Ethics of Mushroom Foraging
A New Hobby For Many
Interest in foraging has increased dramatically and many folks are taking a particular interest in harvesting wild mushrooms. At the same time, wild mushrooms populations across the world are experiencing a catastrophic state of decline. This decline has been documented since the 1960s, so, why are we not talking more about mushroom conservation today? Animals often take the spotlight when it comes to wildlife conservation, followed by plants and even insects. Fungi are often left out of the picture. I hope that by the end of this article mushrooms hold a more special place in your awareness.
There have only been 5 mass extinction events in the Earth’s 4.5 billion year history, until now. We are currently living through the 6th mass extinction event and this time, we humans are the cause. A World Wildlife Fund Report estimates that 69% of all life on Earth has been lost in the past 50 years alone. Species are disappearing quicker than ever, up to 10,000 times faster than the natural rate. Human lifestyle and culture is to blame, so we must think about how each action we take affects the biodiversity crisis.
Does Foraging Really Impact Wild Mushroom Populations?
Many mushroom foragers believe that if you only take the fruiting bodies, the mushroom itself is not harmed. I often hear the analogy “taking fruit from an apple tree doesn’t harm the tree, so why would taking fruit from a mushroom harm the mycelium?” This exemplifies the human-centric, exploitative mindset we often have when it comes to our food and ecosystem. When I hear this analogy, I also hear… “The apple tree is meant to make food for humans and we have the right to take as much as we want since we are the most important life form on Earth. As long as the tree is alive and continuing to make apples, all is well with the world. If its not making apples we better cut it down quick and use the wood to make furniture or something.”
If we look closer at the apple tree and its role of community interactions within the ecosystem, a much different story emerges. The apple tree relies on healthy soil and mycorrhizal fungi for nutrients and water. Ants feast on the nectar of flowers, as do flies and bumble bees who pollinate as they visit. The bumble bees nest in an old mole burrow underneath the tree. Hungry birds take the first bites of the apples, revealing the sweet flesh within. Wasps and fruit flies can now access as a food source and join in the feast. Skunks raid a wasp nest, eating their larvae. At the base of the tree, pill bugs (rollie pollies) eat decaying grass which creates nutrient-rich soil for the tree. Deer eat ripened, fallen apples. They all share the abundance of the apple tree and give back through a dance of balanced reciprocity that supports biodiversity of life.
These interactions barely scratch the surface for apple trees and mushroom interactions are even more complex. When we acknowledge that many other life forms rely on mushrooms to survive, we take a step closer to honoring the ecological vale of these fruiting bodies. If we zoom out, we realize that all mushrooms are eating something and we can think about the abundance of their food. Take morel mushrooms for instance. Elm and ash trees are some of their favorite closest friends and they share nutrients with each other to survive. In just 20 years, Dutch Elm disease has taken out all but ~3,000 American Elms. Ash trees were once one of the most abundant species 14 years ago but now are critically endangered and nearing functional extinction in North America due to the introduction of the Emerald Ash Borer. These two tree species alone add up to a documented loss of over 177 million trees in the last few decades. Since Morels have mutualistic relationships with these trees, that means 177 million less places morel mushrooms can grow. We are still regularly clearing forests and those still standing are often lacking the next generation of trees due to human-caused ecosystem imbalances. So, when we think about mushroom abundance, we need to consider realated tree abundance as well.
How Many People Are Foraging Mushrooms?
There are dozens of Facebook groups for Pennsylvania mushroom foragers alone, many with 40,000 - 65,000 members. Some mushroom foraging Facebook groups have over 500,000 members! Talking about ethical foraging or mushroom conservation is very rare in these groups. If someone speaks up in favor of conservation, they are usually attacked or even banned from participation. Looking at the numbers, one can imagine the impact that hundreds of thousands of people foraging for mushrooms in a single state alone. Many people just getting into mushroom foraging will pick mushrooms they haven’t yet identified as edible just to take home and post to a group. Combine this with the common practice of commercial mushroom foraging and we are talking about a huge harvests of wild mushroom fruits.
Commercial harvesters gather thousands of pounds per day and this practice is continually growing. Some well-known local mushroom experts I know make a living training huge corporations like Aramark on how to harvest wild mushrooms and plants. They tell me that even where prohibited or limited, poaching mushrooms is quite common in the industry. Why? “Free” food, especially with high gourmet value boosts profit margins.
But is taking from nature really free? The idea of going outside and taking ingredients for food without monetary exchange is what draws many people into foraging. This concept of extracting from nature without giving back is what drives our economy and consumer capitalist culture. This extractive mindset does not take reciprocity or long-term impacts on the web of life into account. Overexploitation culture is the cause of the mass extinction crisis we are living through.
Wild Mushroom Decline
Mushroom foraging removes important nutrients and genetic material (spores) from the environment. Mushrooms worldwide have been in a catastrophic state of decline and there won’t be a wild harvest for commercial or personal use if we don’t prioritize mushroom conservation and regeneration. Mushrooms have been on the decline for many years and the mushrooms we find today are significantly smaller than those found years ago. In 1975 it took 50 times as many chanterelles to make up a kilogram than 1958 and mushroom flushes have gotten much smaller since then.
