2025 Mushroom Show Cancelled

It is with regret that we announce the cancellation of the 2025 South Vancouver Island Mycological Society (SVIMS) Annual Mushroom Show, which was scheduled to take place on November 2nd at the Royal BC Museum.

This decision comes as a result of the ongoing BCGEU strike, which has significantly affected the museum’s capacity to coordinate with us and provide the necessary staffing and support for the event.

SVIMS recognizes the broader impact of the strike, including on our members, volunteers, and mycologists, and we acknowledge the importance of the issues at stake. We sincerely hope for a fair and timely resolution.

Thank you to our volunteers and the Royal BC Museum staff for the efforts they have made to coordinate this event.

We appreciate your understanding and continued support, and we look forward to welcoming you to our show next year.

— The SVIMS Executive

Monthly Meeting October 2, 2025

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

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

Noah Siegel

 will share with us

Adventures of a Mycohobo

 

Noah is one of North America’s foremost field mycologists; he has spent over three decades seeking, photographing, identifying, and furthering his knowledge about all aspects of macrofungi. He travels and lectures extensively across America, following the mushrooms from coast to coast.         

Noah was the recipient of the 2022 North American Mycological Association’s Award for Contributions to Amateur Mycology. His primary research interest is on the taxonomy and systematics of fungi.         

He authored, along with Christian Schwarz, Mushrooms of the Redwood Coast, a Comprehensive Guide to the Fungi of Coastal Northern California and Mushrooms of Cascadia, a Comprehensive Guide to Fungi of the Pacific Northwest, as well as co-authoring A Field Guide to the Rare Fungi of California’s National Forests. He is currently working on Mushrooms of Alaska, with Steve Trudell and Kate Mohatt.

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 and description of the presentation.

In this presentation, we will learn some of the most common and memorable mushrooms found in fall in the Pacific Northwest. We will focus especially on common edibles and how to tell them apart from poisonous or just otherwise tricky potential lookalikes, noting particular physical features and habitats that will help you to identify them on your own.

  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/

Canadian Mushroom Stamps 2025

Today (August 27, 2025) Canada Post released a set of five “fantastic fungi” stamps, a follow-up to a previous set of four from 1989. Keith Siefert, author of The Hidden Kingdom of Fungi, was the main expert-consultant for these. He wrote the original proposal about two years ago and followed the process through all its stages up to the little video and the web announcement. The project was triggered when the head of the Canada Post stamp department read one of the interviews he did for The Hidden Kingdom.
 
You’ll note that Keith stuck one of his career-interest microfungi in the set. Having an arbuscular mycorrhizal mushroom on a stamp may be a world first!
 

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.