Friends of Creamer's Field

10/14/2026

Who's that haunting the forest? Why it's not a witch, but a spruce rust fungus! Chrysomyxa arctostaphyli sets up camp in spruce trees, often appearing as a large, scraggly "broom". Though the fungus is harmful for the tree, flying squirrels don't mind one bit: thanks to the warm and dry refuge the fungus provides, squirrels can be found constructing dreys, another word for squirrel nests, inside of the "broom", as illustrated in this Creamer's Field Scary Sketch by Mark D. Ross.

For more frightening fungi facts, be sure to come by our Creepy Critters event, taking place THIS SATURDAY from 12-4pm in the Farmhouse Visitor Center!

10/13/2026

Reminder that this is happening THIS SATURDAY, October 17th! Fungi facts, crafts, games, and a guided mushroom walk through Creamer's Field! It's going to be a spooky and spectacular time—costumes encouraged. We hope to see you there!👻🍄

Friends of Creamer's Field is hosting Mycorrhizal Mysteries in their Farmhouse Visitor Center, Saturday, Oct 17, noon -4 pm. Mycorrhizal Mysteries event includes crafts, educational materials, activities, and a fungi walk lead by Fairbanks Mycology Society.

10/09/2026

Halloween is right around the corner, and these Alaskan animals have already got their costumes all figured out! Who’s winning the costume contest? My money’s on Beetlegoose, personally…👻🎃🦆

Got your own creature costume you’d like to show off? Wear it to our Creepy Critters event, Mycorrhizal Mysteries, taking place on October 17 from 12-4pm in the Farmhouse Visitor Center!

10/08/2026

Nothing cooler than when art and nature collide! Have you ever made a spore print before? It might be past prime season for this😅what can we say, there’s always mush-room for improvement.🍄‍🟫

Come learn all about mushrooms, spores, mycorrhizae and more at our Creepy Critters event, October 18 from 12-4 in the Farmhouse Visitor Center!

Image credits The Survival Gardener, Missy Maxwell, Sporebuddies.com

10/07/2026

The Fly Agaric, Amanita Muscaria, is one of the most iconic mushrooms out there! But did you know that its stunning red cap and sturdy white stem are only small parts of a much larger organism? The Fly Agaric, like many other fungi, forms mycorrhizal relationships with the plants around them, in which plant roots and fungal hyphae become interconnected.

Fungal hyphae are individual threads of the larger mycelium, the hidden network of root-like filaments living in soil or decaying wood. Many types of fungi have mycorrhizal mycelium, which forms symbiotic relationships with nearby plant roots—a system affectionately dubbed the Wood Wide Web! In this exchange, the plant creates carbon and sugars through photosynthesis, while the fungus absorbs hard-to-reach water and minerals from the soil, and the resources are swapped through the mycorrhizal network. Somewhere between 70-90% of land plants participate in this mutually beneficial exchange!

Though this image was taken elsewhere in Alaska, the Fly Agaric can be found right here in Fairbanks. It's crazy to think that the red and white fruiting body is only a small part of the organism underneath!

Learn more amazing fungi facts like this one at our Creepy Critters event, Mycorrhizal Mysteries, on Saturday, October 17th from 12-4!

Image credit USDA.

10/06/2026

Rain, rain, go away… it let up for a little bit after our incredibly rainy September, but it looks like there's more rain forecasted for this week, as well as some snow. Everyone drive safe! 🦆☔️

10/05/2026

On this day in history, 78 years ago, Charlie Creamer bough an additional 320 acres from Roy Shafer at a public auction for $5,500. The 1940s were a tumultuous time for the Creamers, largely due to the war and associated labor shortages. At the end of the decade, though, their luck turned, and the dairy saw several forms of expansion going into the 50s, including the additional acreage north of Farmers Loop.

10/03/2026

Announcing our October Book Club, taking place in the Farmhouse Visitor Center on October 28th from 6:30-7:30PM! This month, we will be reading Two in the Far North, an autobiography by Margaret E. Murie. Raised right here in Fairbanks, Murie recounts life growing up in the Interior, becoming the first woman to graduate from the University of Alaska, fieldwork in Wyoming with her husband and naturalist Olaus J. Murie, and her work as a conservationist helping found the Wilderness Society.

Join us for an informative and easygoing discussion about the book! Refreshments will be provided. We hope to see you there!

RSVP at https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSejEXbF8aSgyOCfhwvGsA-IC0vldp5FFAIgpiHUWORtIXUjoA/viewform?usp=dialog or by emailing [email protected].

10/02/2026

What's your mushroom name?🍄✨Drop yours in the comments!

Don't forget to come by for our Creepy Critters event, Mycorrhizal Mysteries, on October 17 from 12-4! We'll have games, crafts, and lots of fantastic fungi facts👻

10/01/2026

If this September felt unusually rainy to you, you're not alone. According to the US National Weather Service Fairbanks Alaska, this was the second rainiest September on record in Fairbanks, and the rainiest recorded since 1904! This year's exceptional precipitation was pretty visible here at the refuge, as you can see by our flooded seasonal wetlands.

The heavy rain certainly doesn't stop waterfowl migration—they've gotta get south somehow—but it does change their flight behavior. Major rainstorms will temporarily halt travel, as heavy rainfall prevents the birds from flying aerodynamically and efficiently. Flooded wetlands and rivers create a larger area of feeding grounds, resulting in waterfowl dispersal and smaller flocks. Migrating waterfowl also tend to fly closer to the ground during times of cloud cover and light drizzles, as the reduced visibility makes them feel safer from predators.

As for the wetlands and rivers themselves, the Chena reached its highest recorded level of the summer, as did several other rivers across the Interior. This is atypical of normal seasonal patterns, in which river levels are expected to peak just after spring breakup. Such high water levels late in the season are associated with higher aufeis flow, which is to say flowing sheet-like ice masses, and larger areas of unstable ice shelves that form as water levels drop in the winter.

You can read more about river levels in Interior Alaska at https://alaskaclimate.substack.com/p/rivers-running-high-in-interior-alaska .

Image credits Alaska Center for Climate Assessment and Preparedness and NWS Alaska-Pacific River Forecast Center.