QUESTION:
Many thanks for the info, my concerns are two fold,
What forests have you visited in OR? I live in Bend so my experience is in the Deschutes NF Gene,
Reply:
My own prejudice is to excuse mushroom hunting in general, as it is an activity that has been pursued by human and nonhuman fungivores for millenia. Macro fungi are the fruits of the mycelium, which remains, as far as we can deternine, unscathed by mushroom harvest, be it by humans, deer, insects, etc.
Truffles and related fungi depend entirely on being consumed in order to spread their spores. A popular analogy is picking apples off the tree; more will come later. There is currently an ongoing (over 10 yr) study by the Oregon Mycological Society which is studying the impacts of chanterelle harvest versus a patch that is carefully left unpicked. The preliminary results seem to indicate that weather variations seem to impact the number and size of fruiting bodies much moreso than harvest/nonharvest, or cutting vs pulling, I urge you, in your location, to contact them and assist with this volunteer study.
The impact of commercial logging is less encouraging. The USFS is now conducting a "Young Stand Survey" comparing the effects of timber harvest on chanterelle production. the immediate response is a dramatic reduction in chanterelle production; fungal hyphae are apparently destroyed by soil compaction caused by heavy logging machinery. Separate studies verify that mycelium are killed by soil compaction along trails as well.
You may check the links page on the FUNGAL JUNGAL website to contact the scientists involved.
My personal experience here in Montana is that chanterelle patches destroyed by logging do not return, at least for 20 years. Ill keep looking, and let you know... Regeneration failure of conifers is very very often associated directly with the loss of the mycorrhizal fungi which these trees depend upon for nutrient supply, water supply in summer (thus the importance of woody debris, which acts as a sponge to hold water, which the fungi then transfer to the tree) and translocation of nutrients which are not mobile in soils. Larger clearcuts are definitely more seriously impacted in this way, and also the rise in soil temperatures in a clearcut makes this an inhospitable environ for most mycorrhizal fungi. see C. Maser, et.al. for more discussion.
Of 400 species of ascomycetes in our region, over 100 fruit only after forest fire. Morels are the most commercially noticed, and I have surveyed commercial operations in 1994 and 2001 to estimate the value of these harvests, although I must say this was an all volunteer study and probably underestimates the value of the harvest rather appreciably. You may check my article in the next issue of Mushroom the Journal of Wild Mushrooming.
In response to your last question, Ive collected fungi in the Blue River area, the HJ Andrews Experimental forest, near Chemult, Portland, Bend, Wallowa-Whitman, and at least half a dozen other sites in Oregon, as well as a couple dozen sites in Washington. I cannot reasonably give you an accounting of all the collecting Ive done in Idaho and Montana in the last many years. I hope this answers your questions, and I hope you will pursue your interest in fungi.
Regards, Larry Evans
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