Bucks Wildlife Trust warns of foraging on 'commercial scale'
It's after sightings of groups walking around reserves and filling plastic bags with fungi
A wildlife charity has pleaded with people not to pick mushrooms on nature reserves in Buckinghamshire after reports that gangs of foragers have been ripping up fungi on a 'commercial scale'.
Berkshire, Buckinghamshire & Oxfordshire Wildlife Trust (BBOWT) has made the appeal after sightings of groups walking around reserves and filling plastic bags with fungi.
The charity - which manages 86 nature reserves across the three counties - does not object to people foraging on any land where 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, BBOWT’s Land Manager, said:
"This year 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 it, realising it wasn't edible and leaving it. Members of public have also reported seeing teams of people sweeping across the site with big carrier bags.
"We see this problem every autumn, but I think it’s worse this year - we've certainly had more reports, and I suspect that is partly down to the cost of living crisis. I also fear commercial foragers are selling stolen fungi to restaurants for money."
Although mushrooms and toadstools are only the 'fruiting body' of a fungus, and picking them does not kill the organism, BBOWT has warned it can cause numerous other problems.
Mushrooms and toadstools are the reproductive part of the fungus and picking them can stop the fungus from releasing its spores to sustain a healthy population.