Climate change-related droughts are on the horizon, will this affect the foraging calendar?

From extreme drought to freak rains, climate change is an added concern for foragers

Multiple new studies have suggested that climate change in the Northern Hemisphere is affecting foragers’ chances of finding food in the wild.

Researchers at the University of Bristol’s Faculty of Engineering released a study last week showing a link between declining snowfall and changing seasonal patterns of streamflow (the volume of snow moving from mountains to rivers below) throughout the Northern Hemisphere. This will likely boost the chances of water shortages in the summer. 

Analysing climate and river flow data for more than 3000 river basins across the Northern Hemisphere from 1950-2020, the team found areas that are usually snowy in the Rocky Mountains of North America, the European Alps and northern Europe, are thawing prematurely as the earth warms.

Lead author of the study, Dr Ross Woods, explained the impact this would have on food resources: “Streamflow seasonality affects the temporal distribution of water resources and has wide-ranging implications for ecosystem functioning, food security, and natural hazard management.”

On the ground, urban foragers like Christian Amys in Brighton, say they have noticed a change in climate affected timings and availability of foragable foods too.

“We’ve been really affected by climate change, so everything grows at random times at the minute,” he says.

He said that the UK had a particularly wet summer last year which had caused mushrooms to appear earlier than normal: “mushroom season was all over the shop last year, we had mushrooms in the summer because it was raining in August. Truffles are on the flip side, getting better [because of the change]. In England, we are actually becoming one of the best places to grow them, because we are warming up. We have had crazy amounts of mushrooms because of the rain.”  

While this abundance in mushrooms was a reason for foragers to celebrate, it shows how the number and types of foragable foods can be affected by dramatic changes in weather.

Researchers at Czech University of Life Sciences in Prague, confirm these links and have found evidence that climate factors could affect mushroom foraging in central Europe. 

The results from the study show that when the precipitation change was increased by one unit, the change in the number of foraged mushrooms went up by twenty-seven tons, while the factor of temperature was found to be statistically insignificant. This suggests that with a decline in precipitation, possibly due to climate change, there will be a decline in the number of wild mushrooms able to be foraged in previously abundant areas.

New research shows neurodivergent foragers may get more bounty

Study reveals  impulsivity characteristics of ADHD may have been an evolutionary advantage

Cut your losses; explore, don’t exploit; fail fast; move on. No, this isn’t a self-help book – it’s how ancient gatherers survived. And thinking in this way may have helped them thrive. 

Research published earlier this year indicates that attributes associated with ADHD, such as difficulty concentrating, impulsivity and restlessness, may confer foraging advantages. 

With ADHD diagnosis rising in the UK (last year, it was the second most viewed health condition on the NHS website, with 4.3 million page views) and, at least anecdotally, astronomical rises in foraging searches as well, what does this mean for neurodivergent foragers? 

The study, released in February, recruited 506 people to play an online foraging game for eight minutes. Players hovered their cursor over bushes to collect berries and were given free rein to move from bush to bush in search of their bounty – albeit switching meant they incurred a slight time penalty. 

Those with ADHD symptoms (determined through a survey at the start of the study) typically flitted between bushes more frequently, resulting in them collecting more berries on average – 602 berries compared with an average of 521 by those without symptoms. 

“Foraging is this fundamental competence to search for resources in the environment,” says David L. Barack, visiting scholar at the department of philosophy at the University of Pennsylvania and author of the study.

In other words, those symptoms that are often deemed problematic in the modern world may have helped gatherers move from a depleted patch of resources to a more robust, replenished patch. Instead of dwelling on and fully exploiting one area – they explored. 

Sam Webster is the founder of Foraging ForAges. As a professional forager with ADHD, she agrees that the condition could be beneficial. The beauty of foraging with a brain hardwired to enjoy exploratory aspects, she says, is, “there’s always something new to learn. It never gets boring. It pushes your boundaries but in a good way.” Foraging also feeds into a primal urge and visceral need, she explains. 

“I think it’s something innate in us that needs the outdoors. We are wired to be the hunter gatherers. We are wired to notice. The crap of modern life, like screens and video games, [gives us] a fake kick, [but] when you’re out there and you find a mushroom, for instance – that’s the biggest dopamine hit.” 

Neurodivergent foragers – or “neurospicy”, as Sam prefers to call them (the rest, she smiles, are muggles) – also notice important details while foraging. While others may see trees and grass meld into amorphous green, for Sam, the differences are impossible to ignore: “When I look across a hedgerow, my brain is noticing all the different shades of green and the different shapes. The more I learn, the more layers of green blindness I lose.” 

Seasonal novelty and the constantly evolving landscape also prevent her from getting bored. “Right now, I’m done with wild garlic. Been there. Done that,” she laughs, “It’s so characteristically ADHD. But come next spring, I’ll be like, ‘Yay! Garlic! I missed you!’”

Another “neurospicy” attribute – “chasing the side quest” – becomes a blessing in the foraging world, allowing her to notice what others might miss. “I can spot a mushroom from a mile off,” she explains. “But I could not tell you where my keys or phone were. It makes sense why foraging is so good for me.” 

