Since January I have been swallowed up in the mycelium web of artificial intelligence or AI. This new wave of technology has been around for a while, but it has only recently started to grow exponentially, seemingly doubling its knowledge and capacity for image generation, human-like writing and so much more, overnight.

This fall has been a whirlwind of schedule juggling, job hunting and tying up loose ends. So today I took the day to take a walk in the park and spend some time in a misty forest.

This park is close to my house and I go visit often. Today I brought by camera with the intention of creating art. I wanted to capture what it feels like to go on a walk in the woods. The seclusion of being alone with a heavy fog drip- in the shadow of the canopy- crawling through the leaf litter.

Since I began studying fungi in 2019 I have been drawn towards the Ascomycetes. The spores packaged neatly in its asci and the paraphyses nesting around providing color and protection, just makes sense in my brain. I like looking at those small microscopic worlds fanning out in squash mounted slides so I can take spore measurements. I also have a real knack for finding the little black cups or micro colonies of tiny Ascomycetes fruiting on rotting logs.

One of the highlights of this year has been the UV Night Foray I planned for the WVMS Funga Study group. Our group gathered at dusk at the trailhead to hike down a trail and wait for dark. It is only after dark that our adventure began and we lit up the forest in Technicolor wonder.

Foray Log- Northern Oregon Coast, January 27, 2022

Diana and I decided to take a day together and look for ectomycorrhizal connections and winter fungi growing along the coast. We were looking for signs of the hyphae that would have capped the root ends of trees and made their way into the wood wide web. On our first stop we spent a lot of time discussing what habitat we were standing in and how to identify trees. We were standing in a Cedar, Western Hemlock and Spruce forest, with old growth stumps as big as yurts. Beside all of the slash piles we found the Western Hemlocks used old fallen and decaying logs as their nursery, while the Cedar did not.

Cedar is one of those trees that does not foster an ectomycorrhizal connection with fungi. So as we looked at the fungi that was present in this forest we began to see the connections in a whole new light. The spongy forest floor was

Foray Log- South Central Oregon Coast, February 5, 2022

Scouting out new territory to mushroom hunt is always an adventure. If you have never been to a place before, it is hard to know exactly what you are getting yourself into. My friend Beth and I decided to get way out of town and go explore about 4 hours south of our forests into the south Siuslaw, Elliot State Forests, and BLM land off the Umpqua River. We researched the area with a mix of google maps, OnX maps, BLM maps, state forest maps, blog posts, newspaper articles and observations on iNaturalist. We were on the hunt for Black Trumpets, Craterellus cornucopioides, in the Tanoak forests of southwestern Oregon.

Beth came to my house at 6:45 where we packed up our gear, enough food for a few days and spirit ready for adventure. We had not been out to the woods together for months, maybe even a year and we finally made it work

Foray Log- Alsea Falls Area, January 22, 2022

After the whole family recovered from COVID, I wanted to get out and meet with my study group for a late winter foray. I got the group together and we caravanned out to the Alsea Falls area. We were not looking for anything particular, but just wanted to see what was fruiting this time of year. I am always impressed by the diversity of fungi in the coastal range mid winter. It is probably my favorite time to go to the woods because

Despite the incredibly difficult fall we had I want to take a moment and celebrate some recent accomplishments. In November 2021, I was acknowledged in my first scientific publication for the work I am doing with the Pezizales study from the University of Florida. This was a goal of mine since I started this mushroom science adventure and I am so proud of how far I have come in just a couple years.

I have collected and sent in samples to be DNA sequenced. They get to use the data in their study and I get the sequence info on my mushrooms. Plus they are putting my vouchered specimens in the herbarium and giving me credit in the papers that come from my collections. It is a dream come true for this community scientist!

I am going to be talking about fungi and art on December 18th! So excited to talk about my passions and answer questions about being a citizen scientist and artist. Come join me and author Mary Woodbury for some wonderful insight into blurring the lines of art and science.

