2023-2024 Year in Review

Published · Updated

Table Of Contents
  1. CMS Meetings
  2. Mount Pisgah Arboretum Mushroom Festival Highlights
  3. Drumroll for the Mushroom Display Statistics
  4. CMS Member only Field Trips
  5. Fungi education in the Community
  6. Grants and Scholarships Awarded
  7. Macrofungi of Lane County, OR (MLCO)
  8. CMS Special Events/Activities
  9. CMS Board of Directors

CMS Meetings

All of our public meetings for 2023/2024 were in person! We had several meetings that included discussions of or experiences with Psilocybin mushrooms. We also had two presentations on the relationship of fungus to their soil environments and how your garden can benefit. And, of course there were talks about PNW mushrooms, both edible and just beautiful. All of our meeting usually include information for everyone, from the novice to the experts!

All of the meetings below (except for David Arora) are available on the CMS Website for CMS members to view at any time (must be logged in). Some, with permission of the speaker, are also retained on the CMS YouTube channel.

Mount Pisgah Arboretum Mushroom Festival Highlights

Over 40 years and still going strong! The Mount Pisgah Arboretum (MPA) Mushroom Festival is thought to be the largest on the west coast. Perhaps because it truly is a festival! Many PNW Mushroom clubs/societies have an annual “mushroom show”, primarily consisting of a mushroom display. Some also have a few mushroom vendors, classes/workshops, and mushrooms walks. However, the MPA mushroom festival is a little different, as CMS is very fortunate to partner with the MPA and Lane Community College (LCC). MPA takes care of the festival aspect by providing live music, food vendors, hayrides, a large arts and crafts vendor area, fresh pressed hot cider, and a scarecrow contest. While CMS and LCC provides the Main mushroom display, Fun Fungal Facts, Medicinal Mushrooms, Dyeing with mushrooms, the Edible and Poisonous Tent, the Expert ID table, and Talks on the Terrace. We also help with the guided nature walks.

This year we also had a OPB film crew from the show Super Abundant at the festival. This video is more about the 25th anniversary of the Golden Chanterelles being named as Oregon’s state mushroom. But, the festival is also featured for a few minutes at the 1 minute 45 second mark. The full episode aired in May 2024; if you are a PBS member you can login to the OPB website and view the full episode.

Leading up to the festival CMS was happy to be welcome back the legendary David Arora. David is the author of what most west coast mycologists and mushroom foragers know as the Mushroom Bible, “Mushrooms Demystified”. And, the most popular beginner mushroom field guide, “All that the Rain Promises”. See for yourself in this article titled Best selling mushroom books of all time. David spoke to a packed house at the Lane Event Center on Friday evening prior to the festival on Sunday.

The Talks on the Terrace was back in a big way this year. Melany Kahn, author of a children’s book titled “Mason Goes Mushrooming” was on the terrace area all day. In addition to short presentations, book readings, and cooking demos throughout the day; parents and children were be able to actively participate in mushroom educational activities and crafts. The MPA educational staff and volunteers staffed tables for making clay mushrooms, painting mushrooms, and mushroom stamps.

A great big thank you to all of the CMS members who went out on one of the five collecting forays, those who helped to set up the displays and fold t-shirts on Saturday, and those that helped with staffing the festival on Sunday. A special thanks to those that did all three!  CMS welcomed back Expert Identifiers Steve Trudell, author of Mushrooms of the Pacific Northwest, and Efrén Cázares co-author of Ramaria of the NPW  to identify mushrooms gathered for the display. Plus, several of our local club members helped with identification of the more common mushrooms and those that can be identified without the use of a microscope. A mushroom is not placed on the display until it is identified to species (or group/complex). And, as always students from the Lane Community College Biology of Mushroom class were on hand Saturday to help setup the display.

