Oh dear, now what?

[Broch]

During the pandemic period rural areas became the playground for a whole lot of people and, sadly, many didn't know how to treat the countryside. The crowds and the litter in some places were saddening. Now, people are being encouraged to supplement their diet by foraging

Foraging musician on the delights of forest food

More people are foraging from the land as a way to make ends meet, says an experienced forager.

www.bbc.co.uk

I just hope it doesn't catch on; the countryside will be denuded of a lot of stuff that provides very limited dietary value.

 

[Suffolkrafter]

I forage lightly in my local area, a few plants, berries fungi here and there, mostly for experimentation. My impact is minimal. Nevertheless, if everyone in my area foraged as I do, there would be nothing left very quickly. But I have no greater right to forage than anyone else. There are just too many people around. I also hope it doesn't catch on too much.

It's a similar situation with wild camping. There are some areas, particularly national parks, where it was quite feasible to wild camp responsibly throughout the year. But now so many people do it that, for me personally, it becomes not feasible. Or at least less enjoyable. But again I have no greater right to it than anyone else (unless they leave litter and human waste all over the place).

 

[Dogoak]

And only two days ago………..

Berks, Bucks & Oxon Wildlife Trust calls on mushroom foragers to stop

The charity says gangs of people have been seen sweeping their sites with big plastic bags.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[SaraR]

You can certainly add flavour to your diet, but I struggle to see how most people would be able to forage substantial enough quantities. And that's not even considering the impact on the environment (few places in the UK have vast enough stands of edible plants to cope with serious foraging pressure from ppl).

I've got friends in Sweden who still do the yearly big blueberry and lingonberry picking drives and get enough for jam for the year, but despite being quite large volumes, it's not enough to live off...

 

[Suffolkrafter]

I think the effects of YouTube and media don't help things. It's so easy to fall into weird YouTube worlds, where the minute it senses you have an interest in something it just feeds you endless content. Everything is quite in your face and it's easy to see how large numbers of people can be led to follow the crowd on any given topic or hobby. News articles like the one mentioned on this thread don't help either. It's a pretty pointless news article/video and contains nothing of substance really.

 

[Broch]

Exactly. I have been studying edible plants and fungi since I was a kid and I have hundreds of acres of land with permission to shoot and forage over, and I'd still struggle to forage enough to substantially add to my pantry. OK, yes, at the right season we can pick enough berries to make jam to last the year, and we can add to flavour in some cases, but it won't substantially reduce my food bill!

If people suddenly get the idea from the media that they can 'live off the land' by nipping out to the country for the day and gathering wild plants and fungi, all that will happen is a lot of stuff will be pulled up and wasted

 

[Fadcode]

There are far too many TV programmes and press articles that give people false hope to live "Off Grid", all for the sake of journalism and sensationalism. Never giving out the problems just the fancy bits.

 

[Woody girl]

My worry would be that dodgy mushrooms will be collected and consumed without proper identification, with resultant serious consequences.
I forage myself, but responsibly in small quantities.
A few springs ago, I saw a couple ripping up handfuls of wild garlic along a footpath, and stuffing it into a plastic carrier bag untill it was overflowing, and huge patches were decimated of any leaves.
I had rather stern words with them for sure!
Asked what they were going to do with that much wild garlic, the reply was, " don't know realy, heard it was good to eat, so thought we'd freeze it".
I was fuming, told them they had just destroyed a whole patch of wild garlic, and that if they had no idea what they were going to do with it, why on earth pick so much?

I did not tell them that they had gathered it from where everyone let's their dogs have a wee! Have to admit it gave me a grin to think what they might be eating. Serve them right!


They haven't been back.

