2025 Mount Pisgah Arboretum Mushroom Festival
About CMS’s Involvement
The Cascade Mycological Society (CMS), along with Lane Community College (LCC) students in the Biology of Mushrooms class taught by Susie Holmes, are responsible for putting “the mushrooms in the mushroom festival”. Together, we search from the Cascades to the Coast to collect every species of mushroom we can find. Then, we invite nationally recognized mycologists to help us with identifying the mushrooms we collect, along with our local CMS experts. Only the mushrooms that are identified to both genus and species (or group/complex), are put on display. In addition to the mushroom display, CMS and LCC provided the following displays and activities:
- Mushrooms can be identified at our “Ask an Expert” table, located at the front of the White Oak Pavilion, where the main mushroom display is located.
- The “Edible, Poisonous and Look-Alikes” tent where attendees can learn about some mushroom species to enjoy and some others to avoid! This display is staffed all day with experienced CMS members who can answer questions.
- The Fungi Science Tent is sponsored and staffed by our partner Lane Community College.
- CMS provides the “Fun Fungal Facts” tent.
- We also provide the “Mushroom Selfie” tent/area.
- The CMS booth, where t-shirts, cookbooks, and other mushroom accessories are sold by CMS
Want to learn more about how the MPA Mushroom Festival got started in 1981? Check out the History of the MPA Mushroom Festival to learn how then LCC Professor Freeman Rowe and CMS members-to-be started this fabulous festival to benefit the Mount Pisgah Arboretum.
CMS Field Trips to Collect for the Mushroom Displays
CMS had four Member Field Trips to collect for the festival. Each was targeted to maximize the diversity of the mushrooms residing in differing habitats:
- Cascades/Hwy 126 with Chris Melotti
- Coast Range with Ron & Sandy Patton
- North Coast with Cheshire Mayrson
- South Coast with Matt Mathiason
Individual CMS members and our guest experts also went out to gather up both a diversity of mushrooms and to look for specific unusual mushroom species.
Guest Mushroom Experts
CMS was happy to welcome back guest expert Steve Trudell, who has identified mushrooms for the display every year since 2011. Steve was joined by guest expert Efrén Cázares with his microscope to identify coral mushrooms. Bitty Roy took the helm of triage (pre-identification sorting) while Peg Boulay and Aryanna Ferguson made sure mushroom identification cards were ready when needed. CMS founding member and local expert Ron Hamill, and Connor Dooley (AKA Corndog on iNaturalist) also assisted with identification on Saturday. Lane Community College (LCC) Professor Susie Holmes and her students in the Biology of Mushrooms class placed all the identified mushrooms on display. While CMS members Bruce Newhouse & Peg Boulay coordinated all of the CMS mushroom displays coming together.
On Sunday Steve Trudell staffed the Expert Identification Table to identify mushrooms festival growers brought in for identification.
Steve Trudell is a forest ecologist and itinerant educator who has been hunting, photographing, and learning about mushrooms for nearly 50 years. Currently an affiliate curator at the University of Washington Herbarium, he received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Geology from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and a PhD in Forest Ecosystems Analysis from the University of Washington. Author or co-author of Mushrooms of the Pacific Northwest, Tricholomas of North America, and his latest book titled Mushrooms of Alaska. Steve has taught mycology, botany, and biology courses at the University of Washington, The Evergreen State College, and Bastyr University, as well as workshops at many North American Mycological Association and local forays and festivals. His particular interest is in the roles that fungi play in forest carbon and nutrient cycling, especially the mycorrhizal species.
Mushroom Display Statistics
Not a record year due to only having a few light rain showers in September & October. The weather was very dry for several weeks leading up to the festival, then it dumped rain and the wind blew crazily twice during setup on Saturday. Fortunately, the weather was fabulous the next day.
Total # of species – 354 which is slightly above our average of 339 species on display since we began keeping records in 2007. Our highest year was in 2019 with 542 species, and our lowest year was in 2012 with 229 species on display.
Number of new species – 31 (included in the 354 species). This is below our average of 37 new species per year since 2007.
- Best in Show: Blue-green Wood Cup (Chlorociboria aeruginascens)
- 1st Place: Admirable Bolete (Aureoboletus mirabilis)
- 2nd Place: Oak Maze Polypore (Fomitopsis quercina)
Talks on the Terrace
Talks on the Terrace is a very popular place for all of fungal foodies to hang out! CMS Foodie Heather Sielicki was once again our emcee for a full lineup of mycophiles and chefs who taught how to select, prepare, and preserve your favorite fungal finds. And, of course, there are always tastings involved. Below was this year’s lineup of chefs.
10:45 to 11:15 – Valerie Nguyen of Fungi for the People
Noon to 12:45 – Acorn Community Cafe
1:15 to 2:00 – Seasoned at Claimed 52
2:30 to 3:15 – Jennifer Macone of The Mushroomery
CMS Sales Booth
The Mushroom Festival is CMS’s most expensive event of the year; but is also it’s largest fundraiser of the year. We are very fortunate to have two superstars who organize and staff the CMS sales booth all day. They also selected the mushroom for our t-shirt and had them printed in time for the festival. This year’s t-shirt was a very beautiful Shaggy Mane (Coprinus comatus). In addition to both long and short sleeved CMS t-shirts, this year’s CMS sales booth also offered a variety of hat types with CMS logos, the always popular CMS Wild Mushroom Cookbook and mushroom magnets, earrings, and ornaments donated by Sandy’s Shrooms.
Total net proceeds from this year’s CMS Sales booth were $3, 037.65!
Proceeds earmarked for MCLO DNA Sequencing (Magnets/wine charms) $345.78
Proceed earmarked for Scholarships/grants (Cookbooks & Other Sandy crafts) $1361.51.34
Proceed earmarked for General funds (Apparel, other) $1,330.35
The Mushroom Festival Mycoblitz
The mushroom festival mycoblitz is just one more way to get involved in supporting both the mushroom festival and citizen science. The 2025 Mycoblitz occurred from Oct. 16th through Oct. 25th and included mushrooms observed in Lane County and within about 20 miles outside of the county line: basically Newport to past Reedsport on the Coast, Albany to Roseburg in the interior, Mt. Jefferson (almost) south to Mt. Thielson in the Cascades, and east to Bend. During this time period in Lane County there were a total of 2006 macrofungi observations were made by 337 observers/participants. The most observed species was the Fly Agaric, followed by Sulfer Tuft and the Yellow Stainer.
In addition to those who made observations, a big thank you also goes to the 189 citizen scientists who assisted with identifying observations. This is the 4th year in a row that August Jackson took the top spot with 244 identifications. And, none of this would happen without CMS MLCO taxonomy team members Bruce Newhouse & Susie Holmes who organize and monitor the event.
You will find a complete report on the mycoblitz stats on the CMS Website.
