MIMSY or Mid Island Mycological SYmbionts

MIMSY or Mid Island Mycological SYmbionts are kicking off with a meeting in July to provide a meet-and-greet, plan for fall activities, and talk about mushrooms. Bring your mushroom finds and mushroomy ideas to the meeting!

This is the first of many planned meetings by the Mid- Island committee of SVIMS (a.k.a. MIMSY) for 2025. With our structure solidified and the support of SVIMS, we will host local mid-island meetings, forays, workshops, and speakers! When not hosting speakers ourselves, we will be streaming SVIMS club meetings and joining in on the fun happening South island. We aim to cover the area between Parksville and Campbell River, but may expand to include future membership needs. Join us as we discover and meet to discuss the fungus among us. Have a mushroom you want to identify, show off, or talk about? Wonderful! Bring it to the meeting. Interested in volunteering? Great! Please come to the fall -prep kick-off meeting!

Planned Meetings:

Location: North Island College, Campbell River, Room C270

Thursday, July 3, 5:30 PM to 7:30 PM – Theme: Meet-and-greet, planning, mushroom finds

Thursday, August 7, 5:30 PM to 7:30 PM – Theme: Speaker, TBD (awaiting confirmation)

Bear with us as we get going with a room that is tech-capable; for now, we will be in-person only but recording any speakers for posting afterward! We are working with NIC to secure an equipped room for September.

MIMSY or Mid Island Mycological SYmbionts

MIMSY or Mid Island Mycological SYmbionts are kicking off with a meeting in July to provide a meet-and-greet, plan for fall activities, and talk about mushrooms. Bring your mushroom finds and mushroomy ideas to the meeting!

This is the first of many planned meetings by the Mid- Island committee of SVIMS (a.k.a. MIMSY) for 2025. With our structure solidified and the support of SVIMS, we will host local mid-island meetings, forays, workshops, and speakers! When not hosting speakers ourselves, we will be streaming SVIMS club meetings and joining in on the fun happening South island. We aim to cover the area between Parksville and Campbell River, but may expand to include future membership needs. Join us as we discover and meet to discuss the fungus among us. Have a mushroom you want to identify, show off, or talk about? Wonderful! Bring it to the meeting. Interested in volunteering? Great! Please come to the fall -prep kick-off meeting!

Planned Meetings:

Location: North Island College, Campbell River, Room C270

Thursday, July 3, 5:30 PM to 7:30 PM – Theme: Meet-and-greet, planning, mushroom finds

Thursday, August 7, 5:30 PM to 7:30 PM – Theme: Speaker, TBD (awaiting confirmation)

Bear with us as we get going with a room that is tech-capable; for now, we will be in-person only but recording any speakers for posting afterward! We are working with NIC to secure an equipped room for September.

MIMSY or Mid Island Mycological SYmbionts

MIMSY or Mid Island Mycological SYmbionts are kicking off with a meeting in July to provide a meet-and-greet, plan for fall activities, and talk about mushrooms. Bring your mushroom finds and mushroomy ideas to the meeting!

This is the first of many planned meetings by the Mid- Island committee of SVIMS (a.k.a. MIMSY) for 2025. With our structure solidified and the support of SVIMS, we will host local mid-island meetings, forays, workshops, and speakers! When not hosting speakers ourselves, we will be streaming SVIMS club meetings and joining in on the fun happening South island. We aim to cover the area between Parksville and Campbell River, but may expand to include future membership needs. Join us as we discover and meet to discuss the fungus among us. Have a mushroom you want to identify, show off, or talk about? Wonderful! Bring it to the meeting. Interested in volunteering? Great! Please come to the fall -prep kick-off meeting!

Planned Meetings:

Location: North Island College, Campbell River, Room C270

Thursday, July 3, 5:30 PM to 7:30 PM – Theme: Meet-and-greet, planning, mushroom finds

Thursday, August 7, 5:30 PM to 7:30 PM – Theme: Speaker, TBD (awaiting confirmation)

Bear with us as we get going with a room that is tech-capable; for now, we will be in-person only but recording any speakers for posting afterward! We are working with NIC to secure an equipped room for September.

MIMSY or Mid Island Mycological SYmbionts

MIMSY or Mid Island Mycological SYmbionts are kicking off with a meeting in July to provide a meet-and-greet, plan for fall activities, and talk about mushrooms. Bring your mushroom finds and mushroomy ideas to the meeting!

This is the first of many planned meetings by the Mid- Island committee of SVIMS (a.k.a. MIMSY) for 2025. With our structure solidified and the support of SVIMS, we will host local mid-island meetings, forays, workshops, and speakers! When not hosting speakers ourselves, we will be streaming SVIMS club meetings and joining in on the fun happening South island. We aim to cover the area between Parksville and Campbell River, but may expand to include future membership needs. Join us as we discover and meet to discuss the fungus among us. Have a mushroom you want to identify, show off, or talk about? Wonderful! Bring it to the meeting. Interested in volunteering? Great! Please come to the fall -prep kick-off meeting!

Planned Meetings:

Location: North Island College, Campbell River, Room C270

Thursday, July 3, 5:30 PM to 7:30 PM – Theme: Meet-and-greet, planning, mushroom finds

Thursday, August 7, 5:30 PM to 7:30 PM – Theme: Speaker, TBD (awaiting confirmation)

Bear with us as we get going with a room that is tech-capable; for now, we will be in-person only but recording any speakers for posting afterward! We are working with NIC to secure an equipped room for September.

Salt Spring foray by SVIMS members May 10 2025

On May 10th, 2025, members of the Mushroom Enthusiasts of Salt Spring Island (founded by Vail Paterson), together with experts from SVIMS, the South Vancouver Island Mycological Society (including their Mid
Island Chapter), and the VMS, the Vancouver Mycological Society, conducted a mycoblitz of the
Nature Conservancy Canada (NCC) Reginald Hill Conservation Area on Salt Spring Island. 

NCC permission was obtained to survey along designated trails of this 161-hectare woodland, and also to conduct a limited collection of fungi as necessary for identification purpose. 

Salt Spring’s Rosemarie Keough produced a detailed report of the event with many photos of the mushrooms found.

Monthly Meeting September 4, 2025

The September 4 monthly meeting will be at a new location:

Pacific Forestry Centre
506 Burnside Road West
Victoria BC  V8Z 4N9

Doors open at 6:30pm to socialize and identify mushrooms.

Leah Bendlin

 will speak with us about

Common Fall Mushrooms and their Lookalikes

See more details about her below the poster.

Leah Bendlin is a Portland based mushroom and community science enthusiast. She caught the mycology bug after her first outing hunting chanterelles with a friend. She was amazed at the diversity of other mushrooms that day, and set out to learn the science of identification. That curiosity proved insatiable, and now, 12 years later, she has become an expert taxonomist and aspires to learn the name of every mushroom she encounters, and delights in teaching others. Leah has special interests in taxonomy, uncommonly known edibles, mycoheterotrophic plants, slime molds, ascomycetes (cup fungi) and social justice. She regularly leads mushroom ID classes and walks through various Pacific Northwest organizations and has volunteered as a teacher, identifier and board member of the Oregon Mycological Society. You can find her Instagram page, focused primarily on teaching mushroom species of the Pacific Northwest at
https://www.instagram.com/leah_mycelia/