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.

You can watch the video here.

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

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

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

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

Questions To Ask A Tree

“The wonder is that we can see these trees and not wonder more.”

It’s no surprise that Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote these words. The famous American writer was intimately connected to trees: He planted trees, gathered their fruits, and taught his children the value of learning their names.

Emerson spoke the language of trees, yet was still humble enough to acknowledge that every encounter with trees presented a fresh opportunity to engage in wonder.

Who are you? How old are you? Why are you here? Can you say anything about the underlying rocks? What can you tell us about the broader ecosystem?

In the spirit of Ralph Waldo Emerson, you and I can ask these kinds of questions every time we encounter a tree. When we ask questions, we engage in wonder.

A basic step we can then take to answer those questions is first to learn the names of trees. Fortunately, there are many ways to learn. We can:

Study tree ID field guides
Learn how to use dichotomous keys
Learn all major physical features of trees (buds, bark, leaves, flowers, etc.)
Learn habitat characteristics of trees
Attend tree ID walks
Visit arboretums (where trees are often labeled)
Cultivate friendships with local tree enthusiasts
Teach others what we have learned

If you’re looking for a carefully curated opportunity to improve your tree identification skills, consider enrolling in Trees In All Seasons. This online course teaches you how to identify 100 trees in every season. It’s currently on sale through Monday, December 23.

You can register and learn more about the course here.

Regardless of how you decide to learn, I strongly encourage you to hone your tree identification skills over time. With learning comes wonder, appreciation, love, and the unraveling of at least some of nature’s mysteries.

—Adam Haritan

Two Useful Nature Skills to Learn this Winter

Greetings,

In anticipation of the winter season, I am excited to announce that two Learn Your Land online courses are on sale this week.

To improve your foraging skills, consider enrolling in Foraging Wild Mushrooms. This 4-season online course is designed to help you safely and successfully harvest wild mushrooms from the forest, from the field, and even from your backyard.

To improve your tree identification skills, consider enrolling in Trees In All Seasons. This online course teaches you how to identify 100 trees in every season. If you want to develop the confidence to look at a tree and say, “That’s black spruce, no doubt about it,” or “That’s most certainly sourwood,” or “That can’t be anything but mockernut hickory,” consider enrolling today.

These courses are self-paced and presented entirely online. Once enrolled, you can start, stop, and resume at any time.

Please note that both courses — Foraging Wild Mushrooms and Trees In All Seasons — are on sale for one week only, from today until Monday, December 23.

Thanks for supporting nature education!

—Adam Haritan

More Earthworms = Less Lyme Disease?

Cases of tick-borne diseases are on the rise, and people are wondering what to do.

Spray more repellent on clothes? Wrap more duct tape around socks? Ingest more Japanese knotweed? Cull more deer?

How about introducing more earthworms into tick-prone landscapes?

It sounds bizarre, but some ecologists are researching this latter strategy. According to a few studies, the prevalence of earthworms is associated with fewer ticks in certain ecosystems.

How is this possible? Why are earthworms associated with fewer ticks? Could the intentional release of earthworms into wild landscapes work as a viable tick-reduction strategy?

In a brand-new video, I address these fascinating questions.

You can watch the video here.

Thanks for reading and watching! Do you have any unique tick-reduction strategies?

— Adam Haritan

The tree that built America

“Why do you like trees so much?”

People routinely ask me this question.

It isn’t an easy question to answer, but I try my best to explain what it is about trees that makes me feel good.

I love the food trees offer. I enjoy the medicine trees provide. I like the shade trees cast. And I admire their beauty.

But there’s something else about trees I really appreciate: their ability to tell stories.

As it turns out, trees tell remarkable stories of peace, tragedy, death, and — believe it or not — democracy.

One notable tale that trees tell quite well is the story of America’s birth as a nation. While many people associate this story with icons like the Liberty Bell and the Declaration of Independence, the founding of the United States is also strongly connected — both physically and symbolically — to one particular tree.

Tall, majestic, and extremely useful, this tree has been famously labeled “the tree that built America.”

To learn more about this celebrated tree, check out the brand-new video.

Speaking of trees, I was recently interviewed on Harvesting Nature’s Wild Fish and Game Podcast. In the interview, we discussed how trees can help you become a better hunter and observer of wildlife.

You can listen to the interview here.

Thanks for reading and watching! Do you have any unique reasons for loving trees?

— Adam Haritan