Richard Gleeson
Northern News Services

Tsiigehtchic ( Jun 09/00) - The number of people seeking a bountiful morel harvest might mushroom this summer on Gwich'in land.

A Yellowknife mushroom expert said the expected rush for the valuable fungi is due to a forest fire that ravaged an area near Tsiigehtchic last summer.

The mushrooms can fetch up to $60 a pound for pickers who search along the most recent burns each spring.

Joachim Obst expects that gourmet mushroom buyers will take a close look at the commercial potential of a morel mushroom harvest as they search for new picking fields.

"In the Yukon, in some areas, it's already getting too crowded for pickers. There's already competition there in smaller burns," said Obst.

"What they naturally will do is check out the burn sites and gradually move north from the junction at Dawson City ... I would think probably in two weeks from now, those people will start showing up in Arctic Red."

The Yellowknife resident co-authored a report on a pilot project he and another Yellowknife resident ran last summer in a burn near the NWT capital. Obst runs an environmental consulting company and has been picking mushrooms since he was a child.

Morels are most plentiful in forest fire burn areas the summer after a burn. They are sold largely to European markets.

Gwich'in Tribal Council president Richard Nerysoo said there will be no harvesting of any mushrooms from the burn without permission from the Gwich'in.

"We have certain harvesting rights in that area ... it's not a free-for-all or anything of that nature," said Nerysoo.

"We'd be the first to file a complaint with the appropriate government agencies and pursue whatever actions are necessary to stop these individuals soon after or prior to them seeking to get onto these lands."

Obst said few of the southern buyers and pickers will be aware that the 172,000- hectare burn near Tsiigehtchic is in Gwich'in territory, something that could lead to trouble, as pickers need permission to harvest on Gwich'in land.

Ron Morrison, superintendent of the Inuvik region for the Department of Resources, Wildlife and Economic Development, said ignorance about the land claim will be no excuse.

"They will definitely have to work with the tribal council or through the tribal council, whether they're Americans or anyone else," said Morrison. "They won't be going in there on their own."

Bad reputation

Transient mushroom pickers have earned a bad reputation in British Columbia and the northwestern United States.

Pickers and mushroom buyers, who spend the summer travelling from one harvest site to another on routes carefully researched during the winter, have been associated with crimes ranging from trespassing to murder.

Obst said instances of violent crime are usually isolated to disputes between pickers and buyers.

The main cause of the trouble is the tremendous money associated with mushrooms. Last year, morels sold for up to $550 a kilogram. Most of the business is done in cash, with buyers paying pickers for their harvest on site.

The community of Tsiigehtchic is policed from the five-member Fort McPherson detachment.

"Definitely we will be on the look-out for pickers from wherever they come," said acting sergeant Geoffrey Garceau. "We'll take appropriate actions if needed."

But Morrison said pickers expecting to cash in on a harvest in the area will be disappointed. He said the fire came to within 100 metres of the Dempster Highway, but the area close to the highway is boggy and not good for mushroom growth.

"The areas that are good for mushrooms are not at all accessible from the highway, not unless you want to go for a nice, long bug-infested walk," said Morrison.

"The fact of the matter is that fire really didn't get, except for a couple of tiny areas, hot enough to produce the environment you need to propagate mushrooms."

Obst did not agree with the assessment, but said regardxless, mushroom buyers who come to the Yukon each summer will be checking out the burn.

If history is any indicator, and the mushrooms are there, the pickers won't be far behind.