The Whistler Naturalists would like to thank volunteers and participants who joined our 21st annual Fungus Among Us Mushroom Festival.
We started with presentations and mushroom walks to 29 classes (more than 600 students)! We were excited to return to the Xetólacw Community School in Mount Currie, as well as Spring Creek Community School, École La Passerelle and Myrtle Philip Community School in Whistler. It was great to see so many students curious about mushrooms. Thanks to school presenters Andy MacKinnon, Kevin Trim, Paul Kroeger, Stephanie Wilford, Bill Weir, Ben Hircock, Jenn Amy, Shayn McAskin and Savita Owens-Frank.
We’d also like to thank our “Talks with Gurus” presenters: Stephanie Wilford for “Fungi and Fire;” Ludovic Le Renard for “Amazing Mushroom Morphology;” Ashleigh Woodruff and Liv Teitzel for “Fun with Fungi;” and Andy MacKinnon for his talk on Cordyceps fungi, “Zombie Apocalypse.”
Congratulations to the winners of the Fantastic Fungi Foto Contest. These and other photos from the event can be viewed on our website: whistlernaturalists.ca.
After another summer of drought, we were worried about a lack of mushrooms. Luckily for fungal fans, Mother Nature pulled through just in time and rewarded our event with a huge diversity of fungi. After all the identifications are finished, we expect close to the annual average of 180 species, of which at least a few will be new to our list. As a result, we are nudging ever-closer to 1,000 species documented in Whistler.
Our popular Forest to Table lunch wouldn’t have been possible without the great expertise and wonderful creativity of Chef Bruce Worden.
Finally, the Whistler Naturalists would also like to thank our key sponsors: The Whistler Community Foundation, AWARE and the RMOW. Thanks also to wonderful support from Milestones, Nesters Market, Legends Hotel, Whistler Bike Co., Avalanche Pizza, Pasta Lupino, Whistler Museum, Toad Hall Studios, Arts Whistler, Photographer Jayden Innis, and the Whistler Biodiversity Project.
See you next year, as always, the weekend after Thanksgiving.
