Harvesting forest products on Mt. Hood is open to everyone, but every product follows its own rules. Huckleberries, mushrooms, holiday boughs, greenery such as beargrass, and small transplants can be gathered for home use without a permit, up to set amounts. Cones, poles, yew, medicinal plants and anything you plan to sell need a commercial permit, and many need Forest approval first.
About the numbers on this page. The personal-use amounts below are the limits the Forest Service listed in November 2026. The Forest can change products and amounts to protect the resource, and it expects harvesters to keep up, so check the Special Forest Products page before each trip.
Huckleberries and other berries
Mushrooms
Holiday boughs
Greenery and cuttings
Beargrass
Transplants
Cones and seeds
Moss
Firewood
Christmas trees
Posts, poles, stumps, stems and decorative wood
Medicinal plants
Yew bark and bow staves
Locate the product on the Forest first, because the request form asks exactly where it is.
For products sold only by special request, list the product, location, harvest method and amount, and send the form to the east or west side coordinator.
A review can take up to two weeks. If the Forest says no, it tells you why.
Pay at a district office during office hours. Each permit is issued to one named person, who must be there for the harvest.
Keep the permit and your zone map on you while you harvest and haul.
Do
Don't
Transplants and cut greenery on Mt. Hood may only come from the road prism of an open Forest road. That strip runs from the top of the cut bank above the road down to the foot of the fill slope below it, ditch included.
The road must be open to motor vehicles, meaning not gated, bermed, blocked or signed closed. The current Motor Vehicle Use Map shows which roads are open; it is free online, in the Avenza Maps app, and at district offices. Personal-use gathering is not allowed along Highways 26, 35, 216 and 224 or Forest Roads 18, 42, 50 and 2645. Check current alerts for temporary road closures, which the map does not show.
No, not for your own use. As of November 2026, the Forest Service lets each person gather up to 3 gallons of berries a year on Mt. Hood National Forest without a permit, with a daily cap of 1 gallon. Mt. Hood offers no commercial berry permit, so picking more than the limit, or selling berries from the Forest, is illegal.
Moss is not on Mt. Hood National Forest's list of products you can gather without a permit, and the Forest does not list a moss permit. For any product the Forest does not list, you must file a special forest products request form and wait for approval. Without that approval, leave moss where it grows.
Cones are not on Mt. Hood National Forest's personal-use list. The Forest sells commercial permits for seeds and dry cones by special request when they are available. If you want cones for crafts or decorations, ask a district office first, because federal rules bar removing forest products without authorization.
Yes, within limits. As of November 2026, personal use on Mt. Hood National Forest covers up to 15 transplants a year per person, each under 2 feet tall. You may dig them only from the road prism along Forest roads that are open to motor vehicles, and only these species qualify: ferns, huckleberry, manzanita, Oregon grape, rhododendron, salal, vine maple and tree seedlings.
Yes. Beargrass counts as greenery on Mt. Hood National Forest, so each person may take a small amount for personal use without a permit, within the yearly greenery limit and inside the road prism of open roads. Selling beargrass takes a commercial permit from a district office. Pull the leaves by hand without tools, and leave the roots and flower stalk alone.
No. Mt. Hood National Forest issues permits to individual people, not to groups or businesses. Each person in a group may gather their own personal-use amount. If the group plans to sell what it gathers, or to collect more than personal limits, at least one member needs a commercial permit and must be there during the harvest.
Rules change. These pages are the source of truth.