Lywana Dorzilor (Group Lead & Organizer)

Sofia Ledeneva (Co-Organizer)

According to a Time Magazine article, interest in foraging has spiked over the last couple of years as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Although there has been an increased interest in foraging, novice foragers still face challenges. Challenges like the growth of AI-generated foraging books, unethical foraging practices perpetuated by white environmentalism, and financial barriers, are why many folks struggle to do it safely and ethically. We partnered with the U-M Library to help us find accessible foraging books and guides, as well as guides for facilitating inherently non-hierarchical spaces.

This foraging group, based in Ann Arbor, came together in part as a response to those gaps. It’s a peer-led group that centers BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) and LGBTQ+ people, with the aim of creating a space where knowledge about plants, land, and ecology can be shared in community. While anyone is welcome to join, the structure is intentionally built to prioritize people who have often been excluded from environmental and outdoor learning spaces.

The group started its 2025 season in April and meets about once a month through November. Each month, there’s a walk focused on learning and gathering plants and their uses. Some of the places we’ve gone this year include the Nichols Arboretum, Dhu Varren Woods, Barton Nature Area, and Black Pond Woods. The focus shifts depending on the season and what’s growing.

Participants come with different levels of experience. Some are new to foraging entirely; others have specific knowledge about plants, ecosystems, or traditional uses. The group includes a number of graduate students from the University of Michigan, but it’s not affiliated with any particular department or program. It’s an informal network of people interested in land, food, and learning from each other.

The structure is horizontal, meaning there isn’t a single leader or expert. Although I and another organizer (Sofia Ledeneva) help to set up the walks, everyone comes in sharing what they know, ask questions, and help guide the group based on their experiences. That approach allows for a range of perspectives to come into the space, and creates room for different types of knowledge: academic, cultural, ancestral, intuitive, or experimental.

Alongside the monthly walks, there’s a Signal group chat and an email listserv that helps with coordination. These have also become places where members share other local events, workshops, or opportunities related to foraging, farming, and environmental justice in the area. People have used the chat to ask ID questions, organize spontaneous walks, or share articles and videos they’ve found helpful.

Part of the motivation behind the group is historical. Foraging and land-based practices have often been criminalized in the U.S., especially for Black and Indigenous people. Laws restricting gathering on public land, policing of “unauthorized” land use, and forced displacement all played roles in disrupting traditional relationships to plants and ecosystems. In that context, learning how to identify, harvest, or even just name the plants around us becomes a way of reconnecting with things that were intentionally made harder to access.

Throughout the season, the group has had the chance to observe many plants and fungi at different stages of growth, from early spring shoots to summer blooms and fall seeds. Returning to the same sites over time makes it easier to see the full cycle of these species, and understand how they interact with the broader environment.

As the season wraps up, there are plans to revisit some of the earlier sites to see how they’ve changed with the shift into fall. We are also planning an informal food preservation workshop planned for December. In this workshop we plan on sharing methods like drying, fermenting, or storing plants for future use. It’s a way to reflect on what’s been gathered and learned over the year, and to think about how that knowledge might carry into the next season.

Overall, the group exists as a space to learn, observe, and connect with plants, with each other, and with place. There’s no formal membership, and there’s no required background or level of expertise. It’s just a group of people trying to deepen their understanding of the landscapes they move through, and doing that learning together.