[PCA] ABSTRACT: Quantity and value of commercial moss harvest from forests of the Pacific Northwest and Appalachian regions of the U.S

[Olivia Kwong]

Here's the abstract of an article that Pat Ford of USFWS pointed out. 
Look for the full article in your local university library or if you have 
a subscription to BIOONE, it's available from their website.

The Bryologist

Article: pp. 197.214 | Full Text | PDF (118K)
Quantity and value of commercial moss harvest from forests of the Pacific 
Northwest and Appalachian regions of the U.S

P. S. Muir, K. N. Norman, K. G. Sikes

Department of Botany and Plant Pathology, Cordley Hall 2082, Oregon State 
University, Corvallis, OR 97331-2902, U.S.A. e-mails: E-mail: 
muirp at science.oregonstate.edu, E-mail: normank at science.oregonstate.edu, 
E-mail: sikesk at lifetime.oregonstate.edu

The work reported here addresses two primary questions: (1) How much 
"moss" (a mixture of mosses and liverworts) is harvested commercially from 
forests in the Pacific Northwest (PNW) and Appalachian regions of the 
U.S.? (2) What is the commercial value of this nontimber forest product? 
Methods included surveying land managers, botanists and moss dealers, 
querying U.S. government databases, and interviewing people involved in 
the moss trade. Approximately 35% of land manager respondents issued 
permits for moss harvest in the last five years. These reported that 
permits were issued for an average of 4,009 (Appalachian) and 96,433 (PNW) 
air-dry kg/yr of moss over the years 1997.2002, with a maximum reported 
permitted harvest of 166,793 air-dry kg across both regions in the year 
2000. Official U.S. Forest Service sources listed the maximum yearly 
reported harvest for these regions as 115,661 air-dry kg in 2000 (PNW = 
71,534 kg and Appalachians = 44,127 kg) and official Bureau of Land 
Management sources for OR and WA listed the maximum permitted harvest as 
54,978 air-dry kg in 2001. Yearly revenues from sales of commercial moss 
harvest permits were reported to be . US$19,650. In contrast, estimates of 
total harvests based on export data and assumptions about those data 
suggest that the mean yearly harvest for the years 1998.2003 was between 
4.6 and 18.4 million air-dry kg (yearly minimum and maximum estimated at 
0.9 and 37.4 million air-dry kg, respectively). Moss sales (domestic plus 
exports) are estimated to total between US$.6 million and 165 million per 
year. The wide ranges in these estimates illustrate how little is known 
about the moss harvest trade. In combination with lack of information 
about the size of the moss inventory, reaccumulation rates, and species 
and ecosystem functions potentially affected by harvest, results indicate 
that policy makers and land managers lack critical information on which to 
base harvest regulations.

Keywords: Nontimber forest products, special forest products, epiphytes, 
moss export, sustainable harvest, harvest permits, florist trade, 
decorative moss

Received: August 26, 2005; Accepted: January 25, 2006

DOI: 10.1639/0007-2745(2006)109[197:QAVOCM]2.0.CO;2