If you can't tell spruce roots from cottonwood or other roots as they are entangled with each other in the soil, smell or taste them. They have the same destinct smell as the needles, branches and bark of the spruce tree. Old timers used a stick to dig roots. Nowadays we use a carpenter's framing hammer. Experiment Test the trees, then test the roots.
Some people gather the roots exposed on cutbanks.
This is a very easy method, but the roots are too dry to clean unless gathered right after breakup. Cleaning the Roots Cleaning the bark from the roots is easy or hard, depending on when they are gathered. If it is June or July, the bark comes off easily. If it is before or after that, they peel with more difficulty, although cleaning is never the hardest part of the job. Digging the roots is the difficult part.