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- 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.