Chaga and the Wild Harvesting Dilemma

There are many wild spaces where I love to walk and, when necessary, harvest herbs. Whenever I explore a new area or trail, I keep a record of what species grow there. For those herbs that I use in my practice, I will also estimate the approximate amount (in litres of tincture) that can be sustainably harvested from the area of any species that are growing in sufficient quantity. Since plant populations change, I update these records every time I visit an area. As someone who wild harvests almost all of the medicines that I use, this information is very important to me. I maintain a data base in which I keep track of it.

Every year I try to visit a few new areas. This is partly because I want to deepen my relationship with the region where I live and one of the ways I do that is to get to know its diversity of landscapes and ecosystems. However, in exploring new areas I am also keeping track of the medicines that grow there. I like to have as many locations as possible to harvest each of the medicines that I use so that I don't have to harvest them in any particular region more than once every few years. I am extremely anal about respecting the medicines and making sure that they are harvested in a sustainable manner. I have written about this in more detail in my post Wild Harvesting Herbs.

In my practice I use several medicinal fungi. One of the fungi that I harvest is clinker polypore (Inonotus obliquus), better known these days as chaga. The name chaga is an anglicized version of the Russian version of the name of the fungus in the language of the Komi people of central Russia. Since this fungus has been popularized as chaga, very few people know its English name.

Clinker polypore (Inonotus obliquus), better known as chaga.

Chaga is a fungus that grows primarily on birch trees (Betula spp.) in the region where I live. It has been used for various purposes by many traditional peoples throughout the temperate and subarctic regions of the northern hemisphere where it grows. Until the last decade or so, most people in our society had never heard of it. However, it has become popularized in recent years, which is not a good thing! This fungus grows very slowly and is difficult to cultivate. In addition, so far the medicinal properties of the cultivated fungus are significantly inferior to the wild harvested fungus. Another concern is that this is not your typical wood rotting fungus. Most of the conks or bracket fungi that grow on living and dead trees are actually the reproductive organs or fruiting bodies of organisms that grow as a network of filamentous mycelia beneath the bark or through the wood. When we harvest the fruiting body of a fungus, we are not harvesting the main part of the organism. However, chaga doesn't grow this way. The part that appears growing out of the side of birch trees is not the fruit. It is the actual fungus. Chaga rarely fruits and usually only after the tree dies. So, when we harvest chaga, we are harvesting the main body of the organism.

When walking through areas with a lot of birch trees, I used to see a fair amount of chaga. However, in the last couple of years what I am mostly seeing is a lot of trees from which the chaga has been removed and very little chaga itself. This is not simply a matter of a few people harvesting some for personal use. With the popularization of this fungus it seems that there are some people who think of it as a free resource that they can harvest at will in order to make some money. What I'm finding is that most of the people out there harvesting chaga are doing their best to gouge every last bit of it out of the tree. Remember, in this case they aren't just harvesting the fruit and leaving the organism intact. They are harvesting the whole fungus! In addition, they are doing a lot of damage to the trees that it grows on, leaving gaping wounds through which the trees can easily be affected by insects or disease.

When I harvest chaga, I only harvest it in areas where it is plentiful; I only harvest from a small percentage of the fungi growing in the area; and I only harvest part of any given conk and leave 50% or more of it intact. What I'm seeing out there is the result of people harvesting every fungus they can find and doing their best to completely extract it from the tree it is growing on. Needless to say, given that chaga rarely fruits and grows very slowly, this fungus is rapidly becoming scarce in the more accessible areas where it was once relatively common.

Chaga harvested correctly: not cutting too deep and leaving more than half of the fungus intact.

It is ironic that the demand for chaga is due to a growing interest in "natural healing". However, this is the antithesis of what natural healing is really about! Natural healing is about cultivating more balanced and harmonious relationships with ourselves and the world we live in. There is nothing balanced or harmonious about the consumerism driven and disrespectful way that chaga is being torn from the landscape. This is something that many people still don't get. Our lack of health in body, heart, mind and spirit is largely due to how we interact with the world. We live in a society that is way out of balance and as long as we continue to perpetuate the unsustainable paradigm that underlies the status quo we will never really be healthy!

