Good questions, There are parks here run by Three Rivers which do not allow mushroom picking, they own alot of land. You cannot pick in SNA DNR land either. You can pick in State forest and National forest. Rule # 1 , do not tell your spots, so if people tell you where to go, take it with a grain of salt. When do they come up, well last 2 years 3rd week in May, 3 years ago last week in April, this year, will be early if this keeps up and we get some rain. Good luck my friend.