs is rich in vitamin C, an attribute not lost on the Vikings, who flavored their beer with spruce to prevent scurvy on long sea voyages.
Martin adds spruce tips for an hour in the boil session, then shuts off the heat and lets the mixture steep for 20 to 30 minutes.
“The flavor is significant,” Martin said. “But it’s not over the top.”
Martin pays $20 for a national forest permit, but said he found a website that was selling spruce tips for $40 a pound.
Mushrooms, which poke their heads out soon after the first rains, are a much-sought-after mycological delicacy. They come out just in time for the Telluride Mushroom Festival, the 32nd edition of which opens its four-day run Thursday.
Chris Ricci, who sells mushrooms and “myco medicinal extracts” through his Majesty Mushrooms at Durango Farmers Market and elsewhere, said 12 to 15 choice edible varieties are found in the Four Corners. Among them are the king boletes, chanterelles, lactarius deliciosus and the sarcodon, known locally as hawk’s wing.
Many other mushrooms, of which thousands of species exist, are edible, he said. Only a handful are deadly.
Earl Plank, a furniture maker from Arthur, Ill., arrived in June to cut 24 cords of dead-standing aspen in the national forest near Pagosa Springs.
He brought mules named Molly and Daisy to snake 10- to 20-foot-long aspen trunks to a loading area along Turkey Springs Road to await the arrival of a semi-trailer.
“Aspen is softer than pine,” Plank said. “I use logs 2 to 7 inches in diameter to make bedroom sets, staircases, living-room furniture and table tops.”
Turtle Lake Refuge, a nonprofit with a mission to help people reconnect to a land-based diet, is a longtime collector of wild plants, said Rebekah Harris, a refuge associate.
“We have 23 products – fresh, dehydrated, powdered – connected to wild foraging,” Harris said. “One is a super-food powder made of 13 wild weeds that grow everywhere.”
In fact, Katrina Blair, founder of Turtle Lake Refuge in 1998, started her annual hike Thursday from Durango to Telluride, timing her arrival to the opening of the mushroom festival, where she teaches. She carries no food, but lives off the roots, berries, mushrooms, seeds and leaves she finds along the way.
Information about permits, fees and limits on how much can be collected is available at the main office of each ranger district, Fitzgerald said. The office numbers: Columbine District, 884-2512; Pagosa District, 264-2268; and Dolores District, 882-7296.
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For more information
Permits and information about collecting forest products such as mushrooms, firewood, medicinal herbs, flowers, seeds and Christmas trees are available at any U.S. Forest Service ranger district headquarters.
The telephone numbers: Columbine, 884-2512; Pagosa, 264-2268; Dolores, 882-7196. Also, permits and information are available at the San Juan Public Lands Office, 247-4874.
Unless authorized, collecting items is not allowed in the Weminuche, South San Juan and Lizard Head wilderness areas; the Piedra Special Management Area; the Canyons of the Ancients National Monument; picnic areas; and developed picnic areas and campgrounds.
Regulations covering the most popular forests products follows:
Mushrooms: No permit is required for 2 pounds or less; 3 to 10 pounds requires a free-use permit; a $20 product-removal permit is required for more than 10 pounds.
Firewood: Five tags for half-cord loads cost $20. Up to 10 cords may be purchased for personal use. Commercial collectors pay $10 a cord and must buy a minimum of $50.
Small amounts of medicinal plants, berries, seeds, dry pine cones and decorative plants may be taken without a permit. A $20 permit is required for taking more than two bushels.
Pole permits are available for a minimum of $20. Prices vary, depending on quantity and product.
Christmas trees are $8 per tree, with a maximum of five trees per household.
Trees to transplant cost $5 for aspen, shrubs or white fir. All others are $10 each. A minimum $20 permit is required.