Drumroll for the Mushroom Display Statistics

Total # of Species: 362
New to show: 34

Best in show: Mycena galericulata (Common Bonnet)
1st place: Hygrocybe singeri  (Western witches hat)
2nd place: Apiosporina morbosa (Black knot)

Click here to view more pictures and the full details of the 2023 MPA Mushroom Festival

CMS Member only Field Trips

The 2023/2024 mushrooming season was not our best as we seem to be in a pattern of rains starting later and freezing temperatures in the Cascades coming earlier. But, we adjusted and just did more field trips at the Coast, in the Coast range, and the lower Cascades. No matter where we go, it is all about learning how to identify and collect mushrooms safely. Below is the list of the 16 CMS Member field trips for the season. We sometimes had multiple Field Trips on the same day.

  • October 21, 2023 – Cascades/Hwy 58 with Cheshire Mayrsohn
  • October 23, 2023 – Cascades/Hwy 58 with Valerie Nguyen
  • October 25, 2023 – Festival collecting at the Coast with Matt Mathiason
  • October 25, 2023 – Festival collecting in the Cascades/Hwy 126 with Cheshire Mayrsohn
  • October 26, 2023 – Festival collecting East of Coast Range with Matt Mathiason
  • October 27, 2023 – Festival collecting East of Coast Range with Ron and Sandy Patton
  • October 27, 2023 – Festival collecting at the Coast with Cheshire Mayrsohn
  • November 11, 2023 – Lower Cascades/Hwy 58 with Joe Spivack
  • November 19, 2023 – East of Coast Range with Matt Mathiason
  • December 5, 2023 – East of Coast Range for Candy Cap mushrooms with Ron and Sandy
  • December 9, 2023 – Lower Cascades/Hwy 58 with Dylan Eckert
  • December 16, 2023 – Lower Cascades near Cottage Grove with Joe Spivack
  • February 10, 2024 – Lower Cascades near Cottage Grove with Chris Melotti and Matthew Johnson
  • April 14, 2024 – Spring mushrooms/Hwy 58 with Dylan Eckert
  • May 5, 2024 – Spring mushrooms/Hwy 126 with Matt Mathiason
  • June 1, 2024 – Cascade Lakes Highway with Matthew Johnson

Fungi education in the Community

CMS as an organization and individual CMS members participate in community events that promote and educate about fungi throughout the year. Below are the community events for 2023-2024. I am starting with activities that I have inadvertently not reported in the past. Many CMS members are walking fungi evangelists, so there may be more, please let of know if there is!

