WORKSHOP – Reading the Fungal Landscape

Reading the Fungal Landscape: Mushroom Identification & Fungal Ecology Foray

Relative to plants and animals, the diversity and significance of fungi is little known. Yet fungi are vital in creating and stabilising soils, nourishing and interconnecting plants, recycling nutrients, retaining and filtering water, restoring environmental damage and essentially underpinning ecosystem health and resilience.

This workshop introduces participants to the diversity of the Kingdom Fungi and the basic principles of fungus identification and fungal ecology. You’ll learn how to identify fungi using the senses, field guides and other resources. In particular, we will explore the functional roles of fungi in various ecosystem types and different approaches to incorporating them in conservation, land management, biodiversity monitoring and bush regeneration.

Even when fungi aren’t producing mushrooms, their ‘tracks and traces’ are present in the environment. We’ll examine various habitat types like old wood, living trees and soils to look for clues of the processes and functions performed by fungi in the environment. What do they tell us about tree and ecosystem health? Which are indicators of old growth? And how do fungi respond to fire, soil compaction and other environmental stresses? You’ll get to do the detective work to ‘read’ the environment through a fungal lens!

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DATE: THURSDAY 3 APRIL 2025

LOCATION: PARK ORCHARDS, VIC

TIME: 9AM–11:30PM

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