Minnesota foraging task force hears county, Wisconsin approaches; members debate five-year moratorium on new rules

Chair Senator Susan Paz convened the Minnesota Foraging Task Force to review local and out-of-state approaches to allowing foraging on public lands and to begin shaping recommendation priorities.

Washington County parks manager JJ Williams told the group the county updated its park ordinance this year to permit foraging, issue educational materials and designate approved sites to protect restoration work. "We permitted, I believe, just about 55. We issued foraging permits," Williams said, adding the county does not charge a fee and prohibits root harvesting. He said staff plan an end-of-season survey to learn what people collected and where.

Matt Zion of the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources described Wisconsin’s different approach. Zion said Wisconsin’s administrative code allows people to collect edible fruits, nuts and mushrooms "for personal consumption by the collector" without a permit, while other plant collections may require permits and a separate NR 40 rule governs possession, movement and disposal of invasive species. "We do not have a permit system," Zion said. "We're basically guided by administrative code."

Several task force members pressed both presenters about monitoring and data. David Schultz of the Minnesota Foraging Alliance urged the panel to prioritize data collection before further rulemaking, proposing a five-year moratorium on new state rulemaking while the state studies permitting pilots, surveys and natural-experiment outcomes in counties that have changed policy. "I'm hearing a lot more about ideology and belief and very little about hard data," Schultz said, arguing that Washington County's 55 permits represent a small share relative to total park visits and that more systematic information is needed.

Other members supported a pause on new rules but warned a moratorium should be narrowly tailored to avoid preventing jurisdictions from addressing pressing site-specific problems. "If there is a place with a problem, I would hate to think that we have prohibited them from managing that problem," said Angela Gupta of University of Minnesota Extension.

Tribal concerns were a recurring emphasis. A representative of the Minnesota Indian Affairs Council urged that task force recommendations "uphold tribal sovereignty and our distinct treaty rights" and that the panel consider reserving access or special protections for tribal members to collect sacred medicines. Several members proposed education campaigns to reduce unintentional spread of invasive species and suggested creating a "forage freely" list for certain nonnative or overabundant species.

Members discussed practical data-gathering options: adding foraging questions to existing hunting and fishing license surveys, soliciting responses via listening sessions and working with partner groups (for example, mycological societies) to collect species-distribution observations (iNaturalist was cited). Washington County agreed to share its educational materials and draft survey questions with the task force.

The chair closed the meeting by noting the task force will hold several listening sessions (including in-person and virtual options), compile recommended priorities, and ask members to come to the next meeting ready to rank items for focused recommendation development.

What’s next: the task force will distribute Washington County and Wisconsin materials, solicit input on survey questions to add to county data collection, and prioritize recommendation items at its next meeting; several members also asked staff to engage tribal leadership before finalizing recommendations.