Two Brussels residents allowed to pick mushrooms in Sonian Forest

Two Brussels residents this week received permission to pick mushrooms in Brussels' Sonian Forest, writes De Standaard. The biologist and biology teacher were given the permission on an exceptional basis, following a long procedure to file the request for the eight page long permit.

“Pure bureaucracy, an absurdity," nature guide André d'Ocquier told the newspaper. D'Ocquier this summer ask the pertinent authorities for permission to "collect or examine certain species of mushrooms from the Sonian forest”.

Following a long procedure that involved filling out numerous documents, d'Ocquier and biology teacher Michèle Devleeschauwer were finally given permission by the Brussels government. They must be prepared to show the permit at all times.

The permit allows the two Brussels residents to go off the public footpaths in the Sonian forest for one year, provided some strict rules are observed, in order to pick mushrooms. The rules are there to ensure that "no natural habitat is disturbed" and the number of mushrooms picked remains “extremely limited”, says d'Ocquier. In addition, they must keep a detailed log of how many and what kind of mushrooms are collected.

The measures are not just meant to create red tape for the two nature lovers, however, as two-thirds of the more than 1,000 species of fungi in the Brussels Sonian Forest are relatively rare, according to mycologists.