Mushroom Poisoning & Idaho Drought

Mushroom Poisoning & Idaho Drought. I'm Greg Martin with today's Northwest Report.

Idaho is joining the ranks of dry states. No, they still sell alcohol...but Idaho is now in a drought as if they didn't know already. A report from the U.S. Drought Monitor shows that Idaho is in the worst shape for water since the 2005 drought when 99% of the state was in a drought condition. The report also shows that the state is 100% in an abnormally dry state with over 65% of the state in moderate drought status. 9% of the state is reported in extreme drought condition.

There's a app for that! But did that app just poison a family in Idaho? The family was picking mushrooms near Bend, Oregon using a smartphone app to identify what they thought were edible but after a trip to the hospital authorities says they misidentified the fungus. Experts says that many mushrooms can be mistaken for each other and that can lead to dire poisonings. Lori Carris with Washington State University says you really need to be mushroom savvy.

CARRIS: Most of what we know about mushroom toxicity comes from trial and error. People eating something and getting sick. So there's about 2000 mushrooms around the world that are probably edible and of that there's really only a handful, maybe 15 to 30 that people pick widely because they're considered good edibles.

That's today's Northwest Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network of the West.