One of the many fallacies of the current Western world view is that we are individuals. It's all about me! It's OK to rape the ecosystem to provide me with what I want. In truth, there are no individuals. Our life depends on the life of our Earth Mother and all of the beings that we share this life with. Everything we do affects everything else and will inevitably come back to bite us if it isn't done with respect and wisdom.

If we are trying to live "green" or "natural" we have a responsibility to investigate the reality behind the latest "green" or "natural" products. We can't necessarily trust the word of anyone who is trying to sell us something. That doesn't mean that they are always manipulative or deceptive - but they often are. Even people who mean well are less likely to dig too deeply into something if their livelihood depends on it. Inevitably, we need to do some research for ourselves. For example: electric cars aren't green or sustainable if they use electricity that is produced by coal plants; solar panels are not green or sustainable if it takes more energy to make them than they will produce in their lifetime, or manufacturing them requires the use of rare and/or toxic elements; shipping exotic "superfoods" half way around the world when there are foods of similar or better nutrient density growing in the area where we live is not green or sustainable - and who knows what environmental transgressions may have been committed where they were grown or harvested? Farming and harvesting practices are not something we can easily verify for plants that come from distant regions. Similarly, wild harvesting foods or medicines on a commercial scale is almost always unsustainable.

Getting back to chaga, the use of this fungus has been popularized in several books and articles, and by the people selling it. As a result, it has become one of the latest and most popular fad herbs. Proponents of its use are recommending it be consumed as a tea and that it be drunk liberally. Some people recommend drinking the tea several times per day for many months or even indefinitely. Looking at the bigger picture, there are several concerns with this scenario. Firstly, chaga is the strongest medicinal fungus that I have used. It is not appropriate for liberal use on an ongoing basis. Like all medicines, it needs to be used with respect. Secondly, using it as a tea requires that it be used in much larger quantities compared to using it as a tincture because the amount of herb required per unit dose is much larger for teas. With the amount of chaga that will keep someone in tea for a few weeks, I can make enough tincture to supply my entire herbal practice for several months! I realize that it was traditionally used as a tea, however, I have found the tincture to be as or more effective at least when prepared by the method that I use (for more information see my previous post Making Medicine, Part 3). Finally, because of the way it grows, chaga simply can not be sustainably harvested on any kind of scale. If we want to harvest a fungus on a very limited commercial scale, it should be one that is very common and produces abundant annual fruitings that can be harvested while leaving the fungus undisturbed. An example of a fungus that might possibly fit into this category is birch polypore (Piptoporus betulinus), which has some similar properties and constituents as chaga, although they do have there differences. However, even "limited" commercial harvesting is not really sustainable because who is going to control how many people are doing it and how much they are harvesting? We're not talking about a village healer harvesting it to supply the needs of a small village in a remote area. If there is a demand for it and money to be made, it won't be long before the amount being harvested reaches detrimental levels. Harvesting the fruiting body might not kill or harm the fungus, but it will reduce its rate of reproduction. In reality, the only fungi that should be sold commercially for medicines and especially for foods (since they are consumed in much larger quantities) are those that have been grown commercially - certified organic of course!

A fruiting of birch polypore (Piptoporus betulinus) growing out of a fallen paper birch (Betula papyrifera) log.

Saying that wild harvesting medicines is unsustainable might sound like a contradiction coming from an herbalist who uses almost exclusively wild harvested medicines! However, what I am saying is that there are very few herbs that can handle being wild harvested on a commercial scale. A few herbalists wild harvesting herbs for their healing practice and a few more herb enthusiasts harvesting some herbs for personal use is sustainable if they are harvesting the herbs in an ethical manner. In fact, these days most herbalists don't wild harvest very many or any of their medicines. There are many reasons for this. One of the main reasons is that it is extremely time consuming. At the most, if I harvest the medicines in a respectful way I can only harvest enough to make a sufficient amount of tincture to practice two full days per week (6-8 clients per day)! Personally, I only practice one day per week. The rest of the time I am teaching and doing other work. Even practicing one day per week a significant proportion of my time is devoted to wild harvesting from April to November. During the peak harvesting periods (May to July and November) it takes up the largest proportion of my time.