 

[SaraR]

Most people that I know of who are putting in serious efforts to grow as much of their food as possible, still only report managing to cover maybe 1/3- 2/3 of their need on a yearly basis, and that's with a garden or smallholding given over almost entirely to food production and usually 2 people putting in a lot of hard work. Don't get me wrong, I think what they are doing is amazing and I'm very impressed by their success, but if they can't produce more of their needed food in a dedicated space where they choose what they plant, can tend to it, protect it, water it, feed it etc, then how much would you be able to realistically forage from the British countryside?

 

[Wander]

This is the danger of the recent (past couple of years) mantra urging people to 'get back to nature'.
It's a constant dilemma for me.
The countryside should be there for everyone to enjoy, for everyone to experience and maybe, just maybe, if they did then they would care about the environment.
But, ironically, as more people enjoy the countryside the more it gets destroyed.
Regrettably, for the good of the countryside, we have to hope fewer people want to go there. But if they have no connection, then they don't care, which also causes it harm.
Yes, a right old doozy of a dilemma.
I know I have seen the erosion of several pathways due to overuse. Should people stop using them? Maybe, but that has to include me as well. And I don't want that. I might argue that I am one of the good ones, one of the ones who have always been using those tracks, fair weather and foul. I should be allowed and that person shouldn't. But that's not an acceptable argument. I am as much a part of the problem.
You and I may go foraging for mushrooms, but why shouldn't that person or that person (assuming they are not commercial foragers)? If you take one mushroom, and I take one mushroom, why shouldn't someone else be allowed to take one? Maybe muse on that when you decide to go collecting.
The rotten truth is, that the very act of going to the countryside means we destroy it by our mere presence.
I just can't square that circle. But at least it's an issue I'm conscious of, I suppose.

 

[Ystranc]

Yet again we come back to the fact that everything belongs to somebody and foraging without permission is similar to poaching, it is an act of trespass against the rights of the landowner, if whatever is foraged has been cultivated in any way it is also theft. Couple that with irresponsible harvesting which could wipe out not only this years regeneration but possibly set back entire species.
I just hope that these media articles are qualifying what they say by emphasising the fact that you need permission.

 

[slowworm]

Round here it's not the foragers or walkers that do damage but the councils and many land owners. Hedges seem to be there to be flailed within a few inches of their lives even when they still have berries on them and then dumped on. Watercources are another example when everyone, especially the council, ruins with pollution.

It would be good if these sorts of programmes encourage people to look after the countryside and to question some of the damaging practices that go on.

 

[Woody girl]

The plain fact is, the countryside is in crisis.
I live in a national park, so we get a lot of visitors from towns who realy have no idea how to act in this environment.
They have no real understanding of how nature works, resulting, for one example, as we see every year, in bbq fires destroying huge habitat areas that take years to recover.
Paths eroded and litter left everywhere, dog poo bags left hanging on branches, and many other things, including houses built on sensitive habitats, taking more and more of the countryside away.
I used to live in a small Hampshire village..900 people. It was a great place with allotments hop fields, wooded dell's, and fields full of horses.
Now those places are all gone. The allotments are now a surgery and car park, the fields and dell's are all gone under housing and a huge car dealership, a massive by pass has been built, destroying a large area of land, close to an idyllic quiet river. My favourite little wood that my pals and I spent many happy hours building dens, and waiting for the yearly crop of puffball to take home for a meal, is now a posh house, and garden.
It's no longer a village where everyone knew everyone, but a commuter dormitory.
I've not been back in person, but have watched the village grow with Google earth. Heartbreaking.
Soon what is left of our countryside will be gone altogether.

