TO LEARN MORE

Mushroom Clubs

The best way to learn about mushrooms and mushroom-hunting is to join one of the many mushroom clubs (often called mycological societies or associations) in the Pacific Northwest. Most hold regular meetings with featured speakers and, in-season, collected mushrooms can be brought there to be identified. Some of the larger clubs host informative Web sites or e-mail discussion groups, offer classes in identification, and hold an annual exhibit or large overnight foray (both a trip in search of mushrooms and a multi-day mushroom get-together are called “forays”). Nearly all hold forays, usually on Saturdays, during the peak season. Here you will be exposed to a wide range of people from whom you can begin to learn. Despite the bad pun, mushroomers really are a down-to-earth, if sometimes a tad eccentric, bunch and generally enjoyable to be around. Mingling at meetings and on forays is also a good way to learn about other resources and events that might interest you. Northwest clubs of which we are aware follow.

Alaska (southern)

Alaska Mycological Society, Homer

Glacier Bay Mycological Society, Gustavus

Greater Anchorage Mycological Association, Eagle River

Southeast Alaska Mycological Association, Sitka

British Columbia (southern)

Fraser Valley Mushroom Club, Mission

South Vancouver Island Mycological Society, Victoria

Southern Interior Mycological Society, Lake Country

Vancouver Mycological Society, Vancouver

California (northern)

Humboldt Bay Mycological Society, Arcata

Mount Shasta Mycological Society, Mount Shasta

Idaho

North Idaho Mycological Association, Hayden

Palouse Mycological Association, Moscow

Southern Idaho Mycological Association, Boise

Montana (western)

Kootenai Valley Mycological Society, Libby

Southwest Montana Mycological Association, Bozeman

Western Montana Mycological Association, Missoula

Oregon

Cascade Mycological Society, Eugene

Lincoln County Mycological Society, Otter Rock

Mount Mazama Mushroom Association, Medford

North American Truffing Society, Corvallis

Oregon Mycological Society, Portland

Wild Rivers Mushroom Club, Brookings

Willamette Valley Mushroom Society, Salem

Washington

Kitsap Peninsula Mycological Society, Bremerton

Northwest Mushroomers Association, Bellingham

Olympic Peninsula Mycological Society, Chimacum

Puget Sound Mycological Society, Seattle

Snohomish County Mycological Society, Everett

South Sound Mushroom Club, Olympia

Spokane Mushroom Club, Spokane

Mushroom Web Sites

Because of the dynamic nature of the World Wide Web, we were hesitant to include addresses for many Web sites, as they change so often; however, the following two sites have been amazingly stable (both of them for well over a decade), so we feel reasonably safe in giving them. In addition to being very informative in themselves, they provide many links to other sites of interest.

Tom Volk’s Fungi: http://botit.botany.wisc.edu/toms_fungi/

Tom Volk is a professor at the University of Wisconsin and his Web site has won numerous awards for presenting information in an extremely entertaining fashion. His “Mushroom of the Month” is a long-running favorite.

MykoWeb: http://www.mykoweb.com/

MykoWeb is the pet project of San Francisco Bay area mushroomer Mike Wood. Although a large portion of its content is focused on California, there is much of general interest and many links to mushroom sites of all types.