There are still a few herbs that I either can't harvest in sufficient quantities to meet the needs of my practice, or for which I haven't found a suitable substitute that grows in the region where I live. I need to purchase these herbs, fresh whenever possible, to make a few of the tinctures that I need. I always purchase these herbs certified organically grown. If I can't wild harvest an herb myself or get it from a certified organically grown source, I don't use it. I never purchase commercially wild harvested herbs.

That being said, due to the increasing popularity of herbs and herbalism coupled with our unsustainable population growth, there may come a time when it is no longer possible for me to continue wild harvesting the herbs that I use. The wild populations of herbs simply won't be able to handle it. At that point I will grow as many as I can and purchase the rest. But I'll still go out there and continue to deepen my relationship with the wild herbs and the lands where they live.

There is no doubt that there are a few wild herbs that can handle some level of commercial wild harvesting at this point. However, there aren't many and a lot of them are not well known or commonly used. The criteria that would need to be met for an herb to fall into this category are: it must be very plentiful and adaptable, more or less invasive by nature; it must prefer to live in the kinds of habitats that humans create when we change the landscape; it must be able to be harvested without negatively impacting the ecosystem where it lives. In North America, most of the herbs that fall into this category are Eurasian plants that have naturalized here, such as common dandelion (Taraxacum officinale), burdock (Arctium spp.) and red clover (Trifolium pratense). In my region, the only native species that I would include are a few species of asters (Symphyotrichum spp.) and goldenrods (Solidago spp.). Obviously, it will be different in different regions. Another possibility is using the parts of some commercially harvested tree species that are discarded during the harvesting process, such as the leaves and young twigs of conifers like white pine (Pinus strobus).

Canada goldenrod (Solidago canadensis) is one of the few native Ontario herbs
that could be wild harvested commercially to some degree.

One of the reasons that people like wild harvested herbs is because there is a belief that their medicinal properties are superior to those of cultivated herbs, even if they are organically cultivated. For the most part this is true, but it doesn't have to be! Wild harvested herbs have a lot more strength and vitality than cultivated herbs even though cultivated herbs may sometimes look better. This is partly because cultivated herbs are often grown in conditions (soil type, moisture, amount of direct sunlight, monoculture, etc.) that are not typical of their natural habitat. However, the main reason is because cultivated plants are pampered. We all need a certain amount of stress to maintain a decent level of health and vitality. Plants are no exception. Too much stress can weaken them, but so can too little stress. For instance, a certain amount of drought stress is good for most plants. How much depends on the species. Watering them every time the soil gets a bit dry usually isn't a good idea. However, letting them dry out completely isn't either. Also, every organism needs some competition. This can be accomplished by careful companion planting. It is also a good idea to allow some "weeds" to grow, as long as they aren't allowed to get the upper hand by crowding out the herbs we are growing, above the ground or below it. Most "weeds" are useful anyway, either as medicines or foods.

So that is my rant about chaga and the ethics of wild harvesting. Once more, for more information I recommend reading my earlier post Wild Harvesting Herbs. In the mean time, the chaga is rapidly disappearing from the more accessible areas of southern and central Ontario. Although chaga is a great medicine when used correctly and with respect, I strongly recommend considering other medicinal fungi that are available from organically grown sources such as lacquered polypore or reishi (Ganoderma lucidum), hen-of-the-woods or maitake (Grifola frondosa), or oyster mushroom (Pleurotus ostreatus).

You might also be interested in my follow-up post More On Chaga and the YouTube video Michael Vertolli On Chaga.

Harvesting Artist's Conk (Ganoderma)

Although I primarily use plant species in my practice, I also use several medicinal fungi. The first group of medicinal fungi that I started using about 15 years ago were several of the Ganoderma species. These are bracket fungi or conks that grow on wood. Of the various members of this genus, by far the most popular is lacquered polypore (G. lucidum), better known by its Japanese name reishi. This species grows on a number of different hardwood trees. Although it is circumboreal, growing throughout the temperate regions of the northern hemisphere, it is rare in the region where I live. As a result, I primarily use artist's conk (G. applanatum) and hemlock varnish shelf (G. tsugae), which are quite common in this area. All three species have similar properties.

I came across this lacquered polypore (Ganoderma lucidum) in mid June this year growing from the base of a

beech tree (Fagus grandifolia). It is one of the few times I have seen it growing in the region where I live.

