INTEGRATING BIOLOGICAL, SOCIOECONOMIC, AND MANAGERIAL METHODS AND RESULTS IN THE MAB MUSHROOM STUDY

Some three dozen biologists, resource managers, social scientists, and volunteers worked together between 1993 and 1996 to study the biologi cal, socioeconomic, and managerial concerns of harvesting chanterelle (Cantharellus sp.) mushrooms on the Olympic Peninsula of Washington St ate in the Pacific Northwest. Highly variable productivity across diff erent landscapes combined with low prices for mushrooms make harvester s wary of more regulations, higher permit fees, and contracts that res trict harvesting to those who pay the highest bid price for the right to pick certain areas. Public and private resource managers face decre asing budgets, necessitating permits and other fees to cover the actua l costs of administering harvests, public land managers must also comp ly with existing laws that require charging those who use forests for commercial or recreational purposes. Vandalism to machinery and proper ty, potential liability claims, and illegal waste dumping are forcing public and industrial forest landowners to gate their properties; this action limits access to forest lands by the general public and mushro om pickers who seek traditional and new harvest sites. Although harves ters and research volunteers come from diverse social and economic bac kgrounds, most are willing to help managers and scientists conduct lon g-term field studies. Key elements of successful cooperation are early front-end planning and information sharing by all parties, from initi al project conception and establishment through data collection, analy sis, synthesis, and reporting.