First Foods: Huckleberries at Risk

For millennia, huckleberries have been a First Food for Indigenous communities, deeply woven into cultural traditions, ceremony, and seasonal life. But today, the future of these berries and the practices that sustain them is under real threat.

A Sacred Tradition
For the Ḱamíłpa Band of the Yakama Nation and other tribes of this region, huckleberry picking is a practice rooted in reverence. Harvesting happens with intention and gratitude, it’s not just to feed the body, but to honor ancestors and the land itself. These cultural foods are central to ceremony, community gatherings, and seasonal rhythms that tie a people to place.

Indigenous harvesters pick berries by hand, treating each plant with respect and ensuring future growth. This tradition has been learned through generations, standing in sharp contrast to commercial harvesting methods that focus on volume and profit.

The Rise of the Commercial Huckleberry Industry
In recent decades, huckleberries have become prized in products from ice cream to wine, lip balm to honey. Western scientists have tried to cultivate huckleberries, starting as early as 1897, but the plants won’t grow on farms. Their scarcity and the difficulty of cultivation means they fetch high prices, sometimes up to $200 per gallon.

While commercial demand has supported small businesses, it has also created conflict. Gifford Pinchot National Forest is the only national forest in the nation with a large-scale commercial huckleberry permit program-  a system that Tribal leaders and harvesters say has diminished access to berries reserved through treaties for Indigenous communities and harmed huckleberry habitats.

What’s at Stake
Concerns about sustainability and cultural access have led the U.S. Forest Service to take an unprecedented step: they temporarily halted commercial huckleberry permits in Gifford Pinchot National Forest for 2025 and are gathering public feedback to guide future decisions. The goal is to reduce conflict, conserve berry populations, and rebuild partnerships with Tribal nations and local stakeholders.

This pause acknowledges that continued unregulated commercial harvesting risks not just the berries themselves but the rights and traditions of Indigenous communities who have stewarded these foods for generations.

This Matters to All of Us
Native First Foods like huckleberries are essential threads in the cultural fabric and the ecological health of our region. Protecting them means supporting:

As we think about what it means to eat locally and ethically, preserving places where these foods can flourish is vital.

Take Action
At Gorge Grown, we believe local food systems must be rooted in respect: for farmers and farmworkers, the land, and the Indigenous communities who have stewarded lands and waters since time immemorial.

The future of wild huckleberries is being decided right now. We encourage our community to learn more, listen to Tribal voices, and speak up for policies that protect Indigenous treaty rights, cultural traditions, and healthy forest ecosystems.

Read more from Columbia Insight: Why the Forest Service is examining its ban on commercial huckleberry picking and High Country News: The True Cost of the Huckleberry Industry.