Cowichan Lake Foray 2021

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Register for this great event.

The Cowichan Foray for 2021 is now fully booked. Thank you for registering. It will be a great weekend.

Lake Cowichan Foray – Weekend of October 22 – 24, 2021

The Lake Cowichan Foray weekend is a go and members are submitting their registration form for this great annual event. The location, Lake Cowichan Conference and Education Centre is on a 44 acre forested site.  This site and others in the Cowichan Valley area will be used to forage for fungi, led by mushroom experts. This will help participants identify terrain and discuss the variety of mushrooms and species we have in British Columbia.

More information and registration form can be found at this link: https://svims.club/docs. Don’t miss out on this event.

Covid protocols applicable at the time of this event will be followed.  

If you have additional questions, please contact Kurt Raeder at svims.treasurer@gmail.com .  Please use “Attendance” as subject title.

This is a member’s only event, so if you have not renewed or want to be a new member please do so. 

We look forward to seeing you there. 

Amanita muscaria, from the grounds of the Lake Cowichan Conference and Education Centre. By Kem Luther

Britt Bunyard presentation and foray March 2020

by ForaySVIMS events

Britt Bunyard, editor of Fungi Magazine, made another visit to SVIMS in March.  Britt gave an amazing presentation on Amanitas (his book on North American Amanitas will be out in 2 months and his beginner’s guide to mushrooms in the fall.) A version of his talk is available on YouTube.

Britt talks about mushrooms while holding the Skunk Cabbage Sceptre of Power

On Saturday, March 7, 2002, about 30 SVIMS members joined Britt and Andy for a fungal walk through Metchosin’s Blinkhorn Park. The group found over 30 species.  These were entered into the Metchosin Biodiversity Project database of observations and species.  You can view the species and pictures at the Project’s iNaturalist site.

Log inoculation workshop SVIMS Mar 14-15 2020

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SVIMS Log Inoculation Workshop

SVIMS Log Inoculation Workshop
This will be run by Steve Fischer.
Members only. 

Dates and Time:
Saturday March 14th. 
The first at 9:00, the second at 13:30

Sunday March 15th.
Depending on the number of registrations on the 14th, an extra class a consideration at 13:30.

Cost: by donation.

Registration: Contact Steve by email. The location/address and details of the event will be provided by him upon registering.

Shiitake log by dominik18s (https://www.flickr.com/people/55571726@N05), used under CC Attribution 2.0 license

iNaturist Workshop, Sunday, March 8, 2020

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SVIMS iNaturalist Workshop

Help document biodiversity in BC’s parks with the BC Parks iNaturalist Project

Date: Sunday March 8th, 2020

Time: 3:15pm – 5:30 pm

Place: Swan Lake Nature House

Cost: by donation

iNaturalist is used worldwide to crowdsource and share biodiversity observations: users take photos of flora, fauna, and fungi using their mobile phones or cameras and upload those images to inaturalist.ca, and iNaturalist’s image recognition software and user community can help identify the organism. Kelly Fretwell and Naomi Salie from the BC Parks Foundation will guide you through the process of using iNaturalist to make great citizen science observations of the fascinating fungi, lichens, and slime moulds you come across while out exploring, and to share your own species identification expertise.

Learn about how SVIMS members can get involved in citizen science through the BC Parks iNaturalist Project. This project now has more than 116,000 observations of 5,000 species, thanks to the photo and identification contributions of over 2,700 citizen scientists. By contributing to this project you can create an interactive record of your outdoor explorations while also generating data that helps researchers develop a deeper understanding of what our parks are protecting.

Those with expertise can also share their knowledge and help others identify what they found: the skills and knowledge of SVIMS members would be particularly valuable in determining the often more elusive identities of fungi, lichens, and slime moulds found by other observers.

The afternoon will include a guided stroll in Swan Lake Nature Sanctuary to find and photograph species, so be sure to bring a smart phone or camera to take photos.

