Permits Available for the 2025 Ginseng Season on Monongahela National Forest

ELKINS, W.Va., August 22, 2025— The Monongahela National Forest will begin selling ginseng permits for the 2025 harvest season on Thursday, August 28. The ginseng season will begin on Monday, September 1. A Forest Service permit is required to dig ginseng on National Forest lands, in addition to following all state laws.

Permits may be purchased at the ranger stations in Parsons, Petersburg, Richwood, Bartow, Marlinton or White Sulphur Springs Monday to Friday from 8 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Permits will not be available at the Supervisor’s Office in Elkins. 

Monongahela National Forest ginseng permits cost $20 each. A separate permit is required for each district on the Forest. Only one permit per district may be purchased at a time. Each permit allows the collection of up to 95 plants from one ranger district during the West Virginia ginseng season, September 1 through November 30. Additional permits for the same district may be purchased after the return of each completed permit, as supplies allow.

To be legal for harvest, ginseng plants must have three or more prongs and have produced fruit this year. When harvesting, plant the fruit on-site and then keep the rest of the plant intact. Harvest no more than 24 plants per day and have no more than 24 plants in possession while on National Forest land. When purchasing permits(s), a map of the areas that ginseng harvesting is not allowed will be provided. For example, digging ginseng is not allowed within the Fernow Experimental Forest.

More information about state laws concerning ginseng harvest, please visit the West Virgina Division of Forestry.

More information about Monongahela National Forest ginseng permits.