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Professional forager Daniel Butler has accused the Forestry Commission of whipping up animosity for 'a crime that doesn't exist'.

The Forestry Commission has been accused of whipping up tensions between foragers and members of the public over the picking of mushrooms in the New Forest.

The conservation authority have put up controversial signs implying mushroom picking is completely banned in the national park.

In fact foraging for fungi that is for personal consumption is perfectly legal, unlike commercial picking which is banned.

But the new 'misleading' signage that has gone up around the New Forest carries an image of a mushroom in a circle with a cross going through which states 'no picking'.

Pickers fear that well-meaning members of the public will confront foragers if they encounter them removing fungi from the forest floor.