SW BC Burn Morels

[vitog]

The morel season has started in the southwestern part of mainland British Columbia. I picked my first morels on Good Friday, March 25, which is the earliest I've ever found them. They were just starting in a burn close enough to Vancouver for a day trip. I only got a handful on that occasion; so I went to the same area last Thursday, March 31, and did somewhat better. The first photo below shows the nicest cluster found on the first trip; and the second photo is the entire second haul, which was rather disappointing. So far this burn is far less productive than other burns that I've attended; the morels are widely scattered and smaller than usual. I'm still hoping that things will pick up when the later ones arrive; these early specimens are only showing up in a few particularly warm locations. One thing that seems rather unusual is that most of the early ones are Western Gray Morels, Morchella tomentosa, which I have found in the past well after blacks and yellows show up.

[rob]

Beautiful morels. Really makes me wish I was back in God's country. When I left B.C. the only mushrooms I was familiar with were boletes, shaggy manes and puffballs. Now I'm way more selective on boletes and come back in Oct.Somewhat unfortunately salmon and birds take priority over various fungi. My Dad always has a bemused look when I forsake grouse hunting over a hand full of button suillus, or shaggies while chasing birds up around Merritt. Although his reaction to the "hot panful' is far more positive..

Here, in the centre of the "known universe", whith a low of - 11 I don't forsee morels for a few weeks yet. At least I can go out for turkeys, in a couple weeks.

Quite often it's birds zero and a pocket full of morels...or dryads saddle.

Used to know guys who hit slashes/burns on Vedder Mt. and made out okay.

[vitog]

Rob, I didn't start looking seriously for morels until the days of slash burning were over. I'll bet that morels were easier to find back then. Nowadays, slash is gathered in piles that may or may not be burned; when they are burned, the fire is too hot to produce more than the occasional morel. I just hope that prescribed burns become more common in BC. They should be pretty productive for morels.

[rob]

Vitog,know what you mean. I haven't spent much time, down low, over the last few years. Basically just see the individual smoke columns from slash piles when out on the Harrison. Up country, Merritt way, it's all spruce budworm burns. Generally a big pile but I have seen several large clear cuts that were burned off. Don't know if these were planned burns or the ever present forest fire. I'm guessing forest fire, is more likely, as there is often mature timber blackened along the cut edges. Used to spend a ton of time up Chilliwack valley, back side of Harrison lake, Bralorne, Skagit, Dewdney Crk (coquihalla) chasing bears, so probably prime morel season. Unfortunately wasn't interested/didn't know what to look for back then.

[CWlake]

Beautiful shrooms! They look so thick and meaty. A lot different look than the Midwest morels.

[jpzII]

Beautiful shrooms! They look so thick and meaty. A lot different look than the Midwest morels.

I was thinking the same thing! These almost look like wood carvings or the like with how "thick" and full they look.

[Dave W]

When I collected Fire Morels in Idaho for the first time, I was amazed by the complete lack of insects in the mushrooms. Are the BC ones bug-free?

[vitog]

Dave, all of the morels collected early in the season are free of maggots; but some do start showing up in the ones collected later, if the burn keeps producing long enough. I went to one particularly good, large burn 4 times, from May 19 to July 21, 2007; so it's not surprising that older specimens late in the season would show signs of maggots. That burn continued to produce until at least September, I was told.

CWlake, the Western Grey Morels are known for their meaty flesh; they are actually double-walled and weigh more than expected for their size. They can also get to be quite large, but these early ones aren't so big.

[vitog]

I've gone back to this burn two more times. The trip on April 13 yielded about 27 liters (7 gallons) of black and grey morels. The burn still was not very productive compared to other burns I've been to; it took all day to gather that many, and I found only one area that was consistently productive. The rest of the burn that I examined produced only sporadically. A couple of weeks later the same patch produced another 24 liters of morels, and young ones were still coming up. However, there has been no significant rain since then; so I haven't gone back again.

Here are a couple of photos showing the productive terrain. The first is one of the best little patches on fairly flat ground. The second one shows the steep, rocky terrain that is typical of the good area.

[bobby b]

Great post Vitog! Still workin on my first bucket full. "lifetime" Really enjoy those eureka days regardless of which edibles I find.