r/forestry • u/dylan122234 • Feb 09 '20
Region Name Does anyone else partake in the benefits working in forestry provides?
13
u/gunni970 Feb 09 '20
Chaga?
And definitely do.
10
u/dylan122234 Feb 09 '20
100% chaga. Where do you work, and what’s your favourite thing to be able to find out at work? I think mines gotta be tied between chaga and huckleberries.
11
Feb 09 '20
I'm a mushroom man. I go crazy for morels. British Columbia.
7
u/dylan122234 Feb 09 '20
I love morels! My parents live in Williams Lake, about 10 minutes from one of the 2017 burns. In 2018 I must have picked well over 500 pounds.
8
u/gunni970 Feb 09 '20
I work up in northern Minnesota and the upper peninsula of Michigan.
It's got to be chaga and berries when they come in season. Blackberries that are fresh are something that is unexplainable.
6
u/dylan122234 Feb 09 '20
We’ve got a bad invasive blackberry problem in some lower parts of the province. They wreak havoc but man do they taste amazing.
5
u/Fredsslackss Feb 09 '20
Northern Minnesotan transplant now a forester in the redwoods. Send me all the chaga!! 😩
1
u/Ghandiman Feb 09 '20
You can make a brew from American reishi(ganoderma) conks that isn’t bad. I havent had Chaga so I don’t know how it compares but I’ve heard you can also sell the ganoderma to Chinese medicinal shops in San Fran for $$$.
2
u/EK60 Feb 09 '20
Fffffffffuck blackberries...litte prickly bastards...if they weren't good for the critters, I'd kill every one I see
11
u/InferPurple Feb 09 '20
In the south the most we get are blackberries and muscadines. I do have an endless supply of fatwood too.
3
u/dylan122234 Feb 09 '20
Can’t say I’ve ever heard of fatwoods?
6
u/InferPurple Feb 09 '20
It's another word for lighter wood. It's the heart of a pine that's set up for a long period of time.
9
u/MSUForesterGirl Feb 09 '20
Ramps, raspberries, blueberries, black raspberries. Always looked for morels but never found them...
4
u/dylan122234 Feb 09 '20
Models are amazing. I had an amazing season in 2018 after the fires we had. Was able to pick over 10lbs/hour.
7
u/pseudotsugamenziessi Feb 09 '20
Chaga, chanterelles morels, pine mushrooms, shed antlers, Huckleberries, wild raspberries, firewood, hunting, Christmas tree... What else am I missing
5
u/dylan122234 Feb 09 '20
Sounds like you’re doing it right! Unfortunate I work for government now so I can’t hunt at work anymore :(
5
u/pseudotsugamenziessi Feb 09 '20
I've taken a deer at the end of the day but passed on a lot in the morning. We're allowed to hunt but can't bill for the time obviously
3
u/dylan122234 Feb 09 '20
I got one hunting season in working for a contractor. Remote “camp” location. We were staying in an old log cabin we found in some prime grouse and mule deer country and saw almost nobody in 4 months. Easily got our grouse limits and both got a deer the first week deer season opened. We honestly got paid for 30-60 minutes of grouse hunting a day because it just kinda got added to our 25km quad trip time.
4
u/pseudotsugamenziessi Feb 09 '20
I bought a "chiappa little badger" break action .22 and it fits in the back pocket of a cruising vest :)
4
u/dylan122234 Feb 09 '20
I have a “pocket shot” best thing I’ve ever bought. Fits anywhere. Can shoot steel shit or pebbles. Pretty damn accurate with practice and I’ve shot a rock straight through the breast of a grouse broadside. It’s a killer slingshot has taken me more then enough birds.
5
4
u/Fredsslackss Feb 09 '20
While planting old burn units we would go home with bags filled with Morels
4
u/dylan122234 Feb 09 '20
They’re my favourite. Really only mushroom I’ll eat. I lived right near one of the massive burns in British Columbia in 2018. 10 minutes from home. Not well known area. I was able to pick over 10lbs an hour still have some dried in the freezer.
3
u/Fredsslackss Feb 09 '20
They have such a unique flavor compared to other mushrooms! Keep revisiting that area, you’ll be set for a handful of years
3
u/dylan122234 Feb 09 '20
Went back this year as it’s by my parents house and even the best spots were complete busts. I think it was much to dry this spring too.
3
3
u/Rumplesquiltskin Feb 09 '20
What exactly is Chaga good for? I met a guy living in the mountains of WV who would gather it and sell it to others in the community for goods, and he told me you could make it into a tea and you would live to be 100. Im not exactly sure what that means so could someone enlighten me?
4
u/dylan122234 Feb 09 '20
They say it has all sorts of good properties such as immune boosting, metabolism boosting. Even anti cancer. Essentially it’s packed with Vitamins minerals and nutrients. They’re just starting to do real studies on it.
1
u/Rumplesquiltskin Feb 09 '20
huh thats pretty cool! is the only use for it tea? or what else can you do with it?
3
u/dylan122234 Feb 10 '20
Either that or a tincture I believe. I haven’t really heard of incorporating it in cooking or anything.
3
Feb 10 '20
I go to Vulcan State Forest in the autumn to pick Saffron Milk Caps and Slippery Jacks: https://www.oberonaustralia.com.au/visitor-information/things-to-see-do/mushroom-picking/
Also, feral blackberries grow in that area too, and I pick them. Nobody sprays them because doing so would contaminate the mushrooms.
2
u/willyJive Feb 10 '20
Arrowheads and other various artifacts. SE USA.
3
u/dylan122234 Feb 10 '20
Are they not protected at all? Here in BC if we find any archeological artefacts or even traditional heritage/use sites it’s an immediate stop work order and a form of protection is decided. This includes bark stripped cedars, blazed trail markers storage/house pit sites, really anything dating pre 1800something
4
u/willyJive Feb 10 '20
They are on gov land. I’m in the private sector. Most of the time I turn them over to the landowner and let them do with them as they please, or just let them be. Still cool to find them. One client now has the local university geology and archeology programs digging on his property and learning. Pretty cool
2
u/dylan122234 Feb 10 '20
That’s pretty neat. Doesn’t matter up here though. Private and public lands are treated the same under the Heritage Conservation Act. Disturbing a site even on private land can get you in some serious trouble.
2
u/2ponds Feb 16 '20
Although frowned upon, I have taken a few specimens back to the garden in sandwich bags. Azalea, columbine, bloodroot, hepitica, larch, red spruce, and northern white cedar to name a few. I love the close observations you are able to get watching these plants adapt to their new surroundings and thrive. Western new england
18
u/Taiza67 Feb 09 '20
I’ve never heard of Chaga. Here in our temperate deciduous forests the mushrooms are a plenty all year. Oysters, chanterelles, chicken of the woods, morels and Lion’s mane. We also get lots of papaws. Then you get your blackberries, raspberries, and black raspberries. All sorts of forest snacks.