Most ethical foragers recommend that you only harvest a between one-tenth to one-third of any particular patch of what you see, and never from the only patch you find. Don’t be greedy.

Why would you take for the sake of taking? I respect all of my specimens, and strive to make the most of every piece I forage.

Know how what you take affects the biodiversity of an area. For instance, foraging fruiting bodies - like fruits and mushrooms - means less seeds and spores to produce the next generation, but does not affect the specimen that produced the fruiting body. Foraging flowers means less fruit for the birds and other wildlife. Ethically foraging specimens like lichen means only picking up naturally fallen pieces that will rot anyway - not harvesting healthy specimens from their habitats, thus preventing that specimen from reproducing and affecting that species population.

I am not a purist “nativist” and rip out every non-native or so called “invasive” plant I see. I recognize that ecologies shift and evolve. That said, I work with a lot of plants deemed noxious weeds because 1) they are numerous in my urban environment and removing them can benefit the other species competing for space 2) they are beautiful, and I work with them to remember their redeeming qualities and to change my relationship with plants I formally demonized in my work in restoration ecology.

The natural world is not a free smagasboard where you can take anything you want, whenever you want it. Imagine if you were treated that way. Many ethical foragers discuss being careful of foraging from private lands and asking permission first, and refrain from foraging on all public lands, but I also forage with the sovereignty of the plant being in mind. It may sound silly, but I ask its permission first, and tell it what I’m going to use it for, whether for art, food, or medicine. I’ve had many plants that have refused and I leave them alone. I offer the plant something in return, usually a drink of water, always with gratitude.

You will never see endangered or threatened plant specimens in any of my work. Some insect specimens are recovered from old butterfly collections and were going to rot anyway, and that is the only instance where rare species are used in my work. Nothing suffered or died under my supervision.