Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire Wildlife Trust

THE Berkshire, Buckinghamshire & Oxfordshire Wildlife Trust is appealing to people not to pick mushrooms on its nature reserves after sightings of groups walking around reserves and filling plastic bags with fungi on a commercial scale.

The charity, which manages 86 nature reserves across the three counties, does not object to people foraging on any land when they have the landowner’s permission but has stressed that it does not allow the activity on any of the sites it manages.

Roger Stace, the trust’s land manager, says: “I have seen lots of fungi that have clearly been snapped off, many just left there upside down, so my suspicion is that people were picking them, realised they weren’t edible and left them.

“Members of the public have also reported seeing teams of people sweeping across reserves with big carrier bags.

“We see this problem every autumn but I think it was worse last year and we certainly had more reports.

“I suspect that is partly down to the cost of living crisis. I also fear commercial foragers are selling stolen fungi to restaurants.”

Although mushrooms and toadstools are only the “fruiting body” of a fungus and picking them does not kill the organism, it can cause other problems.

For example, it can stop the fungus from releasing its spores to sustain a healthy population.

Mr Stace says: “We are lucky to have some incredibly rare fungus species on our nature reserves and if people aren’t trained they could be picking and destroying these rare species.

“On a commercial scale some of these untrained mushroom pickers just take everything they see and someone else sorts through them afterwards and throws away what they don’t want, including potentially poisonous fungi.

“That in itself is a pretty sad state of affairs but if people do that year after year you could destroy the precious populations of amazing fungi that we and our volunteers have worked for decades to protect, such as hedgehog mushrooms, death caps, waxcaps and plums-and-custard.

“Fungi also provide food for other wildlife so if you pick everything you’re removing a food source for mammals, birds, insects and other invertebrates. Even other fungi rely on fungi: some species of fungus grow on other mushrooms and toadstools and those can be particular rarities.”

Fungi also benefit their environment in more complex ways: almost all mushrooms and toadstools above ground are the product of a large, complex network of root-like hyphae below the surface.

Most fungi are also symbiotic with trees or other plants, sharing nutrients, water and energy.

These networks of hyphae can stretch over huge areas in fields and woodlands, sharing resources and even communicating with thousands of other plants, fungi and interacting with countless animals.

These sprawling networks can be so vast that scientists have coined the phrase “Wood-Wide Web” to talk about their internet-like natural communication system.

The trust is also concerned about people wandering off footpaths to pick mushrooms, which could damage the wild habitats that nature reserves are specifically designed to protect.

Mr Stace says: “We aim to protect and restore nature and inspire people about the amazing natural world. We want people to come to our nature reserves and enjoy the wildlife we have there, including all the fantastic rare and unusual species that you won’t see at a local park, in farmland or other parts of the countryside.

“We know most people feel exactly the same and that’s why we want to remind people that if you’re going to take anything at our nature reserves, make it a photograph and leave the beautiful wildlife for others to enjoy.”

Pete Hughes