A ginseng digger works a hollow somewhere in the Appalachians. Traditional ‘sangers’ generally follow centuries-old protocols for sustainable harvest of the plant and pose much less of a threat to ginseng than habitat destruction and extractive industry.  Photos from American Folklife Collection/Library of Congress

Wild ginseng is declining, but small-scale ‘diggers’ aren’t the main threat to this native plant — and they can help save it

This article was originally published by The Conversation. Justine Law is an associate professor of Ecology and Environmental Studies at Sonoma State University.

KNOXVILLE — Across Appalachia, September marks the start of ginseng season, when thousands of people roam the hills searching for hard-to-reach patches of this highly prized plant.

Many people know ginseng as an ingredient in vitamin supplements or herbal tea. That ginseng is grown commercially on farms in Wisconsin and Ontario, Canada. In contrast, wild American ginseng is an understory plant that can live for decades in the forests of the Appalachians. The plant’s taproot grows throughout its life and sells for hundreds of dollars per pound, primarily to East Asian customers who consume it for health reasons.

Because it’s such a valuable medicinal plant, harvesting ginseng has helped families in mountainous regions of states such as Kentucky, West Virginia, Tennessee, North Carolina and Ohio weather economic ups and downs since the late 1700s.

Scenes from the Cherokee Fall Festival, an annual celebration of Cherokee culture and history at the Sequoyah Museum in Vonore.  Photos by Thomas Fraser/Hellbender Press 

A celebration of Cherokee people and the man who wrote their alphabet

VONORE — Flutes, dance, food and firearms were featured at the annual festival near the birthplace of a linguistic giant on the shore of the Little Tennessee River and the grounds of the Sequoyah Museum. 

Cherokee dance, lore and storytelling communicated the rich story of the Native American nation, which was forcibly disbanded along with other indigenous residents of the Southern Appalachians under the administration of President Andrew Jackson. The main concentration of the tribe is now in Oklahoma, but the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians — including those whose ancestors resisted forced relocation — is now centered in Cherokee. 

Sequoyah, born in nearby Toskegee in the Cherokee Nation circa 1770, developed an alphabet for the Cherokee language so it could be written and read, an astonishing feat to this day. By some accounts, the literacy rate of the then-fractured nation approached 100 percent soon after Sequoyah’s death in Mexico in 1843.

Most of Sequoyah’s community was destroyed and its culture imperiled by the invasion of the nation by federal forces after the sham Treaty of New Echota, named after the then-capital of the Cherokee Nation in north Georgia. The Cherokee and other regional tribes were rounded up in the late 1830s during an Army campaign under the command of Gen. Winfield Scott and forced upon the Trail of Tears.

Tuesday, Sept. 10, 2024, 5:30 p.m. at Barrelhouse by Gypsy Circus (621 Lamar Street). RSVP on Facebook

Green Drinks Knoxville will host an in-depth discussion with Dave Maasberg on how he maintains his food forest including some rare heirloom apple varieties, figs, pears, blackberries and more. He will bring samples to try and fruits for purchase to savor at home.

Raised around agriculture and the vanishing small-scale, midwestern family farm, Dave has always held a special place for fruit trees and perennial plants. After a Foraging and Wild Edible Plants class at Indiana University, his desire to create a food forest and sustainable homestead quickly turned into a reality. After over 20 years of planting and maintaining various fruiting plants on a reclaimed hillside, he is excited to share his journey with us. He currently helps others with plantings, from small scale to larger projects.

Green Drinks Knoxville is a social and professional organization that convenes open-minded folks to encourage education and conversation about the environment, green technologies, sustainable lifestyles and more.

Our events are free and open to the public. We welcome all and support racial diversity, gender equality, and LGBTQ inclusivity.

A man paddles down the main stem of the Wolf River in West Tennessee. The state is working to purchase 5,477 acres of forest land near Grand Junction from the Hobart Ames Foundation. The land is part of the Wolf River watershed.  Wolf River Conservancy

The roughly 5,500-acre property features wetland forest used for research by the University of Tennessee

This article was originally published by Tennessee Lookout.

GRAND JUNCTION — About 60 miles east of Memphis near the Mississippi line, verdant hardwood trees and ecologically exceptional streams weave through thousands of acres of rolling hills.

The land is home to a diverse array of aquatic and terrestrial life, decades-old archaeological sites and a watershed that feeds into the aquifer where hundreds of thousands of Memphians source their drinking water.

If all goes to plan, 5,477 acres of this land will soon become Tennessee’s newest state forest, securing its preservation for posterity.

The land is a portion of the 18,400-acre historic Ames Plantation, a privately owned tract in Fayette and Hardeman Counties amassed by Massachusetts industrialist Hobart Ames in the early 1900s.