Forest farming can bring economic, environmental benefits to WNC

Farming: For most of us, the word conjures images of geometric rows of vegetables, cows contentedly grazing in well-mown pastures, and carefully pruned and tended orchards bearing grocery-store-bin fruit. In Western North Carolina, however, that traditional image of farming is being met with an alternate view: of the cultivation of ginseng and other medicinal native plants, and apple trees replaced by chestnuts; of acorn gathering and even kudzu harvesting — all accomplished not in wide-open fields and pastureland, but beneath a wild forest canopy.

Forest farming, as this alternative agricultural practice is known, is defined as “the intentional cultivation or stewardship of plants with economic value under a forest canopy,” at ground level in established forested areas. Along with silvopasturing (raising animals in the forest), alley cropping (growing crops in rows between timber or nut crops), windbreaks and planting in buffer zones along waterways, forest farming is a component of agroforestry.

In Western North Carolina native crops such as ginseng, goldenseal, black cohosh and ramps benefit from forest farming practices, which protect these valuable plants from over-harvesting and preserve both their quality and chemical profile. Forest farming tends to yield greater volumes of the plants than does wild harvesting.

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