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.