I read an article recently - wished I could remember where so could show I'm not making it up - about these people picking morels in Alaska and NW Territories (I didn't even know they had mushrooms up there!?). Anyway, they were hiking in to wilderness areas that previously had fires and picking many pounds per day. The picture showed a woman with a backpack on and soot on her face and arms. If memory serves, this couple had picked 75 pounds or so. They also met some people that picked them and sold them for $7 per pound to some company. That group had gathered about 500 pounds that day and 1,000 pounds the previous day.

I remember in my youth one day when three brothers and I hunted from dawn to dusk and found over 3,000 mushrooms. Now it is unusual to find more than 30 in a trip - almost not worth all the walking. I don't know if it is too many picking, people putting in bread sacks so spores don't spread, different forest make up, too many deer / turkeys, or what. I'd love to have a biologist's perspective on all that and what we could do to increase the morels on our property.

[Linked Image from i108.photobucket.com]