When I was about 10 years old I was gifted a paper making set complete with a deckle, blotting papers, an instruction book, sponge and an extra screen. I ripped up junk mail and newspapers and created my own paper with infused flower petals. 28 years later, I still have that trusty tool and the skills I developed as a kid and decided to put my knowledge to work with fungi. I wanted to make paper out of fungi, something I could use mushroom pigments to paint on and eventually use in larger art projects.

As I prepare to do online school again this year, I asked by 12 year old if he would help me create a mycology card game. I wanted it to be fun and educational. Our family plays a lot of card games, board games and video games, so I knew we could create one.

We spent the evening jotting down ideas, creating the rules and refining the cards so the game is challenging, competitive and fun! Since we created the game, my son has asked to play it again and again.

Foray Log- Oregon Coast Foray, July 30, 2021

One of the only places to see fungi in the PNW during a drought and wildfire season is at the coast on the west side of the Coastal Range where the fog rolls in and keeps everything damp. We decided to make a day of it and visit 4 different places to observe the early summer fungi. First we stopped at Ona Beach, then met up with the study group at Cape Perpetua, stopped in to the Mike Miller Educational Trail and finally before heading home, walked through Fogarty Creek State Park. It was one long trail of stops up 101 starting in the south and heading north.

I took a vinegar making class from Pascal Baudar, author and traditional food preservationist, last week and just in time to make my own blackberry vinegar. Pascal took us through all of the calculations, and steps to turn fruit scraps into vinegar. I furiously took notes while my new baby kittens clawed and hissed at my feet. So of course I was glad that the course was recorded so I could go back and decipher the chicken scratch I had written in a hustle.

Foray Log- Hebo Lake UV Night Foray, July 10, 2021

Our study group has been talking about this for a couple years now. A night foray to look for bioluminescent fungi was something that we wanted do since our friend stumbled upon some glowing mycelium on a log a couple years ago. We knew it might be a longshot so to ensure we found something on this night walk we purchased some UV flashlights to find some UV reactive things as well. I scheduled the foray on the new moon so it would be as dark as possible and we decided to camp so we didn’t have to drive home at 2am.

I took a last minute trip to the coast with my oldest teenager to spend the day with him before he had archery class. We walked around my favorite coastal forest and found Hydnellum peckii and the little mycoheterotroph, Hemotomes congestum. Our forest exploration led us to the sweetest little fairy forest someone had built out of forest debris next to a cluster of H. congestum. We explored their little village and spent all the time we had building on to the village.

In the fall of 2020, Oregon, and especially the Willamette Valley experienced some of the worst wildfires in recorded history. We watched as the skies downwind of the million+ acre fires turned red, and darkened the sun even at noon. Our air quality was so bad, that it was hazardous to go outside for over 10 days. As our forests burned, communities lost their homes, livelihoods and lives because of lack of warning and scary conditions.

When I come home from a foray where I gather specimens to study, the first thing I do is try and get a spore print. I lay out as many 3x5inch index cards as I have species of mushrooms and write the date, place and a description of each mushroom on the card. Then I add a glass slide to my card and put the mushroom on top of that slide. This way the spore print will be deposited on the slide and I can look at the spores within an hour or so.

Foray Log- Big Meadow Horse Camp & Parish Lake, June 16, 2021

Today we took a drive out to Big Meadow’s Horse camp. As soon as I got out of the car, I sprayed myself down with bug spray and put on my hat with my new mosquito veil. I remember the last time I was here and the mosquitoes were so bad, I wasn’t going to deal with that again!

Foray Log- Avery Family Forest, June 12, 2021

Today was the last foray to the Avery Family Forest for our study group. We are heading into fire season here in Oregon, and we have to return our key by the end of the month. It has been an incredible experience watching the seasons change in the foothills of the Cascades.

I led a foray for the Willamette Valley Mushroom Society to a wilderness burn area to look for Morels and other burn fungi. Everyone backed out at the last minute except for Leigh and Bob, some new members to our group. We walked with them for a few hours along the slopes of the ashy mountain seeking some green oasis patches that would hold enough moisture to promote the growth of fungi.