[MPWG] NTFP values

[Goods From The Woods]

Marla,
I would be very interested in what you find out.
 I whole hearted agree with you regarding non-commercial values. Yet, 
only the demonstration of commercial values will help protect the land 
use.  We are working here with small farmers and woodlands owners trying 
to demonstrate that these harvests have monetary value worth considering 
in their land use planning.

 From Patricia's post on values
 >* Retail sales of saw palmetto, the fruit of which is collected 
primarily from Florida forests, exceeded $20 million in 2004 (Blumenthal 
2005);

If I did the decimal points correctly, the saw palmetto represents a 
fairly  major agricultural product in Florida
http://stuffaboutstates.com/florida/agriculture.htm

Then, the pine nuts I work with, P. Monophylla, 2008 was a bad year,
P. Monophylla - bad year, 35,000 lbs Average Wholesale value $8.00 lb - 
wild variation in wholesale prices, best average- $280,000.00
http://stuffaboutstates.com/nevada/agriculture.htm

2008 was a good year for P.Edulis pine nuts - best estimate 450,000 lbs 
under the tree value, $3,375,000.00.

http://stuffaboutstates.com/new.mexico/agriculture.htm

The monetary values, when put into perspective with agricultural 
products can really help policy makers with allocating resources, e.g. 
Alternative Crops grants and USDA Farm Bill policy.

Penny Frazier
A Wild Crops Farm, www.wildcrops.com