The Hidden World of Fungi

Friday October 16th

4:00 pm – Check in to your lodges

5:00 pm – Casual dinner on the deck (participants bring their own dinner) at the Appalachian Forest Museum
This is an informal, relaxed welcome gathering - perfect for conversation, questions, and getting to know eachother.

6:30 pm – Instructor storytelling presentations – Lauren and Owen will share their unconventional journeys into mycology, the natural sciences and community education & outreach. At the Appalachian Forest Museum.

8:00 pm – Blacklight Foray Through “Valley of The Ancients” (Foray #1) - a slow, meandering exploration through old growth forest of the Rocky Fork Gorge, to look for UV-fluorescent fungi, including lichens and non-fungal critters of interest.

Saturday October 17th

9:00 am – Presentation: Mushroom Morphology 101 – An overview of common mushroom forms, parts of a mushroom, ephemeral field characteristics, and how it all ties into the identification of wild mushrooms. At the Whispering Springs Education Center.

10:00 am – Foray #2: Field-based exploration to observe fungi in their habitats.

12:00 pm – Lunch break (participants bring their own lunch)

1:30 pm – Mushroom Microscopy Workshop: An introductory, hands-on session where we will cover the microscopic features of a mushroom used to distinguish groups of fungi. We’ll use both dissecting and compound microscopes to examine specimens at a range of magnification and practice sketching what we observe. At the Whispering Springs Education Center.

3:30 pm – Foray #3

5:30 pm – Break for dinner and rest (participants bring their own dinner)

7:00 pm – Community Lecture & Discussion: Community Mycology: How to Document Fungi for Science – We’ll take a look at projects that have equipped mycophiles around the world to contribute to our collective understanding of fungal diversity. We’ll also discuss optimizing use of the free site/app iNaturalist, how to photograph fungi for scientific purposes, and dehydrate specimens for further study such as genetic sequencing and microscopy. At the Appalachian Forest Museum.

8:30 pm – Myco-Movie night:  a series of short films about fungi and the brilliant, eccentric people who devote their lives to studying them. At the Appalachian Forest Museum.

Sunday October 18th

9:00 am – Presentation: Fungal Ecology - We’ll span how fungi grow and reproduce, a variety of habitats and microclimates where they can be found, roles of specific enzymes in their lifecycles, inter-species and inter-kingdom relationships and more. At the Appalachian Forest Museum.

10:00 am – Foray #4

12:00 pm – Lunch at the Appalachian Forest Museum. Enjoy a shared meal in a beautiful setting. This meal will be provided.

1:30 pm – Program wrap-up.