Lincoln County Mycological Society

12/07/2025

How many errors can you find in this article?
(Hint: One is that "pines" are not hardwoods.)

I found several more. Sigh....NYT, do better!

What I would really like to know, though, is what the demographics of the people who were eating the mushrooms are. Michael Beug, a toxicologist and mycologist, has reported that a significant number of the 20+ people who were poisoned were in the Spanish-speaking community. If so, this is significant, because it's a shift away from previous outbreaks of mushroom poisoning of the last few decades in the US (esp PNW & California), which involved SE Asian folks, and later, Central European, corresponding to immigration demographics in those periods; people who were familiar picking and eating mushrooms in their former home countries, but had not learned to distinguish our North American varieties of edible vs toxic fungi.

I'd also like to know what efforts (other than a press release) are being done in the affected communities to get the word out. I did see a flyer someone produced in Spanish after this was reported, and that's being distributed in the Monterey County and Bay Area, I believe.

Officials said one person was killed and 20 others were poisoned after eating death cap mushrooms, which look and taste like safe mushrooms but can cause liver failure.

11/29/2025

Who says there's no future in studying our fungi friends?

For evolutionary biologist Toby Kiers, Ph.D. ’05, winning a 2025 MacArthur fellowship - “genius grant” - came as a total shock.

“I was stunned,” said Kiers. “I think it’s the mystery of the process that makes winning the fellowship so exciting because there’s no application, no forms, you have no idea who nominated you. It’s magic.”

Kiers is one of 22 people selected this year for exceptional creativity, promise for important future advances and potential for the fellowship to help their work. The prize comes with $800,000 over five years, no strings attached. In Kiers’ case, it marked the first time the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation recognized someone who studies fungi. https://ucdav.is/480CDje

10/08/2025

One week to go! (Volunteers still needed. Msg here if interested.)

The Wild West of Fungi!

09/21/2025

Wow! This is great. And beautiful poster.

We are back for another year of seasonal Fungi Bioblitzes around Cape Perpetua!

Join Naturalist Jamie for a few magical hours spent amongst towering trees and fruiting fungi 🍄🍂

We will be documenting the biodiversity of several forests using the iNaturalist app, while learning the ins and outs of basic fungi ID and foraging!

Sign up via our events calendar at capeperpetuacollaborative.org

09/19/2025

03/19/2025

Thursday, March 20 in Newport:

Join Sara Gibson for an introduction to dyeing with West Coast fungi and lichens during the next Tea & Talk, a monthly event held by the Coastal Arts Guild. It

12/23/2024

We've reached an incredible milestone — 500,000 unique taxa documented on iNaturalist! According to 2022 IUCN estimates, that’s nearly a quarter (23%) of all known species on Earth. A unique capacity to census 100k+ species annually Remarkably, 64% of these 500,000 taxa were observed within the ...

12/23/2024

We've had a few weeks to read now, and our book club is coming up this week! A fascinating book, and a prescient warning about the mysterious and deadly world of fungi―and how to avert further loss across species, including our own.

The discussion starts at 7:00pm Central time on December 28th
Here is the Book Club Webinar Link (click the orange "Register" button in the top right of the page to join us)!
https://app.glueup.com/event/virtual-book-club-blight-fungi-and-the-coming-pandemic-by-emily-monosson-105457

Learn more:
Fungi are everywhere. Most are harmless; some are helpful. A few are killers. Collectively, infectious fungi are the most devastating agents of disease on earth, and a fungus that can persist in the environment without its host is here to stay. In Blight, Emily Monosson documents how trade, travel, and a changing climate are making us all more vulnerable to invasion. Populations of bats, frogs, and salamanders face extinction. In the Northwest, America's beloved national parks are covered with the spindly corpses of whitebark pines. Food crops are under siege, threatening our coffee, bananas, and wheat―and, more broadly, our global food security. Candida auris, drug-resistant and resilient, infects hospital patients and those with weakened immune systems. Coccidioides, which lives in drier dusty regions, may cause infection in apparently healthy people. The horrors go on.

Yet prevention is not impossible. Tracing the history of fungal spread and the most recent discoveries in the field, Monosson meets scientists who are working tirelessly to protect species under threat, and whose innovative approaches to fungal invasion have the potential to save human lives. Delving into case studies at once fascinating, sobering, and hopeful, Blight serves as a wake-up call, a reminder of the delicate interconnectedness of the natural world, and a lesson in seeing life on our planet with renewed humility and awe.

12/03/2024

LCMS is looking for volunteers to help with the Sunday, December 15th "end-of-season" North County Mushroom Show at the Gleneden Community Club, 110 Azalea Street in Gleneden Beach, just south of Salishan on the coast.

If you'd like to help with set-up on Saturday (or foraging for table specimens) or at the event itself on Sunday, please contact Kimmarie Skondin at 503-341-8610 or email [email protected].

11/29/2024