Presidents Letters

Greetings Rocky Mountain mushroom lovers! Spring sprung, and now the temperatures are making it feel a lot like summer. Come July, we should expect to see the seasonal monsoons come through the region and moisten the soils, stimulating the fungi to push up their reproductive structures and give us something to hunt for, marvel at, and stimulate our curiosity. We are planning on having forays this summer! We want to respect municipal and state guidelines regarding COVID-19 so it is highly likely that forays will have limited attendance. However, we hope that by providing some access to learning about mushrooms we can relive a lot of the stress, anxiety and cabin fever that is building up in our individual lives.  There is at least one foray planned for June, with one or two more likely to happen. Dates and times and how to sign up will be added to the website soon, so please stay tuned for when those events are posted. During the month of June we’re happy to offer two webinars.  The first one will be for our regular society meeting on Monday June 8th. The talk for this meeting will be by Jeff Ravage on the topic of bioremediation. He is using fungi to enhance composting of woody debris in Colorado’s forests. One week later, Jon Sommer will provide a webinar on features that help identify fungi in the field. This webinar is aimed for both beginning and more advanced fungal hunters. While the mushroom season progresses, we’re constantly looking for ways to help our members discover the world of mycology. The situation is clearly fluid but we’re making adjustments and are finding ways to provide good opportunities. If you have any suggestions as to what we can do, please feel free to reach out and type in the comments section at the bottom of this post on the website. Otherwise, I hope all is well with you. Yours in fungi, Andy…