BY: ROB HOFFMAN
The Yukon has always captivated our imaginations, both with visions of the untamed wild and a market of untapped resources leading thousands each year into a treasure hunt on the prophetic heels of the late 1800s. However, it is no longer gold or minerals that are sought out in the Great North. Little shanty camps have materialized up and down across the Robert Campbell highway, housing thousands—from Europe and North America alike—across the charred and desolate rubble of post-wildfire Yukon.
Welcome to the mushroom rush.
A year after a wildfire takes place, a resilient species of gourmet mushroom called “morels” grows from the ashes of Yukon’s boreal forests. A 2013 wildfire in Carmacks has marked the location of this passing year’s mushroom hunt.
Due to low population, forest fires in the Yukon are often left to burn out as long as no one is in danger. This means a whole lot of good business for mushroom pickers. Each year the Yukon government releases a detailed map of the wildfire-charred forests, which morel-pickers use to carefully plan out their season. Buyers will also set up camp near the pickers to get first dibs on the incoming mushroom supply, using floatplanes to transport them in and out of remote areas.
SEE ALSO: Did You Know You Can Grow Mushrooms in Coffee Grounds?
Despite a season, which only spans about a month, pickers are paid $12 a pound for morels, twice the amount they usually pay out. A veteran picker can harvest up to 80 pounds of mushrooms a day ($960/day). The actual retail price for dried morels goes for over $100 a pound. On average, a mushroom picker will bring in between $400 – $500 per day. A month of sweat and toil in the Yukon could easily support five months work-free and feet up. With proper financial management an expert picker may be able to retire for the rest of the year.
However, not every picker walks out of the forest with an 80-pound sack a day—these numbers are reserved for the experts with over a decade in the game. Alternatively, some pickers (typically the inexperienced) can barely make $150 a day. But mushroom picking is as much about the lifestyle as it is the wages. A month of backcountry camping in one of North America’s most remote forests, picking mushrooms, playing cards and drinking beer—a return to a simpler lifestyle unaffected by the bullwhip of corporate life, stress, and domineering bosses – can’t be all that bad. Unlike tree planters, morel pickers operate in the shadows, eluding corporate attention. Big businesses haven’t yet developed a streamlined and mechanical process of harvesting morels; wild pickers still rule the terrain.
One problem, however, is the trespassing and ineffective garbage disposal on First Nations’ land. Ed Schultz, executive director of Yukon’s First Nations, claims everyone is making a mess. “They’re not very diligent about picking up after themselves and they’re leaving garbage all over the countryside,” he tells CBC. Chief Eric Fairclough of the Little Salmon/Carmacks First Nation is also pushing for more regulation, greater safety measures and proper facilities. Currently, trees are being harvested for firewood, trails are getting cut down and garbage is being irresponsibly disposed. As of tradition, it seems that the Native peoples are subject to the shit end of the stick, due to the monetary interests of foreign migrants.
According to Ed Schultz, the First Nations administration is now working collaboratively with Yukon conservation officers to clean up the situation.
Yukon prospecting—minerals and mushrooms alike—has always made for unpredictable work. Still, there is sacredness to these charred boreal forests, the promise of adventure in a long romanticized land where hard work immediately translates into wealth. When you live in a tent far from the allure of commercial society, the majority of your income goes straight to pocket. Yet, whether that number is $150 or $950 per day, the heart of mushroom picking—or Yukon prospecting in general—has never solely belonged to finance.
Sources
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Photos by Simon Hayter
