A porcini mushroom in an undergrowth (illustration).
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silviarita / Pixabay
In Duravel, in the Lot, mushroom picking is subject to the holding of a permit.
The Duravel Nature association has decided to implement regulations to avoid seeing the woods invaded by unscrupulous gatherers.
Since then, only two reports have been drawn up and the undergrowth has regained its tranquility.
After quite a bit of rain, the recent rays of sun have prompted mushroom lovers to put on their boots.
And go to scan the undergrowth in search of porcini mushrooms and other chanterelles.
The "mushroom corners" are famous, but there is a place in the Lot department where to take out your picking basket, you have to be authorized.
“Duravel wood has rich species that facilitate the growth of porcini mushrooms.
He is known and that's how we ended up with pickers who came to market from the surrounding departments, sometimes from Toulouse and Bordeaux.
There were cars one behind the other, wood owners were even threatened ”, recalls Henry Radet, president of Duravel Nature.
There is no question for the inhabitants and owners of the 800 hectares of woods to let the situation continue.
Eight years ago, the association which was dormant came out of its lethargy to take matters in hand.
With the approval of the prefecture and the public prosecutor, it established a regulation on the methods of collection and put in place a system of permits.
80 permits issued
“The forty or so owners of the woods own them as well as about forty inhabitants of the town, to perpetuate the tradition.
This respects the law which says that the product of the soil belongs to its owner, and this also applies to chestnuts ”, explains Henri Radet.
And to enforce this regulation, a day care system has been validated by the prefect and three people are empowered to draw up reports if they come across free riders who have not seen the multitude of signs surrounding the woods.
In eight years, two people have been fined.
Since then, the inhabitants no longer see cars bursting at the seams with pickers who, after raiding their woods, were leaving to sell chanterelles and other mushrooms in the markets.
"We no longer find our woods devastated by their passages and we have even seen the reappearance of varieties that had disappeared", insists Henri Radet who regularly organizes actions with schools to talk about this heritage.
Since this permit was put in place, it has been requested on numerous occasions by the town halls of Lozère or Aveyron, which, invaded in the fall, would also like to apply this type of regulation in place.
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