IFCAE Project: Access, Labor, and Wild Floral Greens Management in Western Washington's Forests

Project Overview:

In spring 2002, the U.S. Forest Pacific Northwest Research Station contracted with IFCAE researchers, Kathryn Lynch and Rebecca McLain, to examine changes that had taken place in the floral greens industry on the western Olympic Peninsula between 1994 and 2002.  The analysis indicated that floral greens harvesters and buyers are faced with an expanding number of regulations.  These regulations range from more restrictive and more costly harvesting permits and leases to data recording requirements for buyers to labor laws requiring employers to provide workman’s compensation and unemployment insurance to harvesters. In addition, landowner efforts to standardize policies across ownerships have inadvertently squeezed out part-timers who are often unable to afford higher permit costs.

The increase in competition for floral greens, such as salal, sword fern, and evergreen huckleberry, and the elimination of part-timers are signs of a significant change in the floral greens economy.  Until the 1990s the floral greens industry provided many local inhabitants with an important, but generally supplemental source of income. By the late 1990s, floral greens harvesting had become a low-paying seasonal occupation for people with few income options.  The new harvesters consist predominately of young, and often undocumented, Latinos.  Worker turnover rates appear to be high. The risk of unsustainable harvesting appears to be increasing due to loss of local ecological knowledge and the presence of disincentives for harvesters to harvest floral greens conservatively.

Project Recommendations

Biological and Ecological Research.  More data on the biological characteristics of harvested species and their ecological relationships are needed to manage floral greens.  Important variables to control for include management regime (i.e. leases, permits), the number of harvesters on a plot, and harvesting techniques, among others.

Social Science Research.  Ethnographic research can provide a clearer picture of the social, political, and economic processes that influence industry structure and the ecological consequences of that structure. This research in turn can be used to support the development of labor and resource policies more conducive to sustainable NTFP harvesting.

Training for Land Managers.   Training that takes managers out into the forest with harvesters would provide managers a better understanding of the constraints and realities faced by harvesters. It might also improve relationships between managers and harvesters.

Training for Harvesters.  The Makah tribe is making an effort to instill a sustainable harvesting ethic in participants involved in a recent project aimed at increasing the opportunities for tribal members to participate in commercial NTFP harvesting. Expanding these efforts to include Latino and other new harvesters is highly recommended.

Improved Inventory and Monitoring.  Developing a systematic and scientific inventory and monitoring process would reduce the risks of over-permitting and over-harvesting.  We recommend that land managers explore ways to include harvesters and buyers in inventorying and monitoring processes so as to improve data quality and relationships with harvesters and buyers.


Publications:

Lynch, Kathryn A. and Rebecca J. McLain. “Land, Labor and Sustainable Forest Management: Changes in Floral Greens Policy on the Western Olympic Peninsula 1994-2002.” Gen. Tech. Rep. PNW-GTR-585  Portland, OR: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Research Station.