Good Morel Habitat vs. Bad Morel Habitat
Years ago, I didn’t know anything about morel mushrooms. I didn’t know what they looked like. I didn’t know how they tasted. I didn’t even know they existed.
Then one day I attended a mushroom program with a local club. Experts in the club introduced me to morels. “Here’s what morels look like,” they said. “You’ll find them all over this park.”
“Great,” I thought to myself. “I now know everything I need to know.”
Except I still hardly knew anything.
Sure, I quickly learned how to identify morels, and I heard a few things about looking in certain areas: “Look for elms, apples, and poplars. Morels really like sweet soil.”
But where would I find elms, apples, and poplars? What the heck is sweet soil?
It soon dawned on me that knowledge of mushrooms wasn’t enough. If I really wanted to improve my skills, I needed to learn tree identification. I needed to learn ecology. I needed to learn geology.
And so I learned as much as I could. Slowly but consistently, I developed a wider set of skills. Eventually, I became a better mushroom hunter.
Today, I interact with wild landscapes a bit differently than I did back then. I now look for connections. I look for relationships. I look at the bigger picture.
All this to say, if you want to find morels this year, I strongly encourage you to learn the connections that bind morels to their ecosystems. In a brand new video, I discuss how to approach morel mushroom hunting through a more holistic lens.
Speaking of learning, consider enrolling in Foraging Wild Mushrooms to improve your foraging skills.
I created this 4-season online course to help you become a successful mushroom hunter. Included in this course are instructional videos on mushroom ecology, mushroom biology, common edible mushrooms, medicinal mushrooms, poisonous mushrooms, cooking techniques, and medicine-making.
Foraging Wild Mushrooms is currently open for enrollment. You can sign up here.
Thanks for reading and watching, and thanks for your continued support!
— Adam Haritan
Egg-cellent Dyes
If This Isn’t Good Medicine, I Don’t Know What Is
To find good medicine, look in a forest. In a forest, you’ll encounter plants that have the ability to heal human ailments.
Many years ago, I learned about the medicinal properties of a particular woody plant. This woody plant, when applied to my face as an extract, improved my poor complexion.
Over the years, I’ve been able to maintain a decent complexion thanks to this plant (and thanks to significant lifestyle changes). While I no longer rely on this plant to heal my physical ailment, I do rely on it to address an existential problem.
Plaguing the human species, this problem can be solved if we know where to look.
To learn more about this plant and its ability to offer good medicine, check out the brand-new video.
I’d also like to mention that I’ll be part of the Wild Ones Western PA Chapter’s annual symposium on March 26, where I’ll be joining a panel discussion focused on strengthening communities and native habitats.
You can learn more about the event here.
Thanks for reading and watching, and thanks for your continued support!
— Adam Haritan
California’s Dangerous Path: Oil Refinery Takeover & The Coming Supply Crisis
A Massive Maple Lives In These Woods
Rough, weathered, worn, and warped.
Humans try to avoid these four conditions. Old trees embrace them.
This is why I advocate taking long walks in the woods. In wooded ecosystems, we sometimes discover the ragged splendor of old trees.
On a recent walk in a hardwood forest, I rediscovered a tree I had first encountered many months ago. Rough, weathered, worn, and warped, it’s one of the most remarkable trees I have ever seen.
To learn more about this aged beauty, check out the brand-new video.
Thanks for reading and watching! Have you seen any remarkable trees lately?
— Adam Haritan
Preseason Morel Mushroom Hunting Tips
If you want to find morel mushrooms this year, here’s a tip: don’t wait until spring to begin your hunt.
This might sound like unconventional advice. After all, current temperatures are too cold for morels. Wood frogs haven’t even bred yet. Spring is still another 50 days away.
All these things are true. But this next statement is also true: you can drastically improve your future chances of finding morels by doing a few things right now.
In a brand-new video, I discuss several tactics we can implement immediately. I also share my predictions for the upcoming season. Will the mushrooms be plentiful this year? Will they be scarce?
You can watch the new video here.
Thanks for reading and watching!
— Adam Haritan
Juniper: A Common Evergreen
Are Monarch Butterflies Really In Trouble?
“Happiness is a butterfly.”
At least that’s what some people say. If it’s true, then sadness would have to be a butterfly-less world.
Fortunately, you and I will probably never experience such a world. The planet currently hosts over 17,000 butterfly species. The United States alone has over 700 butterfly species. Most of these species are doing okay, but some are at risk of extinction. The Karner blue and San Bruno elfin, among others, are endangered in the United States.
And then there’s the monarch butterfly — an iconic species known for its epic migration. Monarch populations, according to several credible sources, are declining. To halt the decline, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has recently proposed to list the monarch as threatened under the Endangered Species Act.
Interestingly, this proposal is receiving criticism. Some people think that monarchs don’t need our help. Some researchers even claim there isn’t strong evidence of widespread declines.
Who are we to believe? Are monarch butterflies really in trouble? If so, why are populations declining? Is more intervention a good thing? Should we really be raising monarchs at home? And how does organized crime tie into all this?
In a brand-new video, I address these important questions. You can watch the video here.
Thanks for reading and watching!
— Adam Haritan
An Easy Way to Identify Certain trees in Winter
Want to improve your winter tree identification skills? Here’s a good tip: Look for marcescent leaves.
Marcescence describes leaves that have turned brown and are still attached to trees. These withered leaves often persist on the trees until spring.
As you might expect, marcescence isn’t a feature displayed by too many woody plants. When you see a marcescent tree or shrub, you can narrow down your ID choices to a relatively small number of species.
In the temperate woodlands of eastern North America, marcescence is often displayed by hornbeam (Carpinus), beech (Fagus), witch-hazel (Hamamelis), hophornbeam (Ostrya), and oak (Quercus).
No one is exactly sure why marcescence exists. Here are a few hypotheses:
- It allows plants to photosynthesize longer into the autumn season.
- It deters herbivores from browsing twigs and buds.
- Marcescent trees provide shelter to animals that in turn provide nutrients to trees.
- Marcescent leaves, when they finally fall off, provide pulses of nutrients to their host trees.
- Marcescent leaves, when they finally fall off, smother new growth of competing woody plants in the spring.
All of these statements can be true to some degree, but it is uncertain whether any one of them is the true reason for marcescence.
Still, you and I can use marcescence to our advantage when attempting to identify woody plants. A good first step is to learn which woody plants are marcescent in our region. We can then seek out these plants, spend some time with them, and fall in love with the process.
To learn even more tips for identifying trees, consider enrolling in Trees In All Seasons. Today is the final day of the winter sale.
You can learn more and register here.
Also, if you’re interested in learning how to forage mushrooms this winter, consider enrolling in Foraging Wild Mushrooms. This 4-season online course is on sale until the end of today, December 23.
Thanks for supporting nature education!
— Adam Haritan
Paths I Walk 
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