Legalities of Foraging in BC, Canada – Biblical Natural Health Coaching

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A recent article published on Castanet, a local news site, erroneously has claimed that it is illegal to dig up Arrowleaf Balsamroot on crown land here in BC. When I asked for sources, they sent me this link, where I immediately noticed the reporter’s error:

Collection
2 (1) Subject to subsection (2), a person must not collect cones, seeds or vegetative material from Crown land unless in possession of a cone and vegetative material collection permit issued by the district manager, or person authorized by the district manager.

(2) Subsection (1) does not apply to

(a) employees or agents of the government, or

(b) persons collecting cones or vegetative material for a non-commercial purpose.

Most people will collect for non-commercial purposes.

FrontCounter BC used to have more information than they now do on the subject of wild foraging. They still cover foraging for mushrooms. Most long-time foragers across the province have done so without issue from the government. The understanding used to be that crown land was open, provincial and national parks were not, private, leased, etc land required permission, and band land required permission.

While I encouraged the reporter to update their article, they haven’t done so as of the time of writing this piece. I have sent emails to a couple places in BC that should be up on any changing policies, regulations, etc, but have not yet received a reply. I will update this if they reply with anything other than what is so far, commonly understood.

It is current and common understanding across Canada, that public lands available for public use, are open to foraging activity. This does not included leased lands, private lands, band lands, national or provincial parks, or ecological reserves. Permission must be obtained from those land holders before one can forage in those areas. Regional laws vary from province to province.

Here in BC, there are public statements about lack of permission in regional parks, however, local rangers have told us we can forage in regional parks provided we are off trail and out of sight. This is to protect vegetation along the trail from those who do not understand the concept of foraging involving the 5% rule. One person in the Lower Mainland calls it the 10% rule, but we ourselves, adopted the 5% rule. Once you’ve picked no more than 5% of a given patch, move on.

Here at Biblical Natural Health Coaching, as the second half of Ashtree Wildcrafting, what we do is not yet at commercial levels, although if tea sales continue to increase, we may need more and more private land permissions and/or a permit from the BC government to forage in a given stretch of land for what we’d need. This is due to not owning a significant chunk of land ourselves that we can hike around, that covers up to 4 different growing types (arid, creek, mountain, meadow, forest).

I’m attaching a couple PDF’s here. One is from Front Counter BC which has changed drastically in 10 years, with their information now exclusively covering mushroom picking. It is not amiss however, to consider adapting the same rules for mushroom pickers to foragers in general, other than some of the zones they are occasionally allowed into.

Another is from Sea to Sky Invasive Species Control. They mention the common “across Canada” understanding of the legal nature of foraging on public lands.

This article will be updated whenever we find updated information on the legalities of foraging here in BC.

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