ABSTRACT
According to Bryan Colegrove, who helps Josephine gather plants for medicines, Josephine instructed to take a little bit from here, a little bit from there. When gathering leaves or flowers, cut branches from several individual plants rather than pulling the plant up by the roots, which will kill the plant. When gathering from shrubs, take less than five percent of an individual plant. Take small amounts from several stands to minimize the impact on the plant population. For long-lived plants, a good general rule is to take less than one twentieth, or five percent, of the plant material from a given site. Some common plants have rare relatives that resemble them closely. If the site looks tended or recently harvested, keep looking for another spot to gather. On national forest lands, permits are given for some commercial collection of medicinal plants, of greenery for the floral industry, and mushrooms.
