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The Whistler Naturalists would like to thank volunteers and participants who had a great time mushrooming in the rain during our 19th annual Fungus Among Us Mushroom Festival last weekend.
We started with presentations and mushroom walks to 22 classes (more than 500 students!) at the local elementary schools—Spring Creek, Myrtle Philip and École La Passerelle. It was great to see so many students excited about mushrooms. Thanks to school presenters Andy MacKinnon, Kevin Trim, Paul Kroeger, David Walde, Kem Luther, Luke Mikler and Christina Nick.
We’d also like to thank our “Talks with Gurus” presenters: Andy and Kem who introduced us to their new book Mushrooms of British Columbia (now No. 1 on the B.C. bestseller list); Thom O’Dell for his talk on mushrooms and mental health; and Joern Rohde for judging and announcing the winners of the Fantastic Fungi Photo Contest. You can find a recording of the talks on our website: whistlernaturalists.ca.
Congratulations to winners of the photo contest in each category: Magali Lalonde-Legault for Captivating Colour and Weird and Wonderful; Aurora Moore for Gorgeous Gills; Liz Barrett for Tiny Toadstools; and Adam Smith for Fungal Fun. These photos and other wonderful entries can also be viewed on our website.
The Saturday morning “Walks with Gurus” brought back at least 150 different species of mushrooms that were displayed under tents in the afternoon. When the new species from the event are added to the Whistler Biodiversity Project list, we expect the total of mushroom species documented in Whistler will now exceed 900!
Finally, the Whistler Naturalists would also like to thank our key sponsors: The Whistler Community Foundation, AWARE and Resort Municipality of Whistler. Thanks also to wonderful support from Nesters Market, Tantalus Lodge, Whistler Bike Co., Avalanche Pizza, Whistler Cooks, Whistler Museum, Whistler Library, Creekside Market, Sea to Sky Invasive Species Council, Canadian Wilderness Adventures, and the Whistler Biodiversity Project.
See you next year, as always, the weekend after Thanksgiving.
Kristina Swerhun, Bob Brett // Whistler Naturalists
