Root Report

RootReport is an ongoing project of the Department of Forest Resources and Environmental Conservation at Virginia Tech. We do market assessment and create extension resources for nontimber forest products. For the last three years we have sent questionnaires to medicinal plant buyers about what products they purchase, how much is being produced and how harvests are distributed around the region. At this stage, we are focusing on medicinal plants in eastern deciduous forests. People have harvested roots, barks, foliage, fruits and mushrooms from forests for generations. Today these are meaningful traditions and sources of income for families and communities across the country. There is growing interest in cultivating NTFPs and managing forests to produce them, but there is a lack of reliable information about their markets. Root Report's goal is to measure the scope and distribution of NTFP production and its economic impact, and make that research available to people who work with and care about these important species. This project provides research and extension services for people who work with nontimber forest products (NTFPs), including medicinal, edible and decorative plants and fungi. For more information, visit our website.