 

[Broch]

I was out laning last weekend (yep, I go greenlaning on legal vehicular rights of way occasionally). It occurred to me as we drove through lanes with piles of baler rubbish, dumped rusting bits of old farm vehicles, plastic feeder bags, windblown empty plastic salt tubs etc. that it's no wonder people coming out into the country think it's OK to leave rubbish. We need to clean up our act

 

[Fadcode]

Well said Broch, it isn't only the visitors that are at fault as you pointed out, the whole countryside is in a mess, down here in Cornwall, we have constant flooding, sewerage being dumped into the sea, streams full of chemicals and litter, etc, etc, the only thing surprises me is that people come here for their holidays. Big business is quick to reap the profits and then move on. leaving turmoil behind them, the council bend over backwards giving out grants to businesses, who do no good whatsoever to the local community or the environment, we pay more and more in rates for so called environmental policies, that don't seem to work, we are forced to fill our streets with bins and bags for collection, which end up all over the road, the drains in the streets are never cleaned out, until they overflow, no one seems to care anymore. So it's no use putting all the blame on visitors, many problems are local issues.

Going for a cuppa, and a couple of paracetamol............

 

[Laurentius]

I was out laning last weekend (yep, I go greenlaning on legal vehicular rights of way occasionally). It occurred to me as we drove through lanes with piles of baler rubbish, dumped rusting bits of old farm vehicles, plastic feeder bags, windblown empty plastic salt tubs etc. that it's no wonder people coming out into the country think it's OK to leave rubbish. We need to clean up our act

There has certainly been an epidemic of fly tipping over the last couple of years. Every layby, farm gate, track, dark corner and sadly even our allotments have fallen victim to it

 

[BumblingAlong]

I was out laning last weekend (yep, I go greenlaning on legal vehicular rights of way occasionally). It occurred to me as we drove through lanes with piles of baler rubbish, dumped rusting bits of old farm vehicles, plastic feeder bags, windblown empty plastic salt tubs etc. that it's no wonder people coming out into the country think it's OK to leave rubbish. We need to clean up our act

My local equine community

 

[Suffolkrafter]

I think that dividing people into 'country' or 'city' isn't necessarily that accurate. I've lived in both at various points in my life. And most of us live in country/town blends, suburbia, small towns etc. Anyway I'm sure plenty of city folk are caring enough and sufficiently self aware and sensible not to wreck the countryside and have as much right to the countryside as those who live in the countryside. There are probably many who are more environmentally knowledgeable than some farmers, for example. I think the issues are simply that too many people are just lazy and just don't care that much. I've seen it, even among people I count as friends but won't pick up their own dog mess. They will have an excuse, but really they just don't care enough.

 

[Broch]

I don't think anybody was particularly picking on city and town folk - more questioning if people who don't spend much time in the country understand it enough. I am sure there are many city folk who are far more environmentally aware than a lot of the rural dwellers around here for example. Unfortunately, even those that work the land have lost the link to the land. Everything is done for profit and the countryside is really just one big food-producing factory. There is no easy solution to the conflicting demands of food security vs raping the land, clean energy vs scarring the land, standard of living vs waste (and pollutants) - the list goes on.

What I am sure about is that we owe it to every other lifeform on this earth to try and be less damaging - I'll get off my soapbox now

 

[Paul_B]

So if you're from the country and moaning about how your village has grown because others want to live in the country, well what kind of message is that? Reminds me of local shop for local people dark comedy programme from a few years back, league of gentleman was it? Perhaps when a country dweller goes to the city to the theatre, opera or orchestra the city should get their verbal pitch forks out too. I mean country folk don't know how to behave on the tube, do they keep to the right side on the tube or wander around wide eyed?

Then again isn't it quite common to see rusting machinery, baler twine holding up or tying down pretty much anything or various types of plastic dumped around the place on farms? Certainly seen a lot of it wherever I've lived in rural or semi rural places. There's been an issue with farm sourced pollution in the derwentwater to Bassenthwaite Lake area and further on for years. There's enough problems with country before you look at outsiders coming in.

Having said that there's some commercial foraging going on in some places I heard. Not good the posh nosh with foraged food thing going on in recent years.

Wild garlic? Jeez that's one plant that seems to stand a bit of harvesting. We've harvested our garden and it'll keep coming back. Can't keep the plant under control, we throw a lot just trying. Maybe if we don't clear the cut down trees they might not grow back.