In La Grande, OR, there is one established year-round mushroom buyer and proces- 

 sor. Mushrooms are mostly sold by pickers, fresh, at the end of the day. Some 

 pickers will dry their own mushrooms and later sell them, adding value to the product. 

 Large-scale processors partially dry and freeze their product for shipping out of the 

 area and overseas. A small amount of the commercial harvest is marketed fresh lo- 

 cally in area restaurants and shipped to markets in the Northwest. Most of the market 

 for processed mushrooms is in Europe (see footnote 2). 



Regulations Regulation of the mushroom resource has increased steadily over the last 10 years. In 



Washington, a task group of agencies and individuals representing State, Federal, and 

 private lands was convened in 1985 by the Commissioner of Public Lands. An early prod- 

 uct was a position paper on the issues involved in harvesting wild mushrooms (Acker 

 1986). Several workshops increased awareness of the resource and the developing in- 

 dustry. Washington State legislation requiring licensing and reporting of data was initially 

 attempted in 1986 but failed to pass. A law passed in 1994 currently requires a validated 

 specialized forest products permit (Washington Legislature 1994). The law is adminis- 

 tered by the Washington State Department of Natural Resources and requires annual 

 licensing of people who buy and process wild mushrooms for market. Monthly reporting is 

 required of licensed buyers. Reports include information on species harvested, weights, 

 location of harvest sites, dates purchased, prices paid, and name of dealer to whom the 

 mushrooms were later sold. Dealers also are required to report to the U.S. Department of 

 Agriculture, the quantity of mushrooms, by species, sold in-State, in the United States, 

 and to individual foreign countries. 



The 1993 Oregon Legislature passed House Bill 2130: Special Forest Products 

 (Oregon Legislature 1993). This statute is designed to reduce illegal gathering and 

 theft of various nontimber forest products, including mushrooms. This law requires 

 wholesale buyers to keep a record of purchases which includes the social security 

 number of the person from whom they bought the product, typically the gatherer. In 

 Oregon, there are no State-wide regulations prohibiting mushroom collection; there 

 may be individual city, county. State, or Federal parks and other lands where picking 

 of mushrooms is prohibited or otherwise regulated. 



The USDA Forest Service has used several methods to regulate harvesters and buy- 

 ers in the Pacific Northwest Region. In the Blue Mountains, until 1994, there was 

 a free-use permit available to people who collect for their own use (up to 10 days of 

 picking per year). Until 1995, these permits were available from each Ranger District 

 and were good throughout the Wallowa-Whitman, Umatilla, and Malheur National For- 

 ests. In 1995, regulations were changed slightly for the three Blue Mountains National 

 Forests, and the Forests have discontinued issuing personal-use permits. Currently, 

 recreational pickers are able to collect and possess up to 1 gallon (4.4 liters) (3 gal- 

 lons [13.2 liters] in Washington) of mushrooms per day. These may not be sold. 



Commercial picking permits have been required since the late 1980s for those 

 individuals who pick on National Forest lands for sale to buyers. Recent regulations 

 have reduced the cost of commercial permits as managers have found that most 

 pickers will avoid buying commercial permits if the cost is high. At the Wallowa- 

 Whitman National Forest, in 1992, the cost of commercial permits was lowered to 

 $1 .00 per day. In 1996, commercial permits became available for $2.00 per day per 

 person with a $10 minimum. A $50 annual permit also is available. It is believed that 