“Foraging is my happy place,” she adds, “All the busy stuff – the [noise] in my head – quiets down. In that moment, I’m just enjoying the wind, the noises of the birds and the bugs and whatever else is going on. I feel calm, relaxed and just so happy.”

Still, while Sam and many other neurodivergent foragers have reported positive experiences, Barack cautions the study’s findings aren’t a one-size-fits-all panacea. 

“Our foraging machinery – our brains – evolved in a world vastly different from the current one, which has so many more sources of distraction and information,” he says. “While being distracted or impulsive might have been adaptive in the ancient foraging environment, our modern infoscape poses new challenges that can overwhelm what would otherwise be an adaptive tendency to search for new and better options.”

Ultimately, the joy of foraging lies in the fact that there is something for everyone, including – but not limited to – the neurodivergent. The Association of Foragers, she says, is brimming with all types – foragers with ADHD, autism and just “plain muggles”. As Sam says: “We’re all special here.”

Foragers warned over E. coli risk this Summer

This advice should be heeded by anyone foraging near bodies of water

A town council issued a warning last month against consuming wild garlic from a popular foraging spot due to a “serious risk” of E. coli contamination after flooding.

Marlborough Town Council issued an urgent warning last month for land surrounding a tributary of the River Kennet in Wiltshire. An area called Coopers Meadow in particular is known to have been contaminated with human waste after excessive rainfall caused sewers to overflow on January 5.

The area is popular amongst locals for foraging plants, specifically wild garlic which grows in large quantities.

The warning came four months after the flooding event as the risk can persist for months after contamination.

The Food Standards Agency extends the warning to any produce from a flooded area. It advises “not to eat any food that has been touched or covered by flood water or sewage.  Do not eat any produce grown on an allotment or garden that has been flooded.” 

The Royal Horticulture Society suggest that “it is prudent to avoid growing salads and other uncooked crops for two years” in any flooded area in case “disease spores remain in the soil.” It adds that “the following year after flooding, it should be safe to grow crops that are to be cooked.” 

This advice can be transferred for foraged food. The year after flooding, only collect plants that you intend to cook.

In recent days, there has been a significant outbreak of E. coli in the UK, with 113 cases detected between May 25 and June 4. This outbreak is not thought to have been caused by foraged material but a “nationally distributed food item”, according UKHSA. 

However, the World Health Organisation (WHO) does list “faecal contamination of vegetables” as one of the primary sources of E. coli, along with “undercooked ground meat products” and “raw milk”. There was an outbreak of 259 cases in 2022 in the UK thought to be caused by contaminated salad. 

Ingesting E. coli can result in a STEC infection, symptoms of which include stomach cramps, diarrhoea (sometimes bloody), vomiting and a fever. Symptoms may last up to 2 weeks.

The health risk warning issue by Marlborough Town Council was accompanied by a plea for foragers to “be considerate”. The council said that foraging for wild garlic had left a “large, unsightly, bar patch where the plants may not recover”. Some councils have issued bans to combat the effects of over foraging, such as in this Nottingham park.

A Nottingham park banned foraging last year. What does it mean for this year’s haul?

People were taking trolleys full of bags of mushrooms and chestnuts from Wollaton Hall and Deer Park, which caused a complete shut down for local foragers

People are being urged to forage sustainably this summer after widespread bans at popular hotspots last autumn.

Each year, the warmer months offer a great new bounty to those who enjoy finding their feasts in nature, but they are increasingly having to tread carefully.

Last October, Wollaton Hall and Deer Park in Nottingham made headlines as the park’s bosses implemented a foraging ban. 

This action was in response to the threat of over-foraging depleting the flora and fauna of the park.

People were seen arriving at the park with trolleys full of bags to pick mushrooms and chestnuts. Not only that, they were breaking the law by using the foraged goods not just for personal use, but to sell for financial gain. 

As people were foraging for commercial reasons, which is against the law in the UK, the park took swift action.

This has sparked a conversation about how to forage sustainably this season, as trees become abundant with berries. 

The Woodland Trust has provided some sustainable foraging guidelines to follow. They suggest you try to minimise damage, take only small amounts and leave plenty behind. 

They also stress you should first check the permissions of a site, as some areas are covered by conservation regulations. The advice states: “On some of our sites we prefer you not to forage, even for small amounts of fungi or other species. This is on sites that are important for conservation, are habitats for rare or vulnerable species or where there are problems with over-picking. These sites can be identified through signage on site, but please always check before setting off.”

It is actually illegal to dig up or move wild plants under the Wildlife and Countryside Act (1981) without the landowner’s or occupier’s permission, although this is very rarely enforced in public parks and woodland.

Nottingham-based forager, Lucy Buckle, told BBC Radio Nottingham that while people should not be foraging for business use, she felt a complete ban last year was “quite extreme”. 

“For me finding the balance with foraging means looking at the area you’re in and seeing what you can forage sustainably,” she told BBC Radio Nottingham.

“Sometimes that means leaving absolutely everything behind, but sometimes that means you can fill your basket with stuff for yourself.

“I think putting an outright ban on somewhere like Wollaton Hall, what that results in is all the responsible, sensible foragers will go elsewhere and everybody who was willing to break the law previously by foraging commercially will continue to do so.”