Elizabeth S. Barron

Using Local Ecological Knowledge to Assess Morel Decline in the U.S. Mid–Atlantic Region

Using Local Ecological Knowledge to Assess Morel Decline in the U.S. Mid–Atlantic Region. Morels (Morchella spp.) are prized wild edible mushrooms. In the United States, morels are the focus of family traditions, local festivals, mycological society forays, and social media, as well as substantial commercial trade. A majority of the anglophone research on morels has been conducted in Europe and in the U.S. Pacific Northwest and Midwest. This literature provides insights into a diverse and plastic genus, but much of its biology and ecology remains a mystery. In 2004, we initiated a study of morel mushroom harvesting in the U.S. Mid–Atlantic region in response to concerns that morels might be in decline in the national parks in that area. This paper presents results from that research with an emphasis on morel hunters’ local ecological knowledge of morel types, phenology, habitat, vegetative associations, and responses to disturbance. We conclude that experienced morel harvesters possess local ecological knowledge that complements scientific knowledge and can increase our understanding of the complex and regionally variable ecology of Morchella and inform conservation efforts.

Names matter Interdisciplinary research on taxonomy and nomenclature for ecosystem management

Local ecological knowledge (LEK) is increasingly used to provide insights into ecosystem dynamics and to promote stakeholder inclusion. However, research on how to incorporate LEK into ecosystem management rarely discusses taxonomy and nomenclature despite the fact that processes of naming are deeply implicated in what types of knowledge are validated and used. Too often, local names are vetted against and then subsumed under ‘true’ scientific names, producing an oversimplified understanding of local names and perpetuating stereotypes about communities that use them. Ongoing revisions in mycological taxonomy and widespread interest in wild edible fungi make mushrooms an excellent case study for addressing nomenclature as an important part of multi-stakeholder research. We use morel mushrooms collected from the Mid-Atlantic United States to demonstrate a methodological approach to nomenclature – performative method – that focuses both on maintaining culturally meaningful aspects of local names and on recognizing culture and meaning behind scientific names. While recognizing the utility of the Linnaean nomenclatural system, we argue that acknowledging the contextual meanings of names avoids the unequal power relations inherent in integrating local knowledge into scientific discourse, and instead reframes knowledge production around shared interests in environmental questions and challenges.

Implications of Variation in Social-Ecological Systems for the Development of U.S. Fungal Management Policy

Public lands fungal management in the United States developed in direct response to commercial harvesting in the Pacific Northwest (PNW) in the 1980s. In the early 2000s, concerns over declining morel mushroom abundance in national parks in the greater Washington, DC, region (NCR) led to the creation of harvest limits and stimulated research on the social-ecological system of morels in that region. In this article we compare findings from research on morel harvesting conducted at two national parks in the NCR from 2004 to 2007, with fungal management from two federal units in the PNW. We find substantial differences in existing regulatory policies, historical and cultural harvesting practices, and taxonomic and ecological variation in Morchella, indicating the need for regionally specific management. To address these differences, we recommend a participatory approach incorporating the local social-ecological specificities of mushroom harvesting and ecology that are missed at coarser spatial and temporal scales.

Who Values What Nature? Constructing Conservation Value with Fungi

Humans depend on fungi to provide food and medicine and to maintain the environments we inhabit. Yet their conservation has not captured the attention of conservationists, perhaps because existing normative economic, ecological, and social ways of creating value for plants and animals are a challenge to adapt for fungi. Using a CPG perspective, this chapter argues that the value of fungi becomes clearer using alternative forms of accounting focused on interconnectivity. The concept of econo-ecologies refocuses value on the importance of work and exchange. For fungi, econo-ecological conservation is generated through sustainable livelihood practices and ethical biogeographies. Fungi can thus serve as a paradigmatic case, demonstrating how the interconnectedness of values can help to reclaim conservation as a site of ethical decision-making.

Adjusting the Depth of Field on Stream Restoration: Observing the Rise of Neoliberal Para-science

Political ecologists examine the flows of economic capital in relation to natural resources, and since the 1990s look increasingly at power, knowledges, and representations of nature. Documenting the presence of neoliberalism in environmental management is a central tenet, ranging from new ways nature is being commodified (McAfee, 1999; Heynen and Robbins, 2005; McCarthy, 2005) to the privatization of regulation and science itself (Robertson, 2004; Heynen et al., 2007). The extension of political ecology research into the Global North and geography’s tradition of interdisciplinary engagement facilitate this broad research agenda. The premise of Fields and Streams: Stream Restoration, Neoliberalism, and the Future of Environmental Science, by Rebecca Lave, is that stream restoration scientists, many of whom regularly participated in federally funded research and advised local, state, and federal land management agencies, were displaced between the 1990s and 2000s by a man named Dave Rosgen, and his approach to stream restoration called Natural Channel Design (NCD). This displacement apparently caused such uproar within the stream restoration community that it is called “The Rosgen Wars”, a widely known and highly controversial debate based on Lave’s account and a quick poll of the physical geographers in my Science as Culture, 2014 Vol. 23, No. 3, 369–374, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09505431.2014.913559