Hunting mushrooms is serious business
Morel mushroom hunting season has finally slowed down for both the Kootenai National Forest and neighboring Flathead National Forest since the season began in April - but not without incident.
The Kootenai forest released 222 personal use permits - a drop in the bucket compared to neighboring Flathead forest's 2,000.
Flathead also sold 250 commercial permits issued for their 25,000-acre area after the Brush Creek fire of last year created primo morel conditions - the Kootenai forest didn't sell commercial permits for its 5,000-acre area.
Migrant mushroom pickers near Marion in the Moose Crossing campground were involved in a skirmish last Saturday, resulting in the arrest of Edward Hubbs, 26, and Daniel Devine, 25, who are being held in the Flathead County jail on charges of malicious intimidation or harassment relating to civil or human rights.
According to the incident report, around 10 p.m., the two men took a baseball bat and a tire iron and allegedly threatened some Asian migrant mushroom pickers, using racial slurs.
According to Mike Lick, District Timber Operations leader, most of the migrant pickers have moved on.
“A lot of it was because of that (harassment), but also the area is getting picked out,” he said. “We've only issued a half-dozen permits today, and only two last Saturday. We're definitely on the downhill slide.”
Besides the recent skirmish, Lick said the season has gone smoothly, with neither of their overflow campgrounds filling up.
One picker from Libby who hunts morels, John Sievers, said animosity sometimes exists between the local pickers and commercial pickers.
“It just takes that much more money away from you,” he said. “They pick from Florida to Washington. There are just an awful lot of them you couldn't trust,” he said, noting some unspoken rules of the shroom hunters are broken when some send “spotters” out to find a big patch and then signal for a dozen to descend upon and pick an already claimed spot.
But despite the potential tension, Sievers said it's worth it.
“It's great getting paid to wander in the woods all day,” he said. “You drag yourself up into the buying stations and someone hands you between $20 and $60 in bills.”
According to Lick, four mushroom-selling stations were set up in the Flathead, with one buyer recording a thousand pounds in one day.
Sievers added all the sellers come in and station themselves along the forest roads the same way, with suitcases of cash.
“When we have fires, the buyers come into town and often times set up right in the woods,” he said. “For some unknown reason, morel buyers always pay in cash. They are literally out there in the woods with briefcases full of $20 bills just like you'd see in a drug bust in Florida on TV. It is really something else.”
Sievers said even though the season is winding down, there are still mushrooms to be discovered - just not as many.
“Usually by July you start getting the grays and the blondes,” he said of morel varities. “I've picked up until Aug. 12 in the Yaak,” he said. “I was working the creek banks and bringing in maybe 5 pounds instead of 20, 30, 40 pounds.”