Paco shivers with a blanket on his shoulders,
recovering from an ill-fated attempt to float
200 pounds of mushrooms down the river on
an air mattress. It seemed like a good idea at
the time. They were picking near the river,
and floating beats walking. But Paco hit a
submerged log and spilled himself and his
precious load. Accident notwithstanding, the
team still loads several hundred pounds of
mushrooms into their van. They drive into
Tok to cash in, leaving me to scheme a way
to realize my dream: to go picking with the
Mexicans.
ARI LEVAUX
to site, success at morel picking requires the
The core of the Mexicans’ success, how-
ability to adapt.
ever, is simply the ability and willingness to
David Arora, a renowned mycologist and
walk farther than anybody else. While most
writer from Santa Cruz with connections to
pickers try to keep their rigs hidden from the
OSU, is the author of Mushrooms
road to hide their patch, the Mexicans pull
Demystified, widely considered the bible of
their red van onto the gravel shoulder in a
wild mushrooms. Arora is the first to admit
brazen cloud, and leave it there for all to see.
that migrant pickers like the Red Van Crew
Anyone who sees that van knows there
can outpick experts like him:
are mushrooms back there — way back there.
“They are quintessential outsiders: figura-
Farther than anyone else will walk.
tively, because they stand outside the main-
Hell, they’ll even tell you where they’re
stream, and literally, because they spend most
going. They truly don’t care if you know.
of their waking existence outdoors. They are
“We walk ’til we find a big patch,” explains
the latest (some say the last)
incarnation of a wandering
community as ancient as
humanity itself — one that
is nature-immersed and
moves with the seasons …
Knowledge is acquired
through days spent in the
woods and is communicated
orally … trust and cama-
raderie are cemented and
sustained through the
exchange of nature — the
buying, selling, and barter-
ing of mushrooms — and
just as importantly, from the
exchange of stories about
nature and mushrooms.”
You won’t find a shred of
Gore-Tex or Capilene on the The Red Van Crew poses
backs of most pro pickers, or along Taylor Highway.
of buyers; if another buyer offers more,
they’ll sell to him. Southard lives in constant
fear that another buyer will bribe, charm or
otherwise compel the Mexicans to switch.
Pickers compete for habitat, but buyers com-
pete for pickers.
Further behind the scenes, the mushroom
companies like Alpine Foragers Exchange
and S&K Holdings that hire the buyers have
their eyes on all the global hotspots produc-
ing morels. There are many productive burns
in Canada’s Yukon, for example, and the
quantities coming out of Canada — or
Turkey, or India — help deter-
mine the price brokers author-
ize their buyers to pay for
morels in Alaska.
Each day I push farther into
the
thick
bush. I don’t know if the mos-
quitoes are afraid of me, or if I
don’t notice them anymore, but
they plummet from my list of
concerns as I bring back more
and more mushrooms.
It’s addictive, this foraging
for profit — an ancient, power-
ful and intoxicating feeling.
When your eyes adjust to
morel-vision, it’s amazing how
far away you can spot one, and
how large they loom.
You drop to your knees,
one eye on the mushroom
Of all the tools available to pickers, eyes and legs seem to be the most useful,
along with the ability to forget what you used to know and learn quickly from scratch.
a map, compass, or plant book among them.
Yet they navigate the land comfortably and
intimately.
“How do you figure out if habitat is
good?” I ask Francisco.
“By looking at it,” he says.
“It’s always changing,” he adds, after I
roll my eyes.
“First we were finding them in burnt-out
black spruce forests. Then we started finding
them in the needles below white spruce
growing in half-burnt aspen forests. Then we
started finding them all over the barely
burned aspen groves — even in green moss.
They’re always on slopes, though, usually
south-facing.”
Francisco. “Then we pick, load up and walk
out. That’s it.”
The terrain “accessible” from the Taylor
Highway offers some of the toughest bush-
whacking I’ve ever experienced, but I’m
determined to pick like a Mexican. Each day
I go deeper, across muskeg bogs, over
downed timber, underneath burnt snags (wid-
owmakers) that remain standing only by
force of habit, waiting for the slightest excuse
to fall on my head. After a day of picking, I
return torn and filthy, humbled by the
Mexicans’ cleanliness.
We are on the bank of the Dennison Fork
of the West Fork of the Fortymile River,
which empties into the Yukon east of Eagle.
Jay Southard is a buyer from Yamhill,
Ore., who sets up next to the flea market in
Tok. Southard’s setup consists of a canopied
table with a digital scale. A line of propane
dryers stands behind him, ready for his next
purchase. Southard is known around Tok as
“the Mexicans’ buyer.”
I ask him if I can go picking with the Red
Van Crew.
Southard explains that the Red Van Crew
belongs to no one. Even though Southard
helped with their travel arrangements, found
them cabins with kitchens and running water,
secured their famous red van, and picked
them up at the airport, he has no control over
their decisions, he says, or even their choice
Sustainable Harvest?
Is commercial mushroom harvesting
in Northwest forests sustainable and
ecologically sound? Environmentalists argue
both sides: Wild mushrooms add to the diversity and
value of ancient forests, providing another argument
against clear-cutting; but the uncontrolled harvesting
of sensitive plants raises serious concerns about
maintaining healthy forests.
Research on the topic is sketchy due to the many
variables that determine mushroom productivity, such
as temperature, precipitation, fire and human activity.
Creating study areas devoid of mushroom pickers is
a challenge. And mushrooms themselves are
astoundingly diverse and complex in their life cycles
and their relationship to their environment.
Below are some of the considerations that can be
found in a brief survey of literature from the U.S.,
Canada and Europe on the subject:
• A 10-year study on the effects of harvesting
chanterelles by the Oregon
Mycological Society (1995)
found no decline in productiv-
ity following harvesting,
regardless of the
picking method.
However,
chanterelles are typically cut at the
base of the stem to keep them clean,
leaving the mycellium or roots intact.
• The same study documented con-
cern for the picking of pine mush-
rooms, which are preferred by
buyers with stems intact.
Some irresponsible pickers
rake the forest floor to find
the more valuable young
fruit, damaging the mycellium in
the process.
you’re about to pick, the other scanning for
its friends. When that one mushroom turns
out to be the leading edge of a huge patch,
you love your life. You never want to be any-
where else. When you close your eyes to
sleep, that patch comes back to haunt you on
the backs of your eyelids.
By day, the quest for unpicked habitat
continues. Pickers partner with locals, renting
their ATVs and hiring them as boat pilots in
order to reach the innermost reaches of the
burn. But there’s not enough turf to go
around. A few pickers are successful, but
most are barely covering their expenses.
One morning, the red van pulls into my
camp. It seems even the Red Van Crew has
• Commercial mushroom pickers are notorious for
leaving garbage and human waste at their campsites
and resting areas scattered deep in wilderness areas.
Direct impact? Unknown.
• Tramping and compacting of mosses and other
ground materials has been shown to reduce mush-
room production, primarily through damaging young
mushroom buds underground.
• Destruction of fungi beds can damage trees,
particularly Douglas firs. Mushrooms called micor-
rhiza wrap themselves around tree roots and facilitate
the transfer of nutrients from soil to the trees.
Likewise, clear-cutting of forests can
destroy fungi which are integral to
the survival of thousands of plant
and animal species.
For more information on local
mushroom harvesting, contact
the Cascade Mycological Society
(http://cascademyco.org) or the Pacific
Northwest Research Station in Corvallis
(www.fs.fed.us/pnw), or read Mushrooms
Demystified by David Arora, Ten
Speed Press. — Ted Taylor
Yellow Chantrelle
AUGUST 18, 2005 13