{"id":677,"date":"2022-05-21T15:03:43","date_gmt":"2022-05-21T22:03:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.inedc.com\/22\/?p=677"},"modified":"2022-05-21T15:03:43","modified_gmt":"2022-05-21T22:03:43","slug":"wildfire-burn-scars-spur-latest-california-gold-rush-for-morel-mushroom-foragers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.inedc.com\/22\/05\/21\/wildfire-burn-scars-spur-latest-california-gold-rush-for-morel-mushroom-foragers\/","title":{"rendered":"Wildfire Burn Scars Spur Latest California Gold Rush For Morel Mushroom Foragers"},"content":{"rendered":"
Maria Finn, SF Gate<\/pre>\n
PLACERVILLE, Calif. May 19, 2022 \u2014 Botanist Alison Stanton and her 12-year-old son Milo forged a small river, climbed across a huge, fallen tree and scrambled up a dirt embankment in Eldorado National Forest, where last year the Caldor Fire scorched 221,835 acres.<\/p>\n
As they reached a patch of burned forestland, Milo skipped ahead like a mountain goat then shouted, \u201cI found some!\u201d<\/p>\n
He was speaking of morels, delicious mushrooms with caps of velvety dark ribs and marbling beige-pitted surfaces. Prized for their rich, savory flavor, morels grow in mixed conifer forests. But after a forest fire, huge flushes of them are known to sprout.<\/p>\n
This spring, explosions of morels in this forest and other burned areas of California are creating a new kind of gold rush, luring commercial and recreational mushroom hunters from around the state. They are hiking up mountainsides, searching the forest understory and peering into burned-out root pits to find these toothsome fungi.<\/p>\n
Fungi on the move<\/h2>\n
There are various theories on why morels sprout after a fire, though the exact cause remains a mystery. Some\u00a0scientists speculate<\/a>\u00a0it could have something to do with changes in the soil or the lack of competition from other organisms after a fire, while others believe the shifting availability of food and nutrients is responsible.<\/p>\n
According to Thomas Hofstra, professor of forestry and natural resources at Columbia College in Sonora, changes in the environment prompt the mushrooms to move.<\/p>\n
Morels have a symbiotic relationship with certain trees, he said, and when a fire removes those trees, the fungi too must pick up and move.<\/p>\n
“The way they do this is by producing spores which blow around on the wind,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The Eldorado National Forest, where the Caldor Fire scorched 221,835 acres last year, is a mushroom forager’s heaven. Image courtesy of Maria Finn<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
Teams of professional pickers, passionate amateurs and even some mushroom hunting virgins have headed into the hills to search for morels. Some have come back with a bounty \u2014 others have hiked miles, slid down charred hillsides and sloshed through snow melt only to come out disappointed.<\/p>\n
But such is the nature of mushroom hunting. Kevin Sadlier, founder of the Mycological Society of Marin, led members out to the Caldor Fire burn area in early May and through experience has developed a few basic strategies when foraging.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhether you find them can really depend on the weather, like if there\u2019s been rain and snow melt to trigger them,\u201d he said. \u201cYou basically follow the snow melt up the side of the mountain. Look for trees that still have canopy and understory.\u201d<\/p>\n
While seasoned mushroom hunters often develop their go-to spots for edibles like porcini and chanterelles year after year, morels tend to appear one year after a fire. Sadlier said that morels could even keep popping up two to three years after a burn.<\/p>\n
Even so, on this particular trip, he only found about 4 pounds in three days, which is not much for a veteran mushroom man like Sadlier. He blames the scarcity on all the commercial pickers who are up there harvesting.<\/p>\n
\"This<\/picture><\/figure>\n
This spring, explosions of morels in the Eldorado National Forest and other burned areas of California are creating a new kind of gold rush. Image courtesy of Maria Finn<\/p>\n
‘It happened fast’<\/h2>\n
For those who live in the area, like Stanton and her husband, Mark Bird, morels grow in their backyards. The couple have long picked many wild mushrooms in the area with their son Milo. For them, it\u2019s a treasured family activity.<\/p>\n
This spring, the trio have already picked pounds of morels. It\u2019s a small reward for the stress and chaos of living through the Caldor Fire. With that experience, Stanton offered some advice for anyone evacuating from a wildfire.<\/p>\n
\u201cGrab your dirty laundry basket,\u201d she said. \u201cThat will have clothes you wear a lot in it. You can always wash them later.\u201d<\/p>\n
She lives in the small town of Kyburz. With a mere population of 167, it\u2019s tucked into the Eldorado National Forest about 30 miles from South Lake Tahoe, and where Stanton works as a botanist. In 2010, an electrical fire erupted inside her home and burned most of it down.<\/p>\n
