In these dog days of summer, the WOW editing team is dreaming of gathering nuts and boughs in the fall, planting ginseng in the cool spring soil, encouraging mushroom spores in the shade, and hearing that first crisp crack of gunshot on opening day of deer season. All of these – nuts, boughs, ginseng, mushrooms, and game animals – are examples of non-timber forest products or NTFPs. Depending on your geography, some can be cultivated and marketed with a little ingenuity and patience. Since you’re a woodland owner, we know you already have an abundance of ingenuity and patience.
We hope you enjoy this month’s articles about a number of NTFPs. Everyone defines NTFPs a little differently – some narrowly, some broadly – and each of our writers brings you her own perspective on these things that grow in the shade or sneak through the underbrush or sprout from forest meadows or spring quite naturally from forests without any help at all. We aren’t able to cover every product the forest produces, but we hope you’ll build on this introduction, follow our links, and network with your peers to teach and learn more. Please remember to carefully check local laws covering anything you might gather, pick, hunt, or attempt to sell. State laws vary.
We encourage you to share your experiences in the comment boxes at the bottom of each article page, or if you’re willing to share a bit more of your story, please contact an editor using the Contact page. She may want to interview you or invite you to write a guest post about your experience.
Whether your quarry are walnuts, morels, or deer: Happy Hunting!
Sincerely,
The editors of the Women Owning Woodlands site