Recommendations & optional equipment to prepare for this event:

  • Create an iNaturalist account at inaturalist.ca
  • Download the iNaturalist app on your mobile phone.
  • Bring a laptop computer if you would prefer to use iNaturalist’s desktop website platform rather than the app (not required, but you might find it helpful)
  • Bring a hand lens (loupe) to learn how to turn your phone into a handheld macro lens

SVIMS AGM 2019

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The next SVIMS meeting, besides being a regular meeting with a speaker (see poster below), is also the AGM, the annual general meeting.

Place: PACIFIC FORESTRY CENTRE (PFC)
506 West Burnside Road,
Saanich,BC  V8Z 4N9

Time:  December 5, 2019, 7:00-9:00 PM

(A big thanks to Richard Winder and Tony Trofymow for continuing to supervise our use of the meeting facilities at the Pacific Forestry Centre, as also to the Centre itself for the use of their facilities for the past year.)

Please try to attend about 10-15 minutes prior to the meeting in order to check in and update memberships. Only members in good standing are able to vote.  Also, do not forget to return all library material.

BUSINESS

Action: for approval of minutes of last AGM.

Reports:

  • President (Andy MacKinnon)
  • Treasurer (Kurt Raeder). The treasurer’s report from Kurt is to be accompanied by documentation of the 2018 year end financials and an interim report till November 30th 2019. These will be available for review and circulation at the meeting.
  • Membership Coordinator (Gillian Phillips).

Action: for approval of the Treasurer’s report without an audit.

Updates:

  • October Cowichan foray( Kurt Raeder)
  • the Mushroom show (Andrew Anderson)
  • the upcoming Survivor’s Banquet and Auction (Mel Hess)
  • the library (Jeff Wright),
  • Fungifama and the movie event of Fantastic Fungi (Mel Hess)
  • the Calendar status ( Mabel Jean Rawlins)
  • the Chinese dinner (Adolf Ceska)
  • the Facebook page( Kevin Trim).
  • upcoming 2020 speakers (Kem Luther)
  • status of new website (Ian Gibson and Kem Luther)
  • foray policy (David Walde). The Foray Policy and associated documents were revised and implemented earlier this year at the Cowichan foray. This will need adjustments yearly as necessary to meet our insurance coverage requirements.

Thank you to Isabelle Grenon and François Duruisseau (Hospitality Committee) and Tabitha Jones (billeting) for their untiring service to SVIMS.

Special motion:  

  • “To include a special category of membership recognition: A Lifetime Membership in recognition of outstanding service and distinction to the South Vancouver Island Mycological Society (SVIMS). This will entitle the awarded members to all the same privileges of membership but without payments of dues. The board will have the responsibility for approval of any such membership. 

Action: for approval, special motion

ELECTION OF A NEW BOARD

The present board: 

  • President – Andy MacKinnon
  • Vice President – Melanie Hess
  • Secretary — David Walde
  • Treasurer—Kurt Raeder
  • Membership secretary and coordinator —Gillian Phillips
  • Directors at large: Lise Gagnon, Rolf Mayrhofer, Andrew Anderson

The board would like to see the number of directors at large increase to 5 positions.

The Board strongly encourages nominations from the membership for all of the above positions. (You can even nominate yourself.)

Information pertaining to any of the above positions can be requested from David Walde at davidwalde@icloud.com.

All nominations must be seconded at the meeting before being put to a vote by a show of hands by the members in good standing. The floor can request that the vote for any position be cast by ballot. Nominations will be accepted up to the time of the vote for each position.

Once the new officers are elected, all the present board members will resign their present positions, followed by a signing in of the newly elected board.

That will conclude the business part of the meeting.

SHORT REFRESHMENT BREAK

RAFFLE DRAW

Raffle people will continue to sell tickets up to this point.

SPEAKER

Our speaker of the month is our one and only Shannon Berch. See poster below.