Fungi, if you haven’t noticed, are the “it” kingdom of life these days. You can’t go far in the Portland area without running into toadstool-patterned socks or a delicious mycological menu item, from the king oyster mushrooms in the Dtom Som shrimp at Hat Yai to basically everything at West Linn’s new fungi-obsessed Chantrel.

But moist, forested Oregon—and the Cascadia ecoregion more broadly—has always been a “fungal paradise,” according to mycologist Noah Siegel, coauthor of a new guidebook, Mushrooms of Cascadia, that covers over 750 species. “They come in pretty much every single color possible and range from minuscule tiny little mushrooms that are a millimeter across to the Noble Polypores, which can be five feet across,” Siegel says. “All of that is right under your nose, in the forest around you.” It’s truly a wonderland out there.

First things first: The mushroom is actually just the reproductive part of a larger fungus. For most species, the bulk of the organism is a network of microscopic strands of cells called hyphae that are interwoven in the soil or plant tissue. That’s why harvesting mushrooms is sustainable: It doesn’t kill the organism. It is akin to picking an apple off a tree.

A long-running study on chanterelles in Mt. Hood National Forest confirms that harvest doesn’t reduce the number of mushrooms that appear in the following years. Experts at land management agencies set harvest limits to ensure everyone who wants mushrooms can get some; if you stick to the rules, you can feel good about your harvest. “There’s a lot of rebalancing built into the system,” says US Forest Service spokesperson Catherine Caruso. “If we say you can pick there, you can pick there.”

Mushroom hunting, whether to collect dinner or as a pure natural history activity like birding, is a fantastic and inexpensive way to get outside, get off the beaten path (literally), and burrow deeper into your own existence as an ecological being. But it can be intimidating for beginners. Follow the steps below, and before you know it you’ll be frolicking among the fungi with the best of them.

1. Do your armchair research. 

Before you hit the woods, and definitely before you put anything in your mouth, study up. Classic mushroom guides include All the Rain Promises and More, by David Arora, which also boasts the best cover of any field guide ever, and Mushrooms of the Pacific Northwest by Steve Trudell. Siegel’s new encyclopedic guidebook Mushrooms of Cascadia, cowritten with Christian Schwarz, is so exhaustive that it could be “overwhelming for beginners,” he says, but it does include information specifically for those new to the hobby. Wild Mushrooms: A Cookbook and Foraging Guide by Reedsport-based Kristen and Trent Blizzard has recipes as well.

There are also resources online. Many fungi fans use the iNaturalist app, which collects observations by a large user base. Quality control systems help keep the information quite reliable. Foragers also swap tips and identifications online in dedicated forums. The PNW Mushroom Foraging and Identification Facebook group has more than 66,000 members, and the great David Arora himself has been known to make comments—weighing in, for example, on whether butter boletes are as tasty as the more famous king boletes. (His verdict? “You butter bolete it!”)

Dip a toe in by picking a few easy species to learn about and look for. Good edible starter species include morels and chanterelles. Trent Blizzard—cofounder of Modern Forager, which sells gear and maps—says chanterelles are “the best beginner mushroom.” “They are not just common, but abundant,” he says. “They are easy to see, since they are bright yellow or orange or pale yellow.” Some mushrooms can upset some people’s stomachs, but chanterelles, Blizzard says, “agree with everyone.” If you want to get fancy, add boletes, oyster mushrooms, hedgehog mushrooms, lobster mushrooms, and matsutakes—the cinnamon-scented royalty of the pine woods.

2. Get ecological.

To find specific mushrooms, you must learn what they like and where they live. Many popular species are mycorrhizal fungi, which associate with tree roots and provide water and nutrients to the trees in exchange for energy. For example, Pacific golden chanterelles (Oregon's official state mushroom) associate with conifers and tend to hang out in younger and middle-aged Doug-fir and western hemlock forests. King boletes, on the other hand, associate with Sitka spruce, among others. “It is really important to learn your trees,” says Denise Berkshire, director of the Tillamook Forest Center. “The mushrooms are scattered throughout the entire forest. That’s why it is so important to understand habitat.”

Many edible mushrooms are highly seasonal. Morels, for example, burst forth from the duff in the ponderosa pine forests of the eastern Cascades just after the snow melts in the spring. If you start at lower elevations and hunt at higher and higher elevations as the weeks pass, you can surf the morel wave for a long time. Chanterelles, by contrast, pop up in the fall on the wetter west side.

3. Find mentors. 

The best way to get the hang of looking for mushrooms is to make like a mycorrhiza and join up with our vast local network of fungi enthusiasts. This might be a friend or family member, but there are also many organized ways to meet fungi experts willing to share their knowledge. Joining a local mycology club is a sure way to learn about workshops, forays, and field trips. In the Portland area, the Oregon Mycological Society has been up and running for 75 years, and membership is just $30, or $25 for students and seniors, renewable annually at even lower rates. The Tillamook Forest Center and Oregon State Parks frequently host free fungi-themed events, especially in the fall.

