From the Corvallis Gazette-Times, by Erin Madison
There's money in moss, and that's causing problems for national forests and law enforcement agencies.
Moss is a popular item to harvest and then sell to brokers who sell it worldwide to florists, said Clay Stephens, patrol sergeant with the Benton County Sheriff's Office.
"It's a real lucrative business," Stephens said.
Harvesters can generally get between 75 cents and $1 per pound of moss, and when they're selling thousands of pounds of it, it adds up to a fair amount of money, he said.
Moss harvesting can be done legally, but often isn't.
The U.S. Forest Service issues permits for moss harvesting that come with a number of conditions and regulations. Permits cost $25 for 500 pounds or $50 for 1,000 pounds, said Kathy Fletcher, public affairs specialist with the Siuslaw National Forest.
Permits come with a map, defining the area in which moss can be harvested. Harvesters can't take moss from within 200 feet of a stream or a developed recreation site. The maximum amount one family can harvest is 1,000 pounds per year, and everyone who is harvesting must have a permit.
The problem is there's no system to regulate the permits, Stephens said.
"It's on the honor system," he said.
Harvesters are supposed to write on the permits how much moss they have harvested, but this often doesn't happen.
It'd be like going hunting, getting a deer and taking it home without getting the deer tag punched and then using the same tag to get a second deer, Stephens said.
On June 15, Benton County Sheriff's deputies stopped and arrested a man on Highway 34 near Yew Creek. His pickup was overflowing with bags of moss.
The man had a permit for 500 pounds but probably had about 3,000 pounds in his truck, Stephens said.
This was one of the biggest cases of moss theft the sheriff's office has seen.
Most harvesters pick their moss around Waldport and then drive through Benton County on their way to the freeway, he said. Permits aren't issued for Benton County.
While officers are always on the lookout for moss theft, they don't have any checkpoints and don't always know which way the harvesters will be coming through the county, Stephens said.
"It's a big issue, but it's a lot of area to cover," he said.
The forest deputy generally makes a couple dozen arrests per year for forest product violations, which includes moss theft, Stephens said.
"More goes on than we know about, or we can catch," he said.
Harvesters pick the moss off trees and shrubs but are supposed to take it only from every other plant and must pick it in a way that doesn't harm the plant. It's prohibited to take moss from higher than 20 feet above ground.
The Siuslaw forest issues moss harvesting permits, but the maximum it issues is for 125,000 pounds per fiscal year, Fletcher said. That limit has already been reached for this year, so moss harvesting permits won't be available until Oct. 1, which is when Siuslaw's next fiscal year begins.
Moss theft is an issue for the Siuslaw National Forest, Fletcher said.
"I know that it is a problem," she said. "How much, I don't know."
