# Effects of logging on known woods?



## zeuss22

Has anyone experienced your known producing woods usually filled with elms, being logged and thinned out significantly. What effect did it have on the morel production? Many more elms are now "dead" but I think too much sun is getting in and may not produce very good at all? Looking for experienced shroomer experiences to comment on this.


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## judy j

Zeuss: Go through this area!! You'll find a ton of morels more than likely. I now try to find areas that have been logged over every year. Last year we went to one of our usual spots and logging had been done along a power line. We found about 5 pds of morels in less than 2 hrs. I drove past this same power line and there had been clearing along another mile so we'll head back there this year. Logged areas produce for one to a few years and then, like most morel areas, quit producing. Report back and let us know how you do. I'd bet it'll be great!


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## zeuss22

@Judy J - that's GREAT news! I'll be all over this area over the weekend and let you know. I figured logging might be good for shrooms but again the environment is very different than it was,,,,,


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## oldmanofthewoods

"This is what I know". Morels feed on root systems of certain trees (but not just any tree). Tree starts to die, root system starts to die and morel mushrooms feed off the root system (they are feeding down not up). Once this decay starts, that tree is good for about three years (but the tree has to be at least a half a year into root decay). After that,the morel is no longer interested in feeding on the decaying roots (too far gone). At about the five year dead tree period (for elm), pheasant back mushrooms start feeding. They feed from the inside out. This is why shaking a bag full of mushrooms for morel growth makes no sense.Try shaking a bag full of dryads saddle onto the side of that dead elm if you believe the spore shakers! The elm tree produces both morel and pheasant back mushrooms (just not at the same time because they both like the rate of decay at different stages). Now back to the post on timbered woods. Absolutely timbered woods are going to be good just like burnt down forests are hot spots for mushrooms. The root system is killed in both instances and guess what the mushrooms are saying? Mmmmmmmmm! Mushrooms are a lot like us. They need two things to survive. Food and water. Decaying root structure is their food source as is the case with most fungi....


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## imfubar

@oldman, most of that is what people just want to believe, fact is morels will grow where ever they feel like growing or how do you explain finding morels in a pile of dirt in a parking lot or next to your house where no tree has grown for 50 years or next to highways with no trees or in the middle of railroad tracks growing through rock or in a yard hundreds of yards away from any tree or bushes or the countless other places without trees. If a elm or any other kind of tree that people hunt for in this decay range was the key to morels then EVERY elm or other hunted tree in this decay range would produce not to mention morels could then be mass produced because when facts are known results are duplicated at will. They can and do get reproduced but without any guarantee of growth and without any specific trees involved. I find hundreds of morels in areas without trees and hundreds with trees, some years more in one wooded and some more without. There is one fact to really believe and that is morels can, do and will get found the most unbelievable spots with or without trees. Logged areas may or may not produce just like certain trees/decaying trees may or may not produce. They are a mystery and most likely always will be. The good thing is you have ideas and you follow them with results but claiming to have figured morels out is based on belief and not fact. There's just not many FACTS about how and where morels grow, they just do. In my opinion, if it's roots then it can be ANY kind of root, be it tree,bush,weed,grass, flower or any other kind of root cause that is how many different places they get found. Keep filling those bags!!


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