Prized Priest Lake mushrooms trashed by visitors
WILD EDIBLES -- People who prize the famous variety of mushrooms found in the Priest Lake area were shocked this week to see visitors wasting coveted fungi.
"I am an avid mushroomer (as in hunting them) and I experienced some horrible "tourist invasion" of mushrooms in the past few days here in our forest," wrote a concerned local resident.
"People picking just for picking -- picking mushrooms and then throwing them back.
"You should have seen the destruction. A girl had a basket FULL and she had no idea what she had on it -- all colors, all kinds."
This is not a greedy rant. Mushrooming is not a great activity for the uniformed, and especially one to avoid with kids.
A 3-year-old child in British Columbia recently died after ingesting a poisonous mushroom.
And wasting anything that grows in the forest, including berries and wildflowers, is simply uninformed and disrespectful.
