event calendar
Sycamore Grove Mushroom Foray
Sunday, February 5, 2012 | 1:00 – 4:00 pm
Sycamore Grove/Veterans Park | Livermore, California
Join ranger Amy Wolitzer and BAMS' Debbie Viess for the annual mushroom hunt at 1:00 pm. Meet at Sycamore Grove/Veterans Park 5211 Arroyo Rd, Livermore, CA 94550. Follow this link to see a report on last year's foray. For more information, contact Debbie Viess at 510.430.9353.
BAMS General Meeting
David Pilz: Wild Mushroom Management in Spain
UC Berkeley, 338 Koshland Hall
Friday, February 17, 2012 | 7:30 — 9:30 pm
David Pilz presents "Wild Mushroom Management in Spain: What might be applicable here?" He had the opportunity to visit Spain last June to participate in a "Micosylva" conference and field trip regarding how Spanish provinces are proactively co-managing timber and forest mushrooms to enhance rural economic development. One of their main commercial mushroom species is almost identical to Spring boletes on the Lassen National Forest. We anticipate a lively discussion after Dave’s presentation!
Pilz is a Consultant and Writer and owner of PilzWald (Forestry Applications of Mycology). He was formerly a Forest Mycologist with the Department of Forest Science at Oregon State University in Corvallis, OR, where he conducted research on harvested forest fungi, with an emphasis on compatible production of edible mushrooms in forests managed for timber and other amenities. This research focus evolved from 9 years of research with the Pacific Northwest Research Station (USDA-Forest Service) on the Productivity and Sustainable Harvest of Edible Forest Mushrooms.
Research projects entailed collaboration with numerous landowners, forest managers, and harvesters to test monitoring protocols for matsutake, chanterelle, and morel mushrooms and to investigate how silvicultural choices affected their productivity. More generally, David's expertise extends to the broader topic of Non-Timber Forest Products, starting with his involvement in issues surrounding the harvest of native yews for the anti-cancer drug Taxol. He currently works as a Natural Resource Planner for the Lassen National Forest in Susanville, California.
Doors open at 7:30 for mushroom identification; meeting starts promptly at 8:00.
BAMS General Meeting
Roz Lowen: Title TBD
UC Berkeley, 338 Koshland Hall
Thursday, March 29, 2012 | 7:30 — 9:30 pm
Ascomycete Expert Roz Lowen will give a presentation (title TBD), but whatever she talks about is sure to be engaging. Dr. Lowen was an honorary research assistant at the New York Botanical Garden where she conducted research for many years. Her doctoral research at CCNY was on the ascomycete genus Nectriella. She has described several species of ascomycetes. Among her interests are ascomycetes that occur on lichens, mold that occurs in buildings and more recently the genera Helvella and Tricholoma. She has given programs to mushroom clubs, at nature areas and ascomycete workshop at the Northeast Mycological Federation (NEMF) Forays. She has been coteaching a week-long seminar at Eagle Hill in Stueben Maine on mushrooms and other fungi. She has written about two dozen publications on ascomycetes including several book reviews. She is an advisor to the Northeast poison control center.
Doors open at 7:30 for mushroom identification; meeting starts promptly at 8:00.
BAMS General Meeting
Jenny Talbot: Dishing the Dirt on Decomposition
UC Berkeley, 338 Koshland Hall
Tuesday, April 17, 2012 | 7:30 — 9:30 pm
Jenny Talbot, PhD, presents: "Dishing the dirt on decomposition: how soil fungi shape the ecosystem carbon cycle." Fungi regulate critical processes that control the cycling of carbon (C) and nutrients through ecosystems. As a NOAA Climate and Global Change Postdoctoral Fellow, Talbot studies the fine-scale chemical mechanisms that soil fungi use to drive these large-scale processes. One of the most important, but poorly understood processes that fungi control is the decomposition of dead plant and microbial biomass (i.e. litter). To gain insight into this complex process, she uses tools and concepts from her background in chemistry to identify species of decomposer fungi that are key players in decomposition and nutrient cycling world-wide, as well as in our own backyards.
Doors open at 7:30 for mushroom identification; meeting starts promptly at 8:00.
