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Post by Blackbird on Sept 28, 2006 8:58:32 GMT -1
Mushroom picker fights forest ban A mushroom picker has won the right for a court to decide if she is allowed to pick edible fungi in the New Forest. Brigitte Tee-Hillman, of Pennington, Hampshire, appealed against an earlier decision that she had no right to pick mushrooms in the national park. At Winchester Crown Court, Judge Iain Hughes QC said Mrs Tee-Hillman had a prima facie case that picking the fungi could be a "prescriptive right". But he warned that in the trial the burden would be on her to prove it. Commercial picking The 63-year-old, who has been picking fungi for the past 30 years, took the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs to court after one of its agencies, the Forestry Commission, stopped her picking mushrooms. She claimed that she had picked the fungi since 1973 for commercial gain but Defra said the activity was illegal because she sold them. In November 2002, Mrs Tee-Hillman was arrested and £27 worth of brown chanterelles was confiscated after she was informed that picking fungi for commercial purposes was illegal. The case will now go to a full civil court trial later this year. Story from BBC News |
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Post by dubhghaill on Sept 29, 2006 10:01:20 GMT -1
I think it's the commercial bit that loses my sympathy vote. I've picked mushrooms before dawn in the New Forest myself - the large amount of manure from the ponies no doubt helps things along because they're relatively easy to find - and very tasty they are too, lightly fried and eaten with some nice brown toast. To my mind that doesn't differ from picking elderberries and blackberries from the hedgerow at this time of year. Both of these are things that I always do with my kids and which I think helps to bring them closer to the wheel of the year. Conkers are another great indicator of seasonal change that kids can appreciate. I always make sure I don't strip a plant or area bare though, and I also try to remember to heel the odd conker or acorn into the earth to ensure future trees and harvests. Something else I like to do in my garden is to leave bits of it pretty wild - I don't mind the odd nettle or rotting piece of wood, and wild garlic is wonderful to have in shady bits beneath trees.
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Post by Craig on Sept 29, 2006 11:35:07 GMT -1
A question Dubhghaill... how does her right to pick mushrooms to sell them differ from those that keep ponies, pigs and sheep on this 'common' land? Many people make a living from the bounty of the New Forest and they are not being denied.
Craig <o>.
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Post by Blackbird on Sept 29, 2006 14:52:48 GMT -1
Interesting one, isn't it... and also interesting to consider this in terms of scale. How would we feel about a large company doing this, and is that ethically different to a small scale operation like hers?
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Post by Heron on Sept 29, 2006 18:35:53 GMT -1
I thinks this illustrates the argument that context is all. I don't see any problem with someone extending gathering for their own use to selling a few mushrooms, as Craig says this is no different from other uses made of the forest. But I would object to it being done on a commercial scale. The problem is, where does one become the other? What if she started gathering enough to run a delivery service to local shops? And then extended that to using migrant workers to gather them and deliver to more shops? Or if she got a contract to supply a supermarket chain with expensive wild mushrooms....
At some point I would want to start objecting. But where should that be?
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Post by jez on Sept 30, 2006 5:41:17 GMT -1
A question Dubhghaill... how does her right to pick mushrooms to sell them differ from those that keep ponies, pigs and sheep on this 'common' land? Many people make a living from the bounty of the New Forest and they are not being denied. Craig <o>. Commoners' rights are a specific and detailed legal minefield, and the definition of who is a commoner and who can do what on the commons is legally defined. I don't believe that even commoners have mushroom-picking rights, and I would be very surprised if anyone else had any rights to use the area without payment or permission. A summary of the rights of Commoners on the Forest can be found here www.hants.gov.uk/newforest/today/common.html-- Jez |
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Post by Francis on Nov 8, 2006 20:32:52 GMT -1
It is widely believed but unfortunatley incorrect that picking fungi (mushrooms/toadstools/fruiting bodies etc.) doesn't harm the below ground parts of the fungus. If you're picking for your own use you probably want to ensure you can return to the same place next year- you'll be inclined to pick sustainably, not taking all the fruiting bodies of a given fungus - risking exhausting the below ground mycelium.
Once you're playing a commercial game then you'll have orders to fill, or at least a requirment to make a certain amount of pennies. If it's been a bad week, with few 'mushrooms' in the basket after a lot of searching, or you find someone has beaten you to a 'spot' you knew and left only a few you'll be tempted, perhaps you might even 'have to', over pick whats there. If lots of people start doing it commercially you'll get a classic 'tradgedy of the commons' situation, and the fungi will become rarer and rarer. As is so often the case with woodland many people want rights without responsibilities...
Bendithion
Stephen
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