I have used all three of these Ganoderma species. Lacquered polypore is not common where I live, however, one year I purchased a log that was inoculated with the spores of this species and grew it so that could make a tincture of the fresh fruiting body and compare the properties of all three species. Although it is not as well know as reishi, I actually have a slight preference for artist's conk. However, in my practice I usually use a 50/50 mixture of the tinctures of the fresh fruiting body of artist's conk and hemlock varnish shelf. I sometimes mix closely related species that have similar constituents and properties to increase the diversity of chemical constituents in the medicines that I use. I find that closely related species are often mutually synergistic and the properties of these combinations are sometimes more consistent and versatile than using the individual species.

Hemlock varnish shelf (Ganoderma tsugae) often looks very similar to lacquered polypore, but it grows almost
exclusively on hemlock (Tsuga spp.). The margin is whiter compared to the photo of
lacquered polypore (see above) because this one is still growing.

Artist's conk is one of the most adaptive fungi in terms of the variety of tree species that it can grow on. It primarily grows on hardwoods, but on rare occasions I have seen it growing on conifers as well. That being said, in the region where I live it most commonly grows on sugar maple (Acer saccharum) and American beech (Fagus grandifolia).

Unlike its relatives, the fruiting body of artist's conk is perennial. If the conditions are right it can grow for many years. It is brownish with a woody appearance on top, but the underside is white and somewhat rubbery. If we draw on the underside with some kind of stylus, it leaves distinctive lines that will be preserved if the fungus is dried. This is how it got its common name. I have seen some pretty amazing pictures that were drawn on artist's conk!

Artist's conk used to be one of the most common fungi in southern Ontario. However, in the last few years it has become less common. As a result, I have found it a little more difficult to find good harvestable specimens. I suspect it has something to do with the average age of the forests in our region. From 1980 to 2005 there were a lot of very old beech and maple trees that gradually died off. There aren't that many of the oldest ones left in a lot of the forests that I frequent. This is just my hypothesis. There are probably other reasons as well.

The fruiting body of artist's conk (Ganoderma applanatum) is perennial and can grow for many years.

I use a moderate amount of Ganoderma tincture in my practice. Typically about 4-6 litres per year. Since I mix artist's conk and hemlock varnish shelf, that means I need about 2-3 litres of each species per year. The fruiting bodies of these species are pretty heavy. If I can find a decent supply I will usually harvest enough for two years so that I don't have to harvest it every year. However, this year I couldn't find much good quality artist's conk. I had one litre of the Ganoderma mixture pressed and another litre of this species on hand macerating. I was able to find just enough to make another two litres. Fortunately, I only needed to find one good sized conk to make this amount.

The fruiting of many fungi species is variable. It is particularly influenced by the amount of available moisture. In some years certain fungi may not fruit at all if there isn't enough rain. For instance, a couple of years ago it was very dry in Southern Ontario and the artist's conk, hemlock varnish shelf and birch polypore (Piptoporus betulinus) in the woods around my home didn't fruit at all. But the birch polypore, which typically fruits in August or September, finally did fruit during a thaw in mid January!

A new fruiting of artist's conk (with a friend hiding beneath!).

The new growth along the margin of a fruiting body looks white and rubbery, similar to the appearance of the underside. As it reaches the limits of its new growth it transforms into its typical woody appearance as the white band along the edge gets increasingly narrower until it finally disappears. The spores are released from pores in the underside, which is why it is called a polypore. Apparently the top and underside of the fruiting body have an opposite electrical charge. As a result, some of the spores when they are released are attracted to the top of the fungus. During the peak of its fertile period there is often a deposit of the brownish dusty spores on top of artist's conk.

Another friend: This wood frog (Rana sylvatica) was nearby watching the strange dude photographing fungi!

There is a brief overlap between the period of active growth and the fertile period when spores are produced. This is when I prefer to harvest it. At that point there will still be a very narrow white growth band along the rim, but there will already be a light dusting of spores on top unless it has been fairly breezy. Since the growth of this species is so variable, the point where it is at this stage can be anywhere from mid June to early August in southern and central Ontario. This year I harvested artist's conk on July 12th. It was a bit more mature than when I usually harvest it. The first week of July would have been ideal.

