The Forestry Commission has just banned all fungi foraging in the New Forest. The Forager's Assocation has responded with a press release urging them to reconsider, claiming it is not based on scientific evidence. Here's my take on the science, stripped of the mythology and vested interests:
http://www.geoffdann.co.uk/?p=1711
http://www.geoffdann.co.uk/?p=1711
With the main mushroom season just around the corner, the long-running battle between foragers and conservationists has just gone into overdrive. This time it is serious: the Forestry Commission has banned all fungi foraging in the New Forest National Park.
I cant say Im surprised. The New Forest has increasingly become a victim of its own reputation as something of a Mecca for fungi foragers. It has been attracting pickers, both commercial and personal, from much further afield, and in recent years it has become harder and harder to find any fungi. However, the situation is quite complicated and many of the claims currently flying around both the mainstream media and the internet need to be examined quite carefully.
What has actually happened? According to numerous reports in the mainstream media (for example: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...rest-commercial-pickers-broke-rule-taken.html), the Forestry Commission has now prohibited all picking of fungi on its land in the New Forest. The reasons given are that commercial pickers are flouting a 1.5kg per person per day rule, picking up to 50kg. The simplest solution to this problem, they say, is to ban all picking. The decision was taken, the FC has said, to protect both future populations of fungi and populations of insects whose grubs (maggots) feed on the fruit bodies.
In response to this ban, an organisation called The Foragers Association, which describes itself as An international professional foragers association, promoting sustainability and ecological stewardship through teaching and harvesting wild plands and fungi for used as food, drink and medicine has issued a press release (see: http://www.foragers-association.org.uk/). I should disclose at this point that I am not a member of this organisation, but that I do know several of its members.
The contents of this press release are worth a close look if we want to get down to the truth underlying these issues. The press release is titled:
Leading foraging educators claim New Forest fungi picking ban is will undermine future fungi growth
Not only is the Foragers Association claiming that fungi picking does no harm to future populations but that it actually helps the populations to grow. This is quite some claim, and Ill examine it in detail below.
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