\u201cI grabbed my baby, Milo, and my computer,\u201d she said. \u201cIt happened fast.\u201d<\/p>\n
In 2021, the Caldor Fire, which raged along the Highway 50 corridor, came within yards of their newly rebuilt home. The day they had to evacuate, she was taking her then-11-year-old son to school in Pollock Pines. She recalled skies of billowing gray smoke and orange flames setting the backdrop. Right after she dropped her son off, the sheriff texted and said they were evacuating the school. Everyone, including teachers, kids and families, were forced to leave the area.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis time we had a day to pack up,\u201d she said. \u201cMy husband Mark, Milo and I got our cats and rabbits in the car and drove to my dad\u2019s place in Nevada.\u201d<\/p>\n
From there, she monitored the fire\u2019s progress through\u00a0The Lookout<\/a>, an online resource for those monitoring wildfires. She had a lot of context, as her father had been a wildland fighter and a smokejumper in the late \u201960s, and there was a dispatch radio in her house growing up.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe fire crews were heroic,\u201d she said. \u201cThey worked so hard to save our homes. They created clearings, fuel breaks and lit backfires to save our homes.\u201d<\/p>\n
As we walked through the forest behind her house, many of the trees were scorched, including a towering Douglas fir, a remnant of the old growth forest that used to be there. Other trees were left untouched. It was almost as if the fire moved like a river delta through the thicket.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis Douglas fir won\u2019t survive,\u201d Stanton said. \u201cIt\u2019s probably 500 years old and lost most of its top a long time ago, and the fire consumed the remaining branches.\u201d
\n<\/span><\/span>As Milo jumped in and out of holes that were burned out in the fire, Stanton added that most of what is now the Eldorado National Forest was clear cut during the Gold Rush-era. In turn, the trees grew back at an even age, which is unnatural.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe forests post-Gold Rush are much denser and more filled with fuel because of a long history of fire suppression,\u201d she said. \u201cOf course, my dad\u2019s generation didn\u2019t know that suppressing smaller fires would lead to larger fires in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n
She pointed to a soap plant nearby, followed by a false Solomon\u2019s seal with its arching stems poking through the ground.<\/p>\n
\u201cFire is destructive, but also rejuvenating,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019m seeing plants I\u2019ve never seen on this path before.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fire as a healthy part of forest management<\/a>\u00a0is something the Indigenous people of California have long been familiar with.<\/p>\n
Foraged after fire<\/h2>\n
\u201cI found some!\u201d Milo called from a cluster of mushrooms. […]<\/p>\n
READ MORE\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n
\"At<\/picture><\/span><\/span>At left, Gabe Bridges holds handfuls of savory morels. He’s foraged the Sierra Nevada for almost 30 years. Right, Alison Stanton’s son Milo often accompanies his mom during mushroom foraging season.<\/p>\n
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Contact the Eldorado National Forest Pacific Ranger Station to see if you require a permit. Rules vary by region and can change year to year. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":678,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":""},"categories":[8,7],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.inedc.com\/22\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/677"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.inedc.com\/22\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.inedc.com\/22\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.inedc.com\/22\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.inedc.com\/22\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=677"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.inedc.com\/22\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/677\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":679,"href":"http:\/\/www.inedc.com\/22\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/677\/revisions\/679"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.inedc.com\/22\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/678"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.inedc.com\/22\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=677"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.inedc.com\/22\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=677"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.inedc.com\/22\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=677"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}