NELSONVILLE — The Wayne National Forest will begin annual wild ginseng root collection permit sales on Monday, Aug. 1. Permits can be purchased for $20 and will be sold through the harvest season, which starts on Monday, Sept. 1 and ends on Saturday, Dec. 31.

Due to the increased harvest pressure on this species, and in order to more effectively track the harvest of wild ginseng on the Wayne National Forest, two important changes have been made pertaining to root collection permits.

First, ginseng root permits are now stand-alone permits and no longer combined with the general root collection permit.

Secondly, ginseng root permits are now sold separately for each administrative unit of the Wayne National Forest (Athens, Ironton, and Marietta).

This means, for example, a permit purchased for ginseng harvest on the Athens administrative unit cannot be used to harvest ginseng on the Ironton or Marietta units.

These changes were made to improve population management of wild ginseng and ensure it is being managed sustainably on the Wayne National Forest.

The permit is available at any of the three Wayne National Forest administrative offices (Nelsonville, Marietta, and Pedro) between 8 a.m. and 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday, except on federal holidays. Permit purchases may be made by credit card, cash, check or money order (made payable to “USDA Forest Service”). Those purchasing permits will need to provide one form of identification.

For more information, contact the Wayne National Forest Headquarters at 740-753-0101, or visit our website at www.fs.usda.gov/wayne. Follow the Wayne National Forest on Twitter: @waynenationalfs and Facebook.

The U.S. Forest Service is an agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, a mission of sustaining the health, diversity and productivity of the nation’s forests and grasslands to meet the needs of present and future generations.

The forest service’s Eastern Region includes 20 states in the Midwest and East, stretching from Maine, to Maryland, to Missouri, to Minnesota. There are 17 national forests and one national tallgrass prairie in the Eastern Region. For more information, visit www.fs.usda.gov/R9.

The U.S. Forest Service manages 193 million acres of public land, provides assistance to state and private landowners, and maintains the largest forestry research organization in the world.

Public lands the Forest Service manages contribute more than $13 billion to the economy each year through visitor spending alone.

Those same lands provide 20 percent of the nation’s clean water supply, a value estimated at $7.2 billion per year.

The agency has either a direct or indirect role in stewardship of about 80 percent of the 850 million forested acres within the U.S., of which 100 million acres are urban forests where most Americans live. For more information, visit www.fs.fed.us.