Respectful harvest technique deliberately disturbs neighbors and roots as little as possible.

Evidence

Only then does she stoop and pinch off a grass stem at its base, careful not to disturb the roots. She parts the nearby clumps, finding another and another until she has gathered a thick sheaf of shining stems. A winding path marks her progress where the meadow canopy was opened by the trail of her passage. — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass, 545