A burn site is full of dangers but you have the opportunity now to hunt these morels from the comfort of your home.
Some of the dangers one must watch out for in a burn site are pictured in the bottom portion of this page.
How many morels...
...did you need to left click to find the darker grey fire morel...?
Are you getting warmed up yet...it does get more difficult to find the morels in some of the photos on down in this blog...
...getting a little bit closer to some of these blond fire morels.
One large blond fire morel is readily visible here...
...these varieties of morels often get camouflaged by fir needles and small branches dropping from the fire damaged trees.
Often it is wise to wear a hat with a tail or a large bandanna hanging from the back of your cap ... when ever a breeze comes along or you bump into a small fir tree these sharp needles fall down on the neck, inside the shirt etc...
There are more than 18 grey fire morels in the 2004 photo from the Canyon Creek burn according to my notes, but some are very well hidden.
Are you seeing four morels here?
As the summer progresses morels are often found in burned-out holes or depressions...
...were you able to see all of the morels that are in a hole...?
Sometimes morels are confused with cones from a distance.
There are five morels growing along the sides of a burned log...
...were you able to see five...?
I count 14
conica fire morels, how did you do...?
I count seven
blond fire morels below but there are at least six other morels in that photo.
...I neglected to set the date stamp correctly on my new camera and thus these are not correct...
When I am researching a burn site and see one of the lighter colored grey morels [known as blonds] at a distance I am reminded of the Clint Eastwood movie "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly"...
...as Clint leaves Tuco in the cemetery with the noose around his neck you hear Tuco say "blondieee,
BLONDIEEEEEE"....and thus it is when I see a blondish morel at a distance I say "Blondeeeee"....
Early fire morels are not always so easily seen as these three...
...often coloration is the same as the fir and pine needles that have fallen from the scorched trees.
...can you see twelve conica fire morels ?
Look closely at shadows being cast...
... often clusters hide in shadows.
...did you see seven morels in the sunny areas...?
It is very easy to miss out on finding fresh morels when they blend in so well...
...hint, look for
shrumps or mushroom bumps in the fallen tree needles...
...I have moved the Ponderosa Pine needles back for better visualization...
You should be able to see a minimum of 13 morels...
...hint most of them are in clusters...
... clusters are always nice to find.
Can you see the solitary morel...
...look closely at the base of the burned out tree root...
...left click and look again...
...even with a photo to look at it may be difficult to see that a morel is growing just a little left of center.
Do you count at least six individual morels in this photo?
You are very close to this ponderosa pine needle shrump, imagine that you are just walking by it...
...do you think that you would have seen this morel...
...notice that there is mold on the needles...
...this often occurs as the snow melts and growth begins for the new season.
There is no
shrumping with this morel ...
...it is growing in a depression...
...same morel from a different angle.
First look here and see how many morels are visible to you...
...here I uncovered a few of the morels to photograph them again...
...then I did a close-up shot of some of them.
Morels like to grow in shaded cooler areas as the summer progresses...
***********************************************************************
Saturday, November 18, 2006
Staubs...
You should be able to left click on all of the photographs in this blog to enlarge them.
The wild flowers are Fireweed.
Another danger in a burn site is known as staubs or sharp pointed sticks that can puncture various portions of the anatomy.
Fire fighters often cut the small trees out of the way on a sharp angle in their hurry ... also when fire burns the young trees they often leave a sharp fire-hardened stub.
If you get tired or careless while picking morels in a burn site ... and slip or fall on one of these...
...the picnic is over.
The green leaves in this photo are Heart Leaf Arnica plants that have not yet developed their flower stalks.
Notice all of the short limbs on the lodge pole pine trees that have fallen since the forest fire, any one of them could mess up your day.
I have a friend who was crossing a log while carrying a full five gallon bucket of morels in a Northern Washington burn-site....he slipped and fell against a staub...
...being a tough individual he got back up and continued climbing the mountain....
...feeling tired he stopped to sit down and roll a cigarette...
