Roadside Foraging:Worth the Risks?

Good day!
I am a novice forager (just submitted my first two Herbal Medicine PEP BBs)
I’m excited about learning and recognizing plants in the wild, but have encountered a source of frustration. Many medicinal plants thrive in edge-spaces and disturbed ground, so it seems that the easiest place to find them is by the side of the road, but all the foraging guides seem to advise avoiding any plants grown by the road because of pollution. While it’s hard to say no to the first big wild yarrow patch one ever finds, I don’t want to make a tincture of gasoline. Would you collect medicinal or edible plants from the side of the road? Would traffic levels make a difference to you? Are there any ways to test or mitigate the risk of pollutants? Thank you for your thoughts!

I would not do it. There are far more things that get spilled, dumped, or seeped onto roadways, than just exhaust, including whatever all the vehicles have driven through or are hauling, that bounces, leaks,or tracks with them, down the road. Just think about all the trucks you see rolling down the road with placards on them, warning of toxic, flammable, bio-hazard, etc. Septic pumping trucks, trash collection trucks... Nope. You couldn't pay me enough to use those herbs, no matter how petty they look.

It’s hard to set a standard for how pristine a foraging source needs to be when so much is outside one’s control though. The local state park doesn’t allow harvesting, and the land where I live gets surface runoff from the road through a neighbor’s yard, and at least one of my neighbors uses lots of toxic gick on his lawn. One of the local cow pastures has been treated with herbicide for “weeds”, but the roadside there might well be cleaner than my downhill vegetable garden after a downpour.

Nope. You couldn't pay me enough...

However, you may want to go back later and snag some seeds!

Harmony Dybala wrote:It’s hard to set a standard for how pristine a foraging source needs to be when so much is outside one’s control though. The local state park doesn’t allow harvesting, and the land where I live gets surface runoff from the road through a neighbor’s yard, and at least one of my neighbors uses lots of toxic gick on his lawn. One of the local cow pastures has been treated with herbicide for “weeds”, but the roadside there might well be cleaner than my downhill vegetable garden after a downpour.

I lived in the Chicago suburbs, so I understand the difficulty. I still refused to do it, there. I personally would never treat one issue while introducing potentially highly toxic unknowns with the very treatment I want to heal someone with. I would never advise it.

I'd say yes if its a calm road, no if its a heavy traffic road.  On a medium traffic road I'd air on the side of caution and say no?

Maybe you could ask around for people who would be willing to let you forage on their property.

Maybe even put an ad on Craigslist.

I would be willing to let you forage my property except that I doubt you would want to drive that far.

Generally, I am with Carla on this. But there are at least 3 variables that would cause me to pause and think.

First, how busy is the road? There are roads that get 20 vehicles a minute. There are road that might gets 5 vehicles a year.  My neighbors field sees at least 5 vehicles a year.

Second, how far off the road is the plant?  Are we talking a foot, a yard, 30 feet?

Finally, how rare is the plant?

The punch line is that my answer is mostly no.  But if I find a rare plant 60 feet of off of a rarely used dirt road, I will be tempted.

Solid advice so far. Roads in general, are icky. I forage for a lot of my food. Especially in the early days, roadsides were tempting. It's not true that these disturbed-earth loving plants like yarrow don't grow as readily off roads. I think it is more that roads are where we first start picking up on our quarry as novice foragers, because that's how we travel most, and our eyes have come alive to their cues. You can find these plants off the roads, and often, where you see them on the roadside is a good cue that there are more nearby. There is plenty of disturbed, compacted ground off road.

One thing about roadside foraging that has not been mentioned: IF we are talking a rural road (minimal traffic) that has natural sloping, and IF you know the land itself is free of potential contaminants, upslope sides of the road, for me, are fair game. I don't forage anything within 30 feet or so of either side of the road, but beyond that, I will pick upslope plants. My reasoning being that water, and everything else that goes with it, tends to flow downhill. I don't want runoff from the road and all its attendant gick, so I go up.

Also: Really look into the places you plan to source food from. Forested landscapes, like where I live, grow back so quickly from injury that they can hide all manner of sins and appear pristine, though they are far from it. Pesticides and herbicides are often sprayed by Forest Service, logging companies, county entities, farm operations, and individuals. Old mines are a thing too, where I am. One thing I use to help me figure it all out, is a hunting ap called Onyx. Essentially it is a mapping application that will show you ownership details of the lands you are tooling about in. Once you know ownership, you can investigate further to see how it is managed and how it applies to you. It is stellar also, for knowing where you are allowed to be, (legally), and where not.

There is abundant food and medicine all around you, best of luck on your journey!

Sometimes areas have local foraging clubs.  

I remember hearing about classes where folks can go on foraging trips to learn about what plants can be foraged.

Here are some links I found that might be of interest:

https://www.eattheweeds.com/where-do-you-forage/

https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2013/04/23/178603623/want-to-forage-in-your-city-theres-a-map-for-that

This is specific to Texas though will give folks an idea of what I am talking about:

https://www.foragingtexas.com/p/upcomin.html

John F Dean wrote:Generally, I am with Carla on this. But there are at least 3 variables that would cause me to pause and think.

First, how busy is the road? There are roads that get 20 vehicles a minute. There are road that might gets 5 vehicles a year.  My neighbors field sees at least 5 vehicles a year.

Second, how far off the road is the plant?  Are we talking a foot, a yard, 30 feet?

Finally, how rare is the plant?

The punch line is that my answer is mostly no.  But if I find a rare plant 60 feet of off of a rarely used dirt road, I will be tempted.

Ok, yeh - this makes sense. I could see this, and have thought hard on a few roads like your neighbor's - and ours, myself. We're on a private,  dead end road.  But, I've also seen what goes down it, so I haven't done it, in the 5 1/2yrs we've been here.