Rural System's

The Moss Group

Moss is a popular item to harvest from the forests and then to sell to brokers who sell it worldwide to florists. The forest growth is limited and harvesting is difficult, probably impossible to control. Harvesters (2005) can generally get between 75 cents and $1 per pound of moss in the western USA. While moss harvesting can be done legally, but often isn't. The U.S. Forest Service issues permits for moss harvesting. Permits have conditions and regulations. Permits cost $25 for 500 pounds or $50 for 1,000 pounds ( Siuslaw National Forest). A map defines the area in which moss can be harvested; they can't take moss from within 200 feet of a stream or a developed recreation site. Harvesters are supposted to take only every-other plant but this cannot be enforced. They agree to must pick it in a way that doesn't harm the plant. It's prohibited to take moss from higher than 20 feet above ground.The maximum amount one family can harvest is 1,000 pounds per year, and everyone who is harvesting must have a permit.

The growth rates are unknown and season specific. Regulating harvest is difficult (even if exact plant community needs were known). The potential for ecosytem disruption are great. Current self-reporting conditions are said to be like going hunting, getting a deer and taking it home without getting the deer tag punched and then using the same tag to get a second deer. Harvesters are supposed to write on the permits how much moss they have harvested but the truthfulness of this has not been studied.

The mosses are interesting plants and very attractive. They will probably yield readily to GIS-related study. There seems to be a potential, small-scale busines to be created in plastic greenhouses with equipment designed to produce mosses hydroponically in moist, low light conditions. Where there is a market, it can be developed legally and abuses to forests and other communities (e.g., lichen) reduced. In the West, mosses are picked from trees. In the East they occur on trees and the ground. It seems likely that organic medium strips or "felts" can be developed with moss growing on them. They can be packaged and sent in cool packaging for direct sale and easy use by florists. One National Forest (Siuslaw) sells 125,000 pounds a year.

The Moss Group potentials seem to be (2005):

• Orchid group parallel interests (moss for phalaenopsis orchid care)
• Dried flower specialization with a few florists, including contests and dried arrangements with moss as a component
• Dried and preserved (perhaps colored) for floral arrangements
• Moss grown on esthetically pleasing stems for florists - the stem plus moss is the product
• Sell ancillary products (stones, stems, pods, cones, background wood, dried leaves, dried ferns, wooden knots, drift wood, glass bowls or tubes with layers of colorful local sands/soils))
• Like ferns, these plants have great fungal and insect resistance. The organic basis for these traits can be discovered and synthetic products developed.
• Terrariaums and a moss-growing community of indoor gardeners
• Spanish moss specialties (Florida etc.)
• Isotope studies (mosses and lichen as specialized collectors)
• Research - moss communities
• Publications - moss identification and life-list building (See Plant People)

See

• American Fern Society (for fern allies)
• floral research potentials.
• Society of American Florists
• Growing Moss starter materials
• Growing Ideas

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June 27, 2005