SVIMS held its 2022 Cowichan Foray last weekend at the Cowichan Lake Education Centre. During the outing, about 60 people—counting both the full-foray attendees and the Saturday daytrippers—sought out fall mushrooms. Teams were sent to Gordon Bay Campground, the Forestry Centre old growth, and the grounds around the Cowichan Lake Education Centre. The dry year made the usually-plentiful mushrooms hard to find.
The weekend–ably organized by Kurt, Mel, Steve, Gillian, David, and others–began with a supper at the Cow Restaurant in Lake Cowichan.
Besides enjoying the evening entertainment sessions and chowing down on the great food at the Centre, foray participant took several guided walks to view and collect samples of the area mushrooms.
Shannon Berch and the students from her training course did a great job of tabling and labeling the mushrooms brought in from the forays and identifying them. Mitch Milgram of Salmon Arm, who teaches mycology at Okanagan College, and Martin Osis, a member of the Alberta Mycological Society, joined SVIMS experts to help with further identification.
The results of the collecting have been posted on iNaturalist. In all, SVIMS members tallied almost 100 different species of mushrooms. This was only about 15 fewer species than the club found last year, which was surprising. Mushrooms this year may have lacked quantity, but they retained some of their variety. Leaders judged five specimens to be voucher-worthy (The vouchered specimens can be viewed here.)
Some fun finds below. But first, some pictures from the events.