Although foraging, especially for mushrooms, isn’t a new pastime, the pandemic fueled a quest for outdoor experiences. Traffic soared and the spotting of bountiful sites spread via social media.
“The number of people foraging exploded in number,” Ms. Aloia said. “Everybody wanted to go to the places that are easy to get to, and those places are wiped out. Then they go on to the next place and the next place.”
Ms. Aloia oversees a Facebook group devoted to foraging. She said newcomers didn’t always understand the unwritten etiquette of foraging, and many gave away “honey holes” — places rich in mushrooms — on social media. Or, she said, they invaded places that, while on public lands, others had long considered their sacred, secret spots.
“There has been a lot of claim jumping,” she said.
“The learning curve of what used to be esoteric knowledge, which took years to cobble together, has been flattened by social media,” said Langdon Cook, who teaches foraging in the Seattle region and who wrote “The Mushroom Hunters,” a book about the underground subculture of commercial foragers. “You can even get coordinates as a first-time picker out there, finding mushroom species that maybe in the past it took amateurs years to figure out.”
Uncontrolled crowds have prompted those trying to rein in foragers to take action. Because of soaring numbers, Salt Point, the only state park in California that allows mushroom foraging, recently lowered its collection limit to two pounds per person from five pounds. Minnesota is considering new restrictions on gathering mushrooms in state parks for personal use, too.
Kaynak: briturkish.com
