• No license is required to dig wild ginseng on private land in New York.

• A dealer’s permit is required for anyone who “barters, trades, purchases, or otherwise conveys ginseng for resale or export” from the state, including retailers who buy ginseng from collectors, and both state residents and nonresidents who buy ginseng collected in NY.

• The harvest season for wild ginseng in New York is September 1 to November 30. Sale of fresh (“green”) ginseng is prohibited from January 1 to August 31, and of dried ginseng from April 1 to September 15, except that dried ginseng weighed and recorded by the state by March 31 may be sold at any time.

• State law requires all harvested wild ginseng plants to have at least 3 prongs, and does not allow the collection of wild ginseng plants with green, unripe fruit and immature seeds.

• New York requires that seeds of collected wild ginseng be immediately planted in mineral soil to a depth of the thickness of the seed within 50 feet of the place of collection.

• Ginseng may not be harvested on any state owned lands in New York.

• The New York Department of Environmental Conservation, Div. of Lands & Forests, serves as the state’s ginseng coordinator. Contact at:

625 Broadway
Albany, NY 12233
(518) 402-9425

• A permit is required to collect ginseng in Finger Lakes National Forest. Contact at:

231 North Main Street
Rutland, VT 05701
(802) 747-6700

Provided by the American Herbal Products Association, in cooperation with U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and United Plant Savers