When amateurs are the experts: Amateur mycologists and wild mushroom politics in the Pacific Northwest, USA

Abstract

In the 19th century, amateur scientists and amateur science societies played important roles in producing scientific knowledge and generating popular support for scientific endeavors. As state and federal natural resource management agencies in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States begin to implement ecosystem and landscape management mandates, amateur scientists are emerging as important players in the special forest products policy arena. Yet amateur science remains a largely invisible social phenomenon in the environmental policy literature. This policy overview addresses that gap by examining attempts by Pacific Northwest amateur mycological societies to protect wild mushroom patches on public lands from encroachment by commercial harvesters. These groups have relied on two major strategies—organized political advocacy in state legislative processes, and formation of research partnerships with resource management agencies wishing to develop scientifically based harvesting guidelines. This account reveals some of the internal tensions that have arisen within these groups as they engage in overt political action and in the construction of policy knowledge. It also underlines the problematic nature of emerging knowledge production alliances between public land management agencies and key stakeholders.