July 2022 Forays, a Potluck, and DNA!

During the first weekend of July a total of 5 foray groups got out to: Fruit Heights, Blood's Lake, and the Uintahs. A big thank you to our leaders this month!

Snowbank fungi were still plentiful in some places (even with the recent disappearance of most snowbanks), and there was the exciting addition of summertime mushrooms creeping into the higher elevations.

Potlucks

On Saturday, June 11th MSU hosted a potluck in Sherwood park. Our culinary chair Lindsay Mackintosh and MSU secretary Chandler Rosenberg put this event together to give members a chance to meet and share some favorite recipes. There will be another potluck on Sunday, July 31st at the same spot (Sherwood Park, North Pavilion) at 6 pm.

DNA Sequencing

There was some exciting news recently for the Northern Utah Funga project, which as of this writing has successfully recorded 888 fungal observations in the state since starting last Spring. This project is headed up by our Vice President Gabreila D'Elia. Many MSU members have also contributed high quality observations as part of this community science initiative.

Last year, Gabriela secured a grant from the Fungal Diversity Survey to sequence 30 specimens from our state. You can now see the returned sequences when you click on the observations on the iNat project page

This was a huge step toward MSU's scientific contribution mission and we're excited to continue adding observations to this project.