This is Digby Pancake. It’s true that I get in trouble a lot. I don’t mean to do all that stuff. They don’t call me Dirty Digby for nothing.

But even the persons got in trouble yesterday. Yep. Boy Person and Girl Person apparently did something that they weren’t supposed to. Something that they should have known not to do.

You may remember that they told you all about the mushrooms they have been finding and eating.

They were real happy about finding all the yummy mushrooms to cook. And since Girl Person was going to make spaghetti, she wanted Boy Person to find her some more. He didn’t have to go far! Some were right in the campground.

But as Boy Person was picking some up, someone stopped to tell him that he couldn’t do that. Someone told him that you weren’t supposed to pick anything off the ground at the park or the trees. Not berries. Not wood. Not even mushrooms! He said stop picking anything.

Boy Person explained that he didn’t know. Boy Person asked why. The person told him that things had to be left to propagate. So. The mushrooms were left to propagate.

The persons were sad. Real sad. But now that they knew, what would they do? Would they pick the mushrooms when no one was around?

Now they knew. So what would they do?

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As you can imagine, Boy Person follows the rules. Girl Person has learned there is no breaking them. And Brickle sure isn’t having it.

So the persons tried to think about Plan B. They looked up rules for the National Forest right nearby and found out that they could pick some there as long as it wasn’t too much.

And well, it wasn’t as easy as getting them in the campground. But they knew they were doing the right thing. Even if no one was looking. A forager like them may not see another park user while they are in the park, but there can be a series of people who visit the same site many times a day over a several week period. We all have an impact.

The removal of the plant or other natural item also takes away from the enjoyment of other park visitors who just want to see them. If everyone who used the park trails just took one or two mushrooms or picked a couple of flowers, there wouldn’t be anything left. So they understood. It was more than just about them.

And as Girl Person took us for a walk the next morning, she got stopped by another camper Person. The camper person wanted to know where we were from. When Girl Person told him, he said he didn’t like it where we were from because there were too many people of different cultures and races! Although we were upset, Girl Person knew the right thing to do was to tell him that is WHY we liked where we were from. We liked diversity.

He didn’t listen much, but Girl Person wondered, can people change from what they’ve been taught and how they are raised? And she thought about the mushrooms.  We can pretend not to know what is right.  We can pretend that we don’t know. It gives us an excuse. But there is no excuse to keep doing what is wrong when you know what is right. Now you know…so….what will YOU do?

The world sure is bigger than just us, isn’t it? It comes down to the smallest mushroom. As tasty as it may be, if it’s for someone else or a bigger cause, don’t take it. Be kind. To everyone.

Be nice. You can do it.

–Digby Pancake

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