Countryside etiquette

I have been walking around work in the past, and a woman dropped the wrapper of her fag packet. The little lad with her said Mum your not aloud to do that they have been telling us at school all about dropping litter. Poor little lad got so much abuse from the mother.
I was much younger then and didn't have the guts to say anything but sure would do now.  I felt so sorry for the little lad her was doing the right thing.
 Litter is a big part of our Job and more so this year as the park is so much busier than it has been in the past.

Huge fines would help fund litter-pickers and act as a deterrent. We (as a whole) appear a dirty and selfish lot over here. Some places abroad are spotless by comparison.

I agree Springlands but with some people it's only their purse / pocket wallet that makes them think  especially if they are earning the contents rather than being given it.

I started with mushroom picking.
1st The majority of things you here about mushroom picking is rubbish, utter rubbish. The normal idiotic statement is "All toadstools are poisonous" and all mushrooms aren't this is not just rubbish but dangerous rubbish.
2nd There is no scientific difference between a mushroom and a toadstool.
3rd They are often used interchangeably. One book will have a variety as a toadstool another will call it a mushroom.
4th There are far more poisons mushrooms than poisonous toadstools although not proportionally. There are edible toadstools.
5th the categories are:-
Edible
Inedible (either taste horrible or is not cook able and sometimes counted as inedible at later stage of growth)
Suspicious (the sort of thing one village would say was poisonous while another would say it wasn't)
Poisonous (bad guts)
Very poisonous (very bad guts, possibly kill a young child, an elderly or already sick person)
deadly poisons  (1 mushroom can kill 8 people) In the case of deadly fungi (the proper name) most deaths occur when a person does not go to hospital within 24 hours (about 50%) the remainder need a kidney and liver transplant. There are 3 deadly fungi Death Cap and destroying Angel. The 3rd is Inocybe papatouillardii (no common name) all the Inocybe though are poisonous to very poisonous. Also they all look very similar so you just avoid them end of story.
Note the majority of poisoning are caused by the yellow stainer (not deadly) which is mistaken for a field mushrooms (very similar) or the horse mushroom (not very similar). This epitomize just how silly people are A/ it does not grow in the same habitat B/ It is very easy to identify it (yellow stain at the base when picked)

My rules
1/ Have 2 books. Firstly a Collins Gem. This is a pocket book with about 200 fungi in them. All the poisonous all the edible and a lot of poisonous/very poisonous. Plus a lot of the weird looking mushrooms. The second should be a large, A4 size for instance with lots pictures instead of drawings . You use this to do a final check when you get home. (Peter Jordan mushroom's pickers foolproof field guide for instance) These tend to have much smaller amount of mushrooms in them IE all the normal edibles, poisonous, deadly poisonous. About 90 fungi in total.
2/ personally I never make a meal with more than 1 variety of mushrooms in it. As it would be difficult to say which one poisoned you and more importantly was it deadly.
3/ Specialize. Keep your choice to maybe 10 edible mushrooms and get them from the same place all the time. The latter is also the best way to find them anyway. Over time you can increase the amount of types you go for but be in no rush to do so.
4/Record everything so you can find them again instead of walking round blind each year.
5/ Enjoy.