Wild mushrooms in decline?

I hear that Agaricus in the wild was much more common in former days and now they are almost impossible to find in my region. They used to grow in pastures, but maybe there aren’t enough of those to sustain a healthy population anymore? It could also be something about soil health where the soils have gotten poorer in the last few decades to the point of not being able to sustain mushrooms. Or maybe it’s chemicals? Heat? Drought?

I don't have the answer for sure, but I really think it is due to the reduction in ruminants on pasture.

The common thread with the Agaricus family has been a desire to feed on rich organic matter. Grazing would provide opportunity both from decaying grass roots for field agaricus and then manure for horse agaricus.

This is just something I've heard or read, but I believe that many pastures these days are ploughed and sown, if not annually then intermittently. Since fungi take some time to get to a fruiting stage, it may be that the tillage has destroyed the mycellium before that is possible.

(adding : hints in https://player.vimeo.com/video/136857929 at about 20 minutes in. The whole thing is worth watching if you haven't seen it....)

Thank you!

That happens occasionally around here. Only so with lowland pastures where ploughing can happen; many of the pastures I’m describing are hillsides or semi-wild places full of roses and shade trees. But none of them are nearly as happy as the orchid meadow!

Maybe it does have to do with the use of machinery on the land? Or the too small pastures for the animals? The hoof disturbance is a good point.

There is a grass similar to the one shown with the matted roots which grows by riversides here interestingly. I wonder if they’re the same?

In the past 40 years since I began harvesting wild mushrooms in western Oregon and northwestern California, I have noticed a serious decline in Agaricus augustus, commonly known as the Prince. The Prince is one of my favorites and I used to harvest quite a bit of these mushrooms, usually between late August and late October. In recent years though, I've hardly seen any of this species. (However, I did find a superb specimen recently on my property for the first time in over 15 years- check out the photos in "Show me Your Fungus".)

I've also noticed an overall decline in the numbers of mushrooms in the past 15 years, especially during an extreme drought here in western Oregon that lasted roughly between 2019-2022. During this drought, wild mushroom harvests in general were really poor or nonexistent. However, after this drought ended, there were bumper crops of boletes two years ago and bumper crops of chanterelles last fall.

I think the reason for the overall decline of the Prince is that this species in particular relies on late summer rainfall/fog and usually does not tolerate heat waves, climate change or extreme drought at all. When climate change became really obvious- roughly 15 years ago- was when I stopped seeing the Prince on my property, in local parks and along the coast. Also, I've noticed a lot of local parks are using herbicide and weed killers nowadays- mushrooms in general don't like herbicide and weed killer (and neither do I!!)

M, do you have places where you used to harvest Agaricus (especially Meadow Mushrooms) and they don't produce anymore? Do you live in a area where there is extreme drought or a lot of weedkiller use? Is climate change really getting bad in your area? I'm guessing there might be a connection between all these factors and declining harvests of Agaricus in your area.

If you are interested in this topic, you might want to check out mushroom observer- a website with lots of info about mushrooms and where to find them:

https://mushroomobserver.org/

When climate change started being noticeable (about 20-25 years ago) that is apparently when they disappeared. Blewits too are mostly gone. So there is a parallel.

The pattern in recent growing seasons has been alternating heat and drought with extremely rainy, depending on the year. So this was a drought year but last year and the year before if I remember correctly were soggy. The extremes of each year are getting more extreme rather than one end or the other.

It seems to me that the chanterelles are better in quality when it’s drier…but there were almost none this year and no black trumpets.

Edit: Also, our morels are highly dependent on living ash trees. This does not bode well for their future here.

Howdy,
I also am noticing a huge decline in wild mushrooms here where I live in Southern Oregon. I believe it is from extreme changes in the weather. Climate change?
Friends of mine that get out more have been finding more morels in the burn scars of the big wildfires over the past few years. Also the rain forest along the coast seem to still be a good wild mushroom hunting area.  

More news reports of people becoming lost here looking for mushrooms this past year.

Conifers seem to offer a protective niche in the ecosystem both as fungi stewards and in all sorts of other manners. Especially white pine in my region.

The needles for one create a resilient layer of mulch. And fungi like to grow under pines—chanterelles, suillus, boletes especially. Pines are the tallest trees in the forest—they protect the rest from wind by slowing it down as it rushes through the ecosystem. Thus moisture is lost more slowly. And they provide some shade to the other trees.

Hemlocks are their stout, old, slow growing cousins—they don’t get as tall but they are very good at shading the soils. They also harbor some fungi in their roots such as chanterelles, lobster, bolete, and I have heard even matsutake. A friend gave me some matsutake last year to spread around.

Conifers also need time to regenerate. White pine is a pioneer (forests that start off as pine are really happy) but the others do. In mature forests I notice a lot of spruce trees especially regenerating happily. But there needs to be a mother spruce for there to be baby spruces and a lot of places, the mother spruces have been wiped out by logging. This is the case in a lot of forests—not a conifer in sight because they’ve all been logged out. Leading to drier forests, less mushrooms, more monotony, and less vitality overall.

In my years of picking wild mushrooms in various places I've often noticed that many of the better edibles prefer older growth trees and forests. There are some like blewits and agarics that will grow in meadows and gardens, but there is that whole diverse array of chanterelles, coral fungi, boletes, milk caps, and more that like the older woods.  Young woods seem to be just as lacking as a plowed field much of the time.