...as he puffed on it smoke began coming out a hole in his chest.
The medivac flight and surgery cost him a pretty penny....so the advice is to go slow....rest when you need to....don't push yourself so hard that you might slip and fall easier than otherwise.
******************************************************
Many burnsites are unique in coloration and variety of morels which occur. The Dollar site produced very few conica fire morels and not very many grey morels, they were predominately darker than usual fire greys.
This particular site mostly produced green fire morels which are also known as pickles or olives.
....SOME OF THE NAMES THAT HAVE BEEN ATTACHED TO THIS MOREL VARIETY....
Morchella escuelenta var. atrotomentosa by MOSER 1949, an European mycologist who researched them in the Alps.
Gray Fire Morel, Summer Morel by thousands of Western USA and Canada mushroom collectors for the past 100 or so years.
Grey Fire Morel, Fuzzy Foot or Fuzzy Legs suggested by John Holmes to Michael Kuo as possible names to use instead of Black Foot.
Black Foot Morel by Michael Kuo 2004
Fuzzy Foot Morel by Michael Kuo 2006-2007
If anyone sees any of my photos posted or printed anywhere other than my personal sites without written permission or posted to a forum by myself, then they have been stolen and used without permission.
Saturday, November 18, 2006
Watch out for KILLER TREES
Often following a forest fire, USFS employees will survey the danger trees and hang orange flagging from trees that they feel will fall on windy days or by themselves.
Sometimes they cut the worst trees down and usually close access roads until they have cut all trees that might fall on vehicles or block the roads.
This particular killer tree produced some of the biggest blond fire morels of 2006 around it's base.
The winter snows and spring rains have washed much of the bright color out of these flags.
This tree was burned badly internally and thus fell over by breaking in the most compromised area.
When it is windy one can hear trees crashing to the ground for long distances.
It can be very dangerous in a burn site during on a windy day.
The root system of this tree was compromised during the forest fire and with a shallow root system it may blow over quite easily or fall from it's own weight.
Here is a closer shot of this trees roots and as you can see it has no tap-root to anchor it.
Much like the Giant Redwoods this tree depends upon inter-mingling it's roots with other trees around it to maintain stability.
************************************************************************
Wednesday, March 28, 2007
...just a bit about the photographer...
This morel may not be worth the hundred dollars but it was worth it to me for the thrill of finding it where so many other people had passed it by while looking.
I was researching the 1998 Bend Creek burn-site along the Magruder Corridor in late summer of 1999 when I found this larger than average Grey Fire Morel that was partially hidden in a depression. I am 40 years of age here.
These larger than average conica or early season fire morels are a bit different looking than some of the other conica varieties.
I am 38 years young in this shot.
I no longer enable the comment area in my blogs because of CLOWNs who feel it is OK to place advertisements on how to make easy money, for anyone reading the comment section. If you desire to make a comment or contact me, please send to: moreldoctor@yahoo.com
...or two years following the harvest when it was done east of the Cascade Ridge...
Another danger in a burn site is known as staubs or sharp pointed sticks that can puncture various portions of the anatomy.
The green leaves in this photo are Heart Leaf Arnica plants that have not yet developed their flower stalks. 
...being a tough individual he got back up and continued climbing the mountain.... 
The medivac flight and surgery cost him a pretty penny....so the advice is to go slow....rest when you need to....don't push yourself so hard that you might slip and fall easier than otherwise.
Often following a forest fire, USFS employees will survey the danger trees and hang orange flagging from trees that they feel will fall on windy days or by themselves.
This tree was burned badly internally and thus fell over by breaking in the most compromised area. 
It can be very dangerous in a burn site during on a windy day.
Here is a closer shot of this trees roots and as you can see it has no tap-root to anchor it. 
This morel may not be worth the hundred dollars but it was worth it to me for the thrill of finding it where so many other people had passed it by while looking. 
These larger than average conica or early season fire morels are a bit different looking than some of the other conica varieties.
