Mushroom foraging laws in Hawaii
Compiled from official sources; not legal advice. Rules change. Confirm with the land manager or the agency before you pick.
Summary
Hawaii's land rules do not name mushrooms. State forest reserves require a free collecting permit for personal-use forest products, and state park and other public-land rules allow personal gathering of renewable natural products but ban gathering for sale. Whether mushrooms fall under those rules is unclear, so check with the land manager first.
Public land
State forest reserves: removing any form of plant or animal life is banned unless authorized, and personal collecting of forest products (any natural material from a forest reserve) needs a collecting permit. The rules do not mention fungi or mushrooms. State parks and unencumbered public lands: you may gather reasonable quantities of natural products of a renewable nature for personal use, such as fruits, berries and seeds, but not for sale. Mushrooms are not named, so whether they count is unclear. Federal lands follow their own rules.
Permits
State forest reserves: a collecting permit for a specific area is required for personal use. DLNR says it is free, requests should go in 10 working days ahead, and non-listed species in personal-use amounts go through this permit. No permit is described for state parks.
Limits
Forest reserves: no more than one permit in seven days for the same forest product to the same person or group. DLNR points to its Forest Product Price List for personal versus commercial quantities; those numbers were not checked. In state parks the board may restrict quantities.
Selling
Gathering for sale is not allowed in state parks or on unencumbered public lands, and forest reserve collecting permits are not issued for products for sale. DLNR says amounts judged commercial may get a paid Commercial Harvest Permit. A food establishment may not sell or serve wild-picked mushrooms unless the Department of Health has approved it, with exemptions for regulated cultivated mushrooms and packaged mushrooms from regulated food plants.
Sources
- HAR 13-146-32 Public property, State Parks (Cornell LII)
- HAR 13-104-2 Definitions, forest reserves (Cornell LII)
- HAR 13-104-4 Prohibited activities in forest reserves (Cornell LII)
- HAR 13-104-21 Collecting permits (Cornell LII)
- DLNR Forestry - Forest Reserve System Collection Permit
- HAR 13-221-28 Public property, unencumbered public lands (Cornell LII)
- HAR 11-50 Food Safety Code, 11-50-31(f) (Hawaii DOH, 2025)
Last verified: November 11, 2026