I have found that it is best to only harvest the part of the conk that grew during the current year and the previous year or two. The portion that grew each year can be easily determined by the distinctive growth bands on the upper surface. When it is harvested this way it will continue to grow in the following years.

Sometimes artist's conk grows more vertically and the growth bands are layered on top of each other.

On this one the dusting of spores is visible on the upper surface.

The harvested portion of artist's conk. The yellow stain on the cutting board was from processing

fresh organic turmeric rhizome (Curcuma longa) a few weeks previously.

The underside of the same piece. The discoloration on the lower part is bruising caused
by my fingers when I was holding it while cutting it with my knife.

When we harvest the previous three years of growth, there will often be a portion of the upper surface from two years prior to the year it is harvested that is old and dying. This oldest layer is removed. This is best done with a good heavy-bladed knife like a cleaver or sometimes a serrated knife will work well.

You can see the distinctive growth bands layered vertically in this cross-section.

The upper layer that has lots of white in it is too old and must be removed.

Here's the same piece from above after the older tissue was removed.

Once the older tissue is removed, there are two stages in processing artist's conk to prepare it for making a maceration. It is not possible to immediately start chopping it with a mezzaluna  because the fruiting body has a dense but somewhat rubbery quality. It gives too much to be cut in this way. It is necessary to slice it up into smaller pieces first. The same kind of knife we used to remove the older tissue will work well for this.

Artist's conk after the initial cutting.

Once the pieces are small enough, they can be chopped finer with the mezzaluna. This is much quicker than doing it with the cleaver.

Here it is again after the final chopping.

Some fungi absorb a lot of water. This needs to be considered in terms of how we prepare a tincture because the water content will dilute the constituents in the tincture. Because of this I will step up the potency of these fungi one level. Whereas I primarily recommend preparing a 1:5 maceration (1 part herb to 5 parts menstruum) for fresh herbs, for really wet fungi I will prepare a 1:4 maceration. However, this will further increase the amount of water in the tincture. In order to compensate for this I need to adjust the menstruum as well. For dried herbs I usually use a menstruum consisting of 60% water, 30% alcohol and 10% glycerin. For fresh herbs I increase the concentration of the alcohol and glycerin slightly to compensate for their water content. The ratio I use is 56% water, 33% alcohol and 11% glycerin. Since I primarily use fresh herbs, it is the latter mentruum that I use most of the time. However, with really moist fungi I adjust it further to 52% water, 36% alcohol and 12% glycerin. Hemlock varnish shelf and birch polypore fall into this category, but there are other fungi, such as clinker polypore (Inonotus obliquus), better know as chaga, that are no more moist than the average herb. In the latter case no adjustment of the potency or menstruum is necessary. Artist's conk tends to fall into the middle. If there has been a lot of rain it can be fairly moist, however, sometimes it isn't. Each time I make it I have to decide whether or not it is necessary to compensate for the moisture level.

I have covered the specifics of making a maceration of a fungus like artist's conk. For other more general details on the process of making a tincture, see the Making Medicine series of posts.

Ground ivy is a moderately aromatic herb. Its relatively mild flavour is somewhat minty and musky with just a touch of bitterness. If I have any left over I will dry it and use it to make a tea. I like the taste of ground ivy but some people find it a bit unpleasant. However, it is not overpowering and blends well with many other aromatic herbs.

Many medicinal fungi are moderately to significantly adaptogenic. Although every adaptogenic herb has some specific areas of use, adaptogens also work as general tonics and tend to have benefits for our whole body. However, I have found that for people suffering from chronic health conditions, in order to get the most out of using adaptogens it is best if they are used in the final stages of treatment where they have both specific and generalized actions and help to coordinate the functioning of the different systems of our body. They can also be used as general tonics by people who are relatively healthy.

I have found that the adaptogenic fungi are a little bit different than some of the more purely adaptogenic herbs like American ginseng (Panax quinquefolius). Whereas ginseng works best in a purely adaptogenic formulation, fungi such as artist's conk are excellent transitionary herbs. I use them in formulations at the stage when I am transitioning a person from some other kind of formulation into the final adaptogenic stage of treatment, as well as in more purely adaptogenic formulations.

That's all I'm going to say about the properties of artist's conk. In the Herbal Resources section of my website I have provided a pdf document that you can download that is based on my research and experience with this herb.

Link to PDF file.