  • Trent Blizzard is in his 2nd year of serving as President of the North American Mycological Association (NAMA). Cheshire Mayrsohn has served along with Trent on the NAMA Executive Committee. Kristen Blizzard serves as the Chairman of the NAMA website committee and also serves on the NAMA Marketing and Foray committees. Sandy Patton serves on the NAMA Club Relations Committee.
  • Many CMS members are involved in putting on the mushroom displays at the MPA Mushroom festival on the last Sunday of every October. On the weekend before, several CMS members work along side the Lincoln County Mycological Society (LCMS) members at the annual Yachats Mushroom Festival. Molly Widmer and Chris Melotti assist with mushroom identification, Chris Melotti, Joe Spivack, Matthew Johnson, and Lee Yamada lead mushroom walks.
  • Several weeks later on November 11th, Chris, Molly, and Ann Goddard were invited to assist with mushroom identification at the newly revived LCMS Fall Mushroom Show at the Depoe Bay Community Hall.
  • At the end of the 2024 MPA Mushroom Festival, CMS members Joe Spivack and Lee Yamada once again gathered up several boxes of mushrooms for a special show and tell for the Village School of Eugene. They did an afternoon talk about the basic biology of mushrooms and their role in the ecosystem. Several days later they spent an adventurous and educational day in the woods for some hands on foraging of mushrooms.
  • Bruce Newhouse always answers the call to talk about mushrooms for the Coast Fork Willamette Watershed Council’s monthly Science on Tap talks at the Axe and Fiddle in Cottage Grove (4th Tuesday of the month). It is always a fun and educational event with a fantastic crowd. Bruce’s November 2023 talk was titled “Forest Treasures: Finding and Enjoying Wild Mushrooms”.
  • Also in November is the Friends of Hendricks Park annual Mushroom walk. This year Joe Spivack volunteered for this very popular event.
  • Matthew Johnson and Lee Yamada were invited to create and staff an educational mushroom display for the participants of the Folk and Forage Festival held in Philomath, Oregon in May 2024.
  • CMS has maintained a presence in the Community Village section of the Oregon Country Fair for many years. We don’t have a lot of space; but we educate as much as we can. This years host and educator for this July event was CMS Board Member Matthew Johnson.
  • Another CMS member who is very active in the mycological community is Jon Sommer who joined CMS in 2020. In addition to the Cascade Mycological Society Jon is a member of the Oregon Mycological Society, the Humboldt Bay Mycological Society, and currently serves as President of the Colorado Mushroom Society and Vice President of the Lincoln County Mycological Society. Jon’s passion includes teaching beginner’s (and more advanced) Mushroom ID classes. Jon regularly gives talks and leads Forays for the annual NAMA foray, SOMA Camp (Sonoma County), Wild Rivers Mushroom Festival, Yachats Mushroom Festival, and for other mushroom clubs across the country.
  • Last, but certainly not least. CMS partners with the City of Eugene Recreation Services to offer seasonal educational outings and classes to the community through the Amazon Community Center where we hold our monthly meetings. This years events were an “Introduction to Wild Mushroom Identification” class taught by Ron and Sandy Patton at the Amazon Community Center in September 2023. A Family Mushroom Walk through Hendricks park led by Chris Melotti and Molly Widmer in November 2023. And, a “Cooking with Mushrooms” demonstration class taught by Lee Yamada at the Amazon Community Center in May of 2024.

Grants and Scholarships Awarded

CMS has been proud to offer the Freeman Rowe Educational Scholarship since 2008. Eligibility for the scholarship is limited to Oregon college students (community college or university undergraduate, or graduate) who are engaging in mycology research. CMS was delighted to receive a Scholarship submission from CMS ember Heather Dawson. When we reviewed her submission we were even more excited. Anyone who has a love of fungi knows how under studied they have been in the past compared to plants and animals. According to the latest Kew State of the Worlds Fungi Report, we have an immense task ahead to understand exactly how many fungal species exist, where they are located, and what environmental factors affect them. It is extraordinary young researchers like Heather that are making valuable contributions towards answering these questions about fungi.

The CMS Board of Directors unanimously voted on March 7, 2024 to grant Heather a scholarship. While we were at it, we decided that current CMS funding levels would allow us to provide Heather with a $2000 scholarship rather than the $1000 we have provided in the past. Pictured right is Heather receiving her first $1000 check. She will receive the remainder when she returns to CMS to present the results of her research project.

You will find more information about Heather’s Scholarship application including her research proposal abstract here. We look forward to hearing the results of her research at a CMS meeting in the coming year.

Macrofungi of Lane County, OR (MLCO)

The Macrofungi of Lane County Oregon (MLCO) working group/project was established in 2018 and grows stronger every year. The project is lead by – Dr. Bitty Roy, Bruce Newhouse, and Susie Holmes. But, everyone is able to become a “citizen scientist” and contribute. Bruce Newhouse continues to lead the pack of observers with the greatest number of observations (1996), although CMS member Ann Goddard is closing in with 1872 observations. Topping the leader board for number of unique species (480) is Dan Morton. Our lead identifier for the MLCO project continues to be Noah Siegel at 8,942. And, the most commonly observed species is now a tie between Amanita muscaria (Fly Agaric) and Trametes versicolor (Turkey tail).

