The Columbia-Pacific region is teeming with biodiversity, coupled with a mild, wet climate and varied habitat types.

In the region’s forests, coastal zones and mountains, foragers head out through the seasons — chefs looking to complement restaurant menus and locals looking to add to their groceries. The harvest is year-round, from wild summer berries to fall forest mushrooms.

Spring

The early months of the year may bring warming temperatures, but historically spring has been a tough time to live off the land.

By this time, winter stores may have been used up, while the fruits and other bounties of summer are still months away.

But there are still wild foods to be found. Spring greens appear in the form of garden weeds — common dandelions, red deadnettle and hairy bittercress (or popweed) are a few invasive regional plants with leaves and flowers that can be eaten raw or cooked.

Wood sorrels, such as the native redwood sorrel and invasive creeping wood sorrel, may be eaten raw in small amounts. However, cooking them neutralizes their oxalic acid, in case one wants to eat more than a little.

Many of these green plants will grow year-round, though older leaves usually need to be well-cooked to be palatable.

One of the most prized spring wild plants is stinging nettle. Often used as a substitute for spinach, it must be collected while wearing gloves. The plant has tiny hairs that inject stinging properties into the skin.

Cooking the stinging nettle deactivates the plant’s defense mechanism and makes it safe to eat. Make sure to harvest stinging nettle — which is nonnative to the region — and not the native coastal hedgenettle, which looks similar but produces larger, purple flowers and does not sting when touched.

Also in spring, keep your eyes peeled for oyster mushrooms. These white, semi-circular, shelf-like mushrooms grow on decaying red alder and other hardwood logs and often appear in clusters.

They also have a distinctive aroma similar to black licorice. Morel mushrooms are mostly found further inland around the Cascade Mountains, but the edible morchella importuna mushroom often grows on bark mulch.

It’s not uncommon to find these mushrooms popping out of neighborhood landscaping in April and May.

Watch for poisonous false morels that look similar and grow at the same time. Instead of looking like cones with honeycomb-like textures, they resemble a pile of worms on a stalk, and they are solid or multi-chambered inside instead of the one single hollow space inside a true morel.

Summer

Around late spring — into June and through the first part of July — look for bright salmonberries that appear in forests and along riparian areas.

Salmonberries look similar to blackberries, only orange to red in color. These are the first berries of the year to ripen.

Later in the summer, they are joined by thimbleberries. These are soft, red and look like semi-spherical candy, growing on bushes with big, green, three-lobed leaves. At about the same time, red huckleberries begin to ripen as tiny round spheres.

By August, the first blackberries are usually ripe. That includes the native trailing blackberry plant — also called the Pacific blackberry — as well as the larger berries that grow from the invasive Himalayan blackberry and cutleaf blackberry plants.

Oyster mushrooms often appear in summer, with large flushes on dead hardwood trees, favoring red alder.

By July, start to look for the bright yellow Pacific golden chanterelle, popping out of the soil. Also, look for the deep orange chicken of the woods (use caution when trying this mushroom for the first time), often found growing out of dead conifer trees.

Fall

Mushrooms arrive on the Oregon and Washington coasts in the fall, to the excitement of eager foragers.

In addition to more chanterelles, chicken of the woods and oyster mushrooms that appear earlier, there are plenty of other species to look for as fall begins, like the lobster mushroom.

The lobster mushroom is an unusual case of a fungus infecting a russula mushroom, so it can hijack its host’s gills to spread its spores. While the host may not have been edible, the mushroom is and changes the host on a molecular level. Look for this orange or red mushroom with a twisted shape, usually growing under or near pines.

This region also sees a lot of boletes, mushrooms with spongy pores instead of gills underneath their caps, that often associate with conifers. The best-known edible species is the king bolete, which can grow 6 inches across or more and looks like a bread roll on a big, thick stalk.

Occasionally, one might find a venerable bolete with a maroon-tinted yellow stalk and red-brown cap with bright yellow pores. But more likely to be found are edible slippery jacks, whose caps are edible after peeling the top layer of skin off of them.

Be aware that not all slippery jacks — or all pored mushrooms — are edible, so make sure you identify each mushroom down to the species level and then determine edibility.

Wild mushrooms need to be thoroughly cooked before they are safe to eat. If trying a new plant or mushroom for the first time, prepare and eat a small amount — just a few bites — and then wait a couple of days to look for any symptoms. Only try one species at a time, and keep a whole, uncooked sample of it in the fridge.

For berries, the evergreen huckleberries that begin ripening later in summer are now shiny, black, sweet and ready to be picked.

Also, find more blackberries in abundance, and perhaps a few late red huckleberries. This area is dotted with old farmsteads, and you just might stumble across an old apple tree someplace that’s still producing fruit (just be sure to ask permission if it’s on private property).

Winter

This may be the leanest time of the year, but it’s far from empty. Thanks to a mild coastal climate, it’s still possible to glean some edible plants and fungi, especially if one is willing to head out into the mountains and hills.

Remember all those weeds that had to be pulled out of the garden earlier in the year? Many of those can survive over winter without a problem and can provide some nice greens.

The common dandelion, hairy cat’s ear, broadleaf plantain and ribwort plantain are all easy to find on lawns, parks and other open areas. The leaves are older and aren’t very good raw. Instead, try steaming them like spinach, sauteing them in olive oil or adding them to a soup or stew.

There aren’t a lot of mushrooms around by the time winter rolls around, but keep your eyes peeled for a few late flushes.

Chanterelles may be found as late as January in the Coast Range and Willapa Hills, and while you’re up there you may find some yellowfoot mushrooms, too. Hedgehog mushrooms are famous for popping up in the middle of winter, so look for these little fungi with spiny undersides.

Be certain of a foraged species before deciding whether it is safe to consume. Research new finds, and if in doubt, throw it out. It’s not worth the risk.

Check to be sure foraging is permitted before heading out on public land. Some state parks in Oregon and Washington state may allow foraging for personal use, but check ahead of time for restrictions.

Avoid foraging in areas that are unsafe or may be contaminated, and always wash your finds, regardless of where they’re picked.

In the event of an illness from something foraged, keep a sample of what was eaten to help with quicker treatment.

Finally, be aware of your surroundings, whether you are foraging in the woods or the middle of town. Be mindful, be careful and enjoy the harvest.