MLCO 2022-2023 Annual Summary
This year marks the 5 year anniversary since the Macrofungi of Lane County Oregon (MLCO) project was established in 2018. The project is led 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 (1721). However, we have someone new at the top of the leader board for number of unique species (470). That honor goes to Conner Dooley, an OSU Biology and Botany student.
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.
Each year MLCO organizes a Mycoblitz to coincide with the Mount Pisgah Mushroom Festival. The dry weather leading up to the festival definitely had an impact. The 2022 Mycoblitz had 913 observations compared to 2476 observations in 2021 and 2296 in 2020.
Additionally, this past year the project actively documented macrofungi in 3 specific areas associated with fire in oaks, prairies, and conifer forests. This effort was to assist with fulfilling the requirements of a National Science Foundation (NSF) research grant to determine how climate and fire affect mushroom fruiting and distributions. The NSF grant has enabled the DNA sequencing of hundreds of specimens from three sites in Lane County: conifers at HJ Andrews and both oak and prairie sites at Mount Pisgah Arboretum. All sites have recent fires and control unburned areas. CMS members have participated in collections at all 3 sites including the collection of truffles by CMS member Heather Dawson and her truffle dog Rye.
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 July 20, 2022.
Macrofungi of Lane County Oregon
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: 54,860 (increase of 13,108)
- Total species: 1883 ( increase of 460)
- #people/contributors: 4,345 (increase of 1,002)
Woodchip Fungi of Lane County Oregon
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: 176 (increase of 5)
- Total species: 56 (increase of 1)
- #people/contributors: 67 (increase of 1)
Vouchered Macrofungi of Lane County Oregon
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 69)
- Total species: 245 (increase of 33)
- #people/contributors: 26 (increase of 8)