This past year the MLCO Working Group has worked on three main projects

Finalized a Master list of 2,630 species of macrofungi known from extended Lane County, which is now available online. The list is illustrated with a link to a photograph you can go to in iNaturalist that has been chosen, when possible, to maximize your ability to identify the mushroom, that is, the entry shows the features for identification. CMS members involved in the list making, in alphabetical order: Dan Morton, Cheshire Mayrsohn, Bruce Newhouse, Bitty Roy.  Lead: Bitty Roy

Continued DNA sequencing of fungi from Lane County.  On the Master List, species we have sequenced are shown in yellow.  We have sequenced 560 collections and have about 400 more in progress.  Almost half the species we have sequenced are likely not described, indicating there is a lot of work left to do in the PNW!  These are indicated on the Master list with provisional names showing relationships, for example, Agaricus diminutivus PNW02 is near to, but different from Agaricus diminutivus and there are at least two DNA variants, only one of which, so far, has been found in our area.  We work with Danny Miller of the Pacific Northwest Key council to keep track of these unnamed taxa with the provisional name system, so that when they are eventually described, or found to match an old description, we can change the name across the PNW to reflect these discoveries.  Photos of the collections we sequence are in iNaturalist and the specimens will be donated to the Fungarium at OSU. CMS members involved in the collecting and sequencing effort, in alphabetical order: Ralph Begley, Haley Burrill, Heather Dawson, Hilary Dawson, Carolyn Delevich, Connor Dooley, Ann Goddard, Ron Hamill, Susie Holmes, Cheshire Mayrsohn, Bruce Newhouse, Ron and Sandy Patton, Marcia Peters, Bitty Roy, Noah Siegel. Lead: Bitty Roy

Finally, the working group now has a microscopy team (pictures above)!  Many fungi cannot properly be identified without microscopy, and the information is required for new species descriptions.  The working group has been conducting microscopy workshops at Lane Community College; working their way through the specimens that have been sequenced that proved to be interesting. CMS members involved in the microscopy effort so far, in alphabetical order: Haley Burrill, Scott Clark, Heather Dawson, Ron Hamill, Susie Holmes, Dan Morton, Bitty Roy, Molly Widmer. Lead: Susie Holmes.

The MLCO project on iNaturalist is constantly growing/gathering inputs through everyday people uploading their fungal finds to iNaturalist. Every mushroom uploaded to iNaturalist that is within the MLCO geographical boundaries and meets all of the MLCO requirements is automatically added to the project. Below are the current statistics for the 3 projects maintained by MLCO on iNaturalist. The increase in #s cited in parenthesis, is the change since last years CMS Year in Review was published on August 13, 2023. Note that the number of species stats are totals and not necessarily validated.

Macrofungi of Lane County Oregon (Main project)

Project Description: This project was started to inventory and document the macrofungi of Lane County, Oregon and the surrounding area. It is sanctioned as a part of the Cascade Mycological Society (CMS).

  • Total observations: 74,096 (increase of 19,236)
  • Total species: 2116 ( increase of 233)
  • #people/contributors: 5,582 (increase of 1,237)

Woodchip Fungi of Lane County Oregon – (sub-project)

Project Description: The Woodchip Fungi of Lane County project was created in December of 2019. This project documents fungi that are present in wood chip habitats. Primarily geared towards urban landscapes in the Eugene-Springfield area; it includes fungi present in any woodchip (i.e. wood chip or mulch covered landscape areas) habitat within Lane County.

  • Total observations: 196 (increase of 20)
  • Total species: 65 (increase of 9)
  • #people/contributors: 78 (increase of 11)

Vouchered Macrofungi of Lane County Oregon (sub-project)

Project Description: This project is for designated users who voucher fungal specimens for a fungaria (fungal herbaria). A subset of these vouchered specimans are selected for DNA testing.