4. Select a spot.

Portlanders have access to millions of acres of public lands within easy driving distance, but quite a few different entities manage these lands. Mushroom foraging is generally allowed in Oregon’s 255 state parks, in Oregon’s 745,000 acres of state forests, in the 11 national forests in Oregon managed by the US Forest Service, and in the Bureau of Land Management’s vast holdings. You cannot pick mushrooms in Oregon’s national parks and monuments or in the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area. In areas designated as wilderness—which could be parks or forests—you typically are allowed to harvest a few mushrooms for immediate consumption, but you can’t take them out of the wilderness.

Mushrooms are all around us, so pick a forest or park near you—or one further afield that you want to try out. Then, get specific. Rules for where, what, and how many mushrooms you can pick can vary from site to site even within the same agency. In some places, daily limits are per person, while in others, they may be per vehicle. Some locations require free permits to be filled out, others do not. Find out what the rules are and follow them. Regulations are more than a bureaucratic annoyance; they are the means by which society ensures that a noncommercial, public resource can be enjoyed by all. They are how we share with each other and with other species.

Some units offer detailed, printed maps, sometimes showing where you can and cannot collect mushrooms. Some mushrooms, like morels, flourish after fire, so units may offer maps of recently burned areas. (Blizzard also sells maps of burn morel hotspots based on burn intensity, tree species, accessibility, and other factors.) Where printed maps are unavailable, units may offer digital maps that can be printed at home or downloaded for free onto apps like Avenza.

Rider Frey, a ranger with Oregon State Parks, works on the coast but makes a pilgrimage east of the Cascades each spring to forage. He likes to use a paper map: “whatever local map you can get that breaks things out into sections,” he advises. On land surveying maps, sections are one square mile. Frey makes little notes in pencil next to each section he explores, including the date and what he found.

5. Pick up the phone. 

Mushroom foragers are infamous for their secrecy when it comes to the best spots. But a whole group of people will freely give you the scoop: public lands staff. The ultimate mushroom foraging hack is to simply call up the ranger station or visitor’s center for a specific forest or park and get the latest intel straight from the people on the ground. Ask at what elevation and where mushrooms have been spotted recently and prepare for a bounty of useful information. For example, if you visit the website of Mt. Hood National Forest, you can get basic info about rules and area closures, but if you call or stop by the ranger station, they might also mention that Old Maid Flats is a bit over-picked these days and recommend alternative spots.

There is no master list of where the mushrooms are. Even within one agency, information is scattered. The forest service does not have “a command center somewhere where we can see the whole forest,” Caruso says. “That doesn’t exist.” Calling agency staff, trial and error, sharing info with friends, and gossip—that’s how you find good spots. It's part of the fun.

6. Be a safety nut. 

Before you head out, make sure someone knows where you’re going and when you plan to be back. Wear bright colors, especially during fall hunting seasons. Keep track of your location and know how to return to your vehicle. Don’t rely on cell service to navigate. Unlike hiking, mushroom foraging can take you on a circuitous route though forests without any signs or trail markers. With your eyes on the ground, it is all too easy to get lost.

In terms of eating, the standard advice is to never consume anything you can’t identify with total confidence. Plenty of delicious mushrooms are very difficult to mistake for anything dangerous, Siegel says. “You can safely gather 10 or 15 different species in the Northwest in abundance and never branch out from that, and always have enough during season to pick,” he says. True beginners are typically cautious enough to avoid getting into trouble, he adds. It’s usually the people who have been foraging for a while and become overconfident who make mistakes. “You think you know everything, and you act like it when you really don’t,” he says. The key is to stay humble.

7. Pack light and go forth. 

You can buy all sorts of foraging gear, but you really don’t need much: the 10 essentials, a thermos of coffee, a peanut butter sandwich, a knife, and a bag or basket. Many foragers choose net or mesh bags so spores can escape, spreading mushrooms to new locations that can be harvested in years to come—but it’s unclear whether that makes a real difference. Most foragers agree that plastic bags lead to slimy mushrooms, though, so mesh is probably a solid choice anyway.

If you want to treat yourself or a loved one, Opinel makes a stainless-steel mushroom knife with a brush on the handle end, which you can use to remove dirt and duff from mushrooms before popping them into your container. It makes it a lot easier to process your mushrooms at home if they are already clean. A toothbrush works well for this, too.

Ideally, your pack should be light but your mind heavy with knowledge: the habitat preferences and key identification characteristics of your target species, timely intel from park or forest staff, site-specific rules and limits, and that all-important humility.

You can access picking areas by parking at trailheads or in some cases by pulling safely off to the side of forest roads. Then you simply walk into the woods and take a look around. If you’re accustomed to hiking in national parks, it may feel weird or even wrong to wander off trail in a state or national forest and pick things. But these forests are specifically managed for use. So get in there and use them!

You may not find your target mushrooms every time you go out, but you’ll never be truly skunked. I have never not found something fascinating to observe in the woods: beautiful and strange species of fungi I’ve never seen before, tiny forest-floor orchids, spiders lying in wait in trillium blossoms for insect prey, bear poop, elk skulls, the boom of a grouse, or the popsicle-colored flash of a Western tanager against the sky. You may find that the creamy chanterelle and earthy morel are more than just delicious gifts provided by the earth. They are the keys to some of the loveliest and most magical days you can spend in our public forests.