Mushroom abundance is diminishing and biologists familiar with mushroom ecology are describing a mass extinction event. Habitat destruction and over harvesting by an ever-growing human population definitely contribute but are not the only culprits to the problem. Widespread use of fungicide and nitrogen-based fertilizer in farming and lawn management play a significant role. Climate change driving atmospheric shifts in gas levels and rain patterns also make it harder for fungi to thrive. If we want to conserve mushrooms for future generations, we must curb overexploitation, stop pollution, and actively protect and steward our forests.
Is Anyone Working to Conserve Wild Fungi?
Globally fungi lag way behind plants and animals when it comes to conservation efforts. The United States has arguably the least protections and research funding in place. The Global Fungal Redlist Initiative run by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has classified 625 species of mushrooms on the threatened list. Most countries in Europe have their own lists of threatened fungi and some countries have even banned mushroom picking in ecologically important areas altogether. The United States has no tracking or protection of threatened fungi at the Federal level.
What Happens When Wild Mushrooms Decline?
The lack of protection for mushrooms is quite troubling given their critical role in ecosystems worldwide. As decomposers, fungi facilitate nutrient cycling, unlocking stored nourishment from dead matter. They have symbiotic relationships with so much of the biosphere including bugs, mammals, trees, and many other lifeforms. Bugs are the backbone of our food web and many fungi and insects rely on each other for survival. Bugs feed birds and mammals, who also often turn to mushrooms direct for their own food and medicine. Fungi are a crucial body part of the forest exchanging nutrients, capturing water, and even serving as the immune system for many plants. Our forests can’t exist without fungal biodiversity. If mushrooms die off, our forests won’t be far behind. Wild mushrooms are important contributors to ecosystem function and quite worthy of conservation.
What Does This All Have to Do With Foraging?
Our ecosystems are collapsing all around us. Our forests are dwindling because they’re cleared for housing, agricultural, and other development. In the tiny sliver of forests we have left, biodiversity is plummeting from logging, pollution, and invasive species pressure. When we take even fruiting bodies from the environment, we are taking nutrients out of the ecosystem that could be contributing to the food web and healthy soil. We are taking homes away from insects and food away from animals. There are barely any healthy wild spaces left so we must think about how our actions affect the biodiversity crisis. The good news is, we can cultivate regenerative, healthy interdependence with mushrooms and the broader ecosystem to heal our planet, and ourselves.
Is There An Ethical Way To Forage Mushrooms?
I think there is an argument that humans have taken so much from the Earth and our native plants, animals, and fungi are declining so quickly that we should protect wild spaces at all costs. That said, mushrooms have been an important source of food and medicine throughout history for both people and wildlife. There is great cultural value in having a deep, reciprocal relationship with the land and keeping the skill of mushroom foraging alive. We also need to cultivate a more respectful relationship with our mushroom kin if we want there to be mushrooms in the future. Below I’ve outlined ethical foraging ideals when it comes to wild mushrooms.
Give first, take later. Convert lawn into woodlands filled with native trees. Regularly work to remove problematic, non-native (invasive) species from the forest. Plant local ecotype understory trees protected from deer to ensure future forest generations. If you want to eat wild mushrooms, make a new place for them to grow!
Only take what you need, and never take the first mushroom you find. Ask the mushroom for permission to harvest and explain exactly why you’d like to receive their gifts. Listen for an answer by observing how abundant they are in the direct area. Only harvest what is available in large numbers and never take more than 10% of a population. For shelf and multi-stemmed mushrooms, it may even be possible to leave part of the fruiting body instead of taking the whole fruit. Always share what you harvest with another human or animal.
Only forage mushrooms whose ecology you deeply understand. What other beings rely on them for food, medicine, and habitat? Which ecosystem services do they provide? What environment do they grow in? What trees do they have relationships with? This information gives you a better chance at honoring the mushroom.
Make more of what you harvest. After harvesting, you can leave a piece of the harvest in another environment where the mushroom likes to grow, giving that species a better chance at procreating.
Only walk and harvest on trail. Compacting soil and trampling mycelium causes great damage to an ecosystem. Many critters like salamanders leave under leaves. Disturbing soil makes it easier for invasive plants to germinate. Walk gently on mother earth and only harvest mushrooms growing along the trail. Practice restraint and sharing with other residents of the forest.
What About Growing Mushrooms?
Mushrooms are easy to grow and can be grown in your basement. No matter where you live, you can likely find a small business who farms mushrooms. These operations can be quite eco-friendly, especially if they use recycled material as growing substrate and take place in already developed spaces. There’s a company in Philly that uses the basement of an abandoned hospital as their growing space and things like spent coffee grounds as substrate. There are many varieties of farmed mushrooms readily available at affordable prices, so I don’t see a need to harvest from the wild myself. I do enjoy a couple small tastes of ethically foraged wild mushrooms each year, however.
Some ethical things to consider when growing mushrooms is that I often see people compost spent substrate outdoors. Just like plants, non-native fungi regularly colonize new spaces. I often see yellow oyster mushrooms growing in the PA wilds yet they are native to Asia. They have escaped cultivation and now compete with our native blue oysters. There are better ways to dispose and compost farmed, non-native mushroom material that protect our local biodiversity.
Despite the serious tone of this article, I am very happy more people are getting out into nature and connecting with our non-human kin. I hope that we can use this momentum to cultivate a deeper level of respect and awareness for mushrooms that lead to an increase in their abundance and access for all life on Earth.
