Fined, Lithuanian nurse who picked wild mushrooms
A LITHUANIAN nurse has been fined and left with a criminal record for picking wild mushrooms.
Sonata Sliuzaite, 38, was caught with three carrier bags of mushrooms at Epping Forest, north-east London.
Confronted by a forest keeper, Sliuzaite argued that the practice was legal in her home country, where it was normal for ‘children to go foraging with their parents’.
She also claimed to be unaware of bylaws prohibiting mushroom picking in the area – although her vehicle was left in a car park with signs clearly warning that it was illegal. Sliuzaite, a director of nursing services company Sona and Co, has been fined £80 plus £284 court costs after admitting contravening bylaws.
Organisations responsible for the upkeep of forests and common land have been forced to introduce bans and stop-andsearch policies as the popularity of wild mushrooms has soared.
Organised gangs have taken advantage of £50-per-kilogram (2.2lb) prices being offered by top restaurants, while the influx of Eastern Europeans and the championing of foraging by celebrity chefs has put further pressure on the limited resource.
Nature experts have warned that wild habitats are under threat because fungi often protect the roots of trees and animals are being deprived of food.
Epping Forest has 1,600 varieties of wild mushrooms and a single tree can be host to up to 4lb of the delicacy.
Sliuzaite, of Romford, east London, was challenged by Glen Mulleady on September 21 last year when he saw her putting a carrier bag in her rucksack at Genesis Slade, Theydon Bois. She told him the mushrooms were for cooking at home. The court heard that Mr Mulleady accepted they were for personal use.
Sliuzaite admitted her guilt by letter last week when the case was heard by magistrates in Chelmsford, Essex.
She wrote that she hadn’t known she was breaking the law and didn’t spot any signs prohibiting foraging, adding: ‘ We
‘Large-scale foraging’
were going to eat them ourselves. I now have a criminal record for an innocent mistake.’
Under common law, it is legal to pick fruit, foliage, fungi or flowers if they are growing wild and are for personal use.
But the explosion of people taking advantage of this has forced many bodies responsible for land where fungi are found to introduce local bylaws to protect them.
Forest superintendent Paul Thomson said: ‘The large-scale commercial and personal foraging of fungi from London’s heavily visited green spaces is now unsustainable.’