  • Total observations: 437 (increase of 354)
  • Total species: 414 (increase of 169)
  • #people/contributors: 54 (increase of 28)

Each year MLCO organizes a Mycoblitz to coincide with the Mount Pisgah Mushroom Festival. We seemed to have had a big rebound in observations in 2023. The 2023 Mushroom Show Mycoblitz had a record breaking 3,355 observations, compared to 913 in 2022, 2476 observations in 2021, and 2296 in 2020. The number of unique species was 529, with 424 observers, and 207 citizen scientists stepping up to help as identifiers. A big thank you to August Jackson who contributed the most identifications with 641.

To keep abreast of the MLCO project, check out the MLCO News & Updates page.

CMS Special Events/Activities

Each year, we seem to have some type of new or special event or activity in addition to our monthly meetings and member field trips. Sometimes they turn into an annual event/activity, while some do not. Once again, I have been remiss in not mentioning a special activity that has definitely turned into an every year special activity. So, I will start with our Annual Meeting and Mushroom Grillout.

Once again, I have been remiss in not mentioning a special activity that has definitely turned into an every year special activity. So, I will start with our end of the season …

Annual Meeting and Mushroom Grillout

As a registered 501c3 nonprofit we are required to have both an Annual Meeting and an Annual Vote of our Board of Directors. Of course, we don’t want to have just a meeting, why not have a party! For many years the end of the year annual meeting was a Pizza Party at a local pizza establishment. However, after CMS members Pavel Gubanikhin and Heather Sielicki hosted a Morel Stuffing grillout at their home for CMS; we decided it was time for a change. Since the 2015-2016 season CMS has held a Mushroom Grill out at a Lively Park Shelter in Springfield. Yes, we still stuff and grill morels, but we also grill other mushroom species so that CMS members can give them a taste.

Myco Mingle!

It seems that CMS members don’t have many opportunities to socialize, share stories of their mushroom outings, or connect with other members to plan an outing at our normal monthly meetings. So, this year, the CMS Board initiated what we call Myco Mingle!

We did our first Myco Mingle at the Paddock Bar and Grill due to it’s proximity to our normal meeting location at the Amazon Community Center. We did have a few members come out, but it was not a big crowd.

For our next Myco Mingle we decided to combine it with a “Chrismush” sale of CMS t-shirts, Cookbooks, and mushroom clay crafts. Plus, we decided we should take our patronage to Drop Bear Brewery which is owned by CMS members Dave and Lorraine Lehane.

The Myco Mingle and Chrismush sale was such a success we did another Myco Mingle at Drop Bear in February. Lorraine created a special Mushroom menu for us and it was another big success. This “Special Event” will most likely become a CMS periodic recurring event.

Game of Shrooms!

For the 3rd year in a row, CMS member Sandy Patton participated on behalf of CMS in this world-wide art N seek event created by Attaboy (click for more information). Five mushroom art objects were placed at each of 3 local parks in Springfield: Lively Park (in honor of our annual Mushroom Grill Out), Willamalane Park, and Doris Ranch.

Hints of the mushroom art placement locations were posted on the morning of June 11th to the CMS Instagram feed. Some, folks were watching Instagram and went out to see if they could find a prize, while others were just lucky park walkers that went home with a fun mushroom surprise!

We especially enjoyed seeing the pictures posted to Instagram by those who found the mushroom art.

CMS Board of Directors

Above are the 2022/2023 Board of Directors whom all returned for 2023/2024. Thanks for saving me from having to make an entirely new graphic! Even though this is from a 2022 Zoom Call the Board was able to have their monthly Board meetings in person this year. CMS members may login and find all of the Board Meeting minutes and information on how to get more involved on the CMS Board Activities page.

  • President/Speaker Coordinator: Chris Melotti (pictured top/center)
  • Vice President Coordinator: Matthew Johnson (top/left)
  • Treasurer: Eugena Mathiason (bottom/right)
  • Recording Secretary:  Erin Brown (middle/right)
  • Field Coordinator: Matthew Johnson (top/left)
  • Lee Yamada – NAMA (top/right)
  • Bob Blanchard (bottom/center)
  • Matt Mathiason – Tech team (bottom/left)
  • Dylan Eckert (middle/left)

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