THE MAB MUSHROOM STUDY : BACKGROUND AND CONCERNS

Pacific Northwest planners and economic developers have worked hard the past decade creating new jobs to offset steadily declining incomes from timber harvesting and processing industries. Among these new jobs are increasing harvests of nontimber or special forest products such as floral greenery, medicinal plants, and edible mushrooms. But some land managers, biologists, and conservation groups believe that increased harvest of nontimber forest products is not sustainable and threatens long-term resource productivity. The US Man and the Biosphere (MAB) Program funded a USD 51 000 competitive research project from 1993 to 1996 to determine the impacts of nontimber harvests on human and natural systems in the Pacific Northwest of North America. Integrated and interdisciplinary approaches were used to accomplish three :study objectives: i) determine spatial and temporal productivity of chanterelle (Cantharellus sp.) mushrooms on the Olympic Peninsula for two harvest seasons; ii) build socioeconomic profiles of commercial, recreational, and subsistence harvesters; and, iii) link biological and socioeconomic information in order to conserve, maintain, or enhance chanterelle resource stocks on public and private lands. Reasons for starting the research study are outlined and include the major resource concerns identified by regional scientists, land managers, and conservation groups in the 1990s. How to address these concerns provided the framework in which to conduct the biological, socioeconomic, and managerial modules of the MAB Mushroom Study. The five accompanying articles in this Ambio Special Report explain fieldwork, analyses, and synthesis activities completed in each module.