Research & Culture3 min readBy Shroomshack · Published October 13, 2026

Who Looks After B.C.'s Wild Mushrooms? How First Nations Are Setting the Rules

British Columbia is one of the great wild mushroom regions of North America. Fire morels, matsutake (pine mushrooms) and chanterelles all grow here, and some are exported around the world. Behind the harvest is a question most pickers never think about: whose land is it, and who decides how it is picked?

Several First Nations in B.C. have started to answer that question themselves. This is a look at what they have done, based on government releases and news reporting.

The land behind the harvest

About 94% of B.C. is Crown land. According to the provincial government, picking wild mushrooms on provincial Crown land is allowed without a permit, for individuals and commercial pickers alike. Permission is required on leased public land, private land and First Nations reserve lands, and pickers are asked to respect the rights of First Nations.

The province also says it has no regulatory framework for the picking, selling or buying of wild mushrooms. Forest management in B.C. has focused mainly on timber, which leaves a gap for the mushrooms growing in the same forests.

First Nations step in

Some nations have chosen to fill that gap on their own territory:

**Secwépemc communities (Elephant Hill, 2018).** After the 2017 Elephant Hill wildfire, six Secwépemc communities, including Skeetchestn and Bonaparte, ran a pilot program for the morel season that followed. The B.C. government described the management plan as the first of its kind in the province. Pickers paid $20 for a permit, buyers paid $500, and a designated campsite cost $30. Community members with status cards were exempt.
**Tsilhqot'in National Government.** It set up a wild mushroom harvesting permit in 2018.
**Líl̓wat First Nation.** Líl̓wat Forestry Ventures has worked toward a permit system for commercial and recreational harvesters, with the aim of protecting the forest understory so mushrooms keep coming back.

What a permit gets you

The Secwépemc program is a good example of the thinking. Permit holders received a map showing campsites, no-picking zones, private land and logging road status, plus an emergency plan with radio frequencies. Pickers stayed in designated camps, which kept the impact on the burn area down, and the nation provided portable toilets and garbage pickup. Guardians patrolled the territory to help people and check permits. Environmentally sensitive areas and cultural heritage sites were off limits.

The province backed the plan and closed the burn area to motorized vehicles outside existing roads from May 17 to December 31, 2018.

Why fire morels matter

Fire morels grow only in the year after a wildfire, which makes them one of B.C.'s most important commercial species and also one of the hardest to manage. A flood of pickers arrives all at once, in a landscape that is already recovering. A study cited by Canada's National Observer put matsutake exports to Japan at about $20 million a year between 2000 and 2003, and chanterelle exports to Europe at about $3.5 million a year between 1995 and 2005. Researchers say gaps in data make it hard to know the true size of the industry today.

A legal question that is still open

Canada's National Observer reports that no court case has directly dealt with non-timber forest resources like mushrooms. A University of British Columbia lawyer quoted in the story describes a "clash of laws" between First Nations law and Crown law. How that is settled may shape who decides how the forest is harvested in the future.

What this means if you love mushrooms

Whatever kind of mushroom you care about, the forest they grow in has a history and a caretaker. If you ever forage in B.C.:

Check whether you are on Crown land, a reserve or First Nations traditional territory, and ask whether a nation has a permit system in place.
Stay out of reserve land without permission.
Respect closures, no-picking zones and cultural heritage sites.
Use designated camps where they are offered.
Never eat a wild mushroom you cannot identify with certainty.

Sources

What the research says

Trial of psilocybin versus escitalopram for depressionCarhart-Harris R, et al. (2021), New England Journal of Medicine.A 59-person, double-blind trial at Imperial College London compared two psilocybin sessions with six weeks of a common antidepressant.
Percentage of heavy drinking days following psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy vs placebo in the treatment of adult patients with alcohol use disorderBogenschutz MP, et al. (2022), JAMA Psychiatry.A 93-person double-blind trial found fewer heavy drinking days over 32 weeks after psilocybin than after an active placebo.
Pilot study of the 5-HT2AR agonist psilocybin in the treatment of tobacco addictionJohnson MW, Garcia-Romeu A, Cosimano MP, Griffiths RR (2014), Journal of Psychopharmacology.An open-label pilot in which 12 of 15 long-term smokers were abstinent six months later; small and uncontrolled, so a starting point rather than proof.
Efficacy and safety of psilocybin-assisted treatment for major depressive disorder: prospective 12-month follow-upGukasyan N, et al. (2022), Journal of Psychopharmacology.Following the same participants for a year, the authors found the improvement lasted in many of them, with no serious adverse events.

Research on psilocybin is still young, and most trials give a measured dose with professional support. Results don't mean any product is safe or effective for you.

This guide is general information, not medical or legal advice. If you have health questions, talk to a health professional.