On Monday, December 12, 2022 the Arizona Mushroom Society Board of Directors voted unanimously to raise the annual membership costs for individuals and families from $15/year to $25/year. The change in membership costs will take place starting in 2024.

The decision to raise the annual membership cost was based on sudden increases in active members in the organization in the last few years and based on a benchmarking study that compared membership costs amongst similar organizations. The annual membership cost has remained the same since the organization was incorporated. During that timeframe, membership increased by over a factor of 10, which has resulted in greater costs and a need for more capacity to address operational limits. A look at similar mycological organizations throughout the west showed us that the Arizona Mushroom Society had the lowest membership costs of all of them at $15/year. Our neighboring mycological clubs have membership costs on par with the approved $25/year cost.

If you have questions about this decision or to discuss membership payment options or support, please contact us at azmushroomsociety@gmail.com.

The 2022 Annual Foray occurred on August 12-14, 2022 throughout the White Mountains. 

This Species List was compiled by Terri Clements based on input by foray mycologist Alan Rockefeller, and contributions by foray participants, foray leaders, and others who entered observations into the iNaturalist app during the weekend of the foray in the white mountains area.

We had a robust monsoon season with above average precipitation resulting in the listing of 250 different fungal species on the annual foray species list!

The 2021 species list from the August 20-22, 2021 Annual Foray is now available!

This list was compiled by Scientific Committee Chairperson, Terri Clements, with contributions for foray leaders. 

This year's precipitation was well above average and Terri recorded 210 different species!

To view the list, you can click here.

The Arizona Mushroom Society Annual Foray is planned to occur in the White Mountains on the weekend of August 20-22, 2021. The 2021 foray will be similar to last year, where participants are to find their own lodging arrangements and AMS will host a number of small group forays throughout the weekend. 

In addition to the forays, AMS will host an in-person presentation or mushroom identification talk for any and all registered participants during that weekend.

We're still figuring out the details, but wanted to share our current plans in case you can join us this summer.

Last year the Arizona Mushroom Society raised over $1000 for the Dr. Chester Leathers Graduate Student Scholarship Fund that we founded through silent auctions and donations.

Applications for this grant from graduate students in any fungal-related field at any of the Arizona public universities. (Forestry, ecology, microbiology, environmental engineering, plant science, etc.) 

The page below on the AMS website has full details. Those of you in the world of academia, please think about applying for this scholarship, or publicize it with your friends and coworkers if you don't qualify.

Applications must be submitted by January 30th, 2021 11:59PM to the following email: AZmushroomsociety@gmail.com 

https://www.arizonamushroomsociety.org/Chet-Leathers-Scholarship

In 2020, the Arizona Mushroom Society continued to serve its members and increase the understanding and appreciation of local mushrooms and fungi. Despite a record breaking drought and a global pandemic, volunteers with the organization hosted over 20 small group forays in 2020, almost a dozen online events, and other educational opportunities. AMS members helped to contribute several thousand dollars to local organizations and by being a member of this organization you continue to support local mycological research and the identification of new Arizona fungal species.

The Arizona Mushroom Society organization is turning a page and needs help from its members to continue operating as a volunteer run non-profit. Current president, Mike Dechter, is at the end of his term and we are looking for volunteers to become board members and take on a leadership role in the organization. While knowing how to identify wild mushrooms is a valued skill, it is not necessary to help out with the organization.

Elections for the organization will take place on December 5, 2020 at what is usually the annual meeting. If you are interested please contact us to learn more about how we work and nominate yourself for a position on the AMS Board of Directors. 

Recently the Arizona Mushroom Society was pleased to be able to provide a $1000 research support grant to lichenologist Dr. Frank Bungartz at the ASU School of Life Sciences. He is the curator of the ASU Lichen Herbarium and the chief botanist of the Charles Darwin Foundation of the Galápagos Islands.

These funds will be used for acquisition of 3-D photogrammetry software that will allow detailed observation and analysis of lichenous weathering of Native American petroglyphs (rock art) in Arizona and beyond. Initially they will be working with archaeologists at the Deer Valley Petroglyph Preserve in North Phoenix and the Verde Valley Archaeological Center at the V-Bar-V Ranch near Sedona.

Many of our members will recall the lichenology lecture that Prof. Bungartz has delivered to our society, or the multiple events that we have held in his classroom at the ASU Natural History Collections building. We can all be proud that that our fundraising efforts have allowed us to reciprocate this support, to the advancement of scientific knowledge and the preservation of our cultural heritage.

If you are particularly interested in the science of lichens, which are (despite their humble appearance) some of the most interesting and complex organisms in the Kingdom of Fungi, there are volunteer opportunities available with Dr. Bungartz' research group, and he instructs Lichenology classes for credit or audit at ASU. He is also soliciting donations to a GoFundMe campaign to provide scholarships for scientists from Latin American countries to attend the 9th Symposium of the International Association for Lichenology (IAL9) in Bonito, Brazil, August 2-7, 2020. We encourage our members to support this cause.

Tonight at midnight, the rosters for our upcoming morel forays open for registration.

The scheduled foray dates, destinations, and leaders are as follows:

DATE	DESTINATION	CAPTAIN
Sat 5/4/19	Flagstaff/Sedona	C. May
Sun 5/5/19	Mogollon Rim	C. May
Wed 5/8/19	Mogollon Rim	T. Clements
Thu 5/9/19	Mt. Graham	C. May
Fri/Sat 5/25-26	Kaibab Plateau	M. Dechter

Remember, tonight and for the next two days, you can register for ONE foray only. On and after May 3, you can register for any remaining spaces in any foray, or put yourself on the waiting list if it's full. We often have cancellations, so please do get on the waiting list if you want to go on a foray that's already filled. There's a decent chance you'll get it.

Mike Dechter and Chris May have also decided to push back the North Rim foray from the original weekend of May 11-12 to the weekend of May 24-25. Mike's sources on the Kaibab National Forest tell him there is still so much snow up there that the roads to our target area will certainly not be open by May 11. In fact, northern Arizona is predicted to have a cool, wet month of May, and it is possible that the trip may even be pushed back into June, especially if there are more snowstorms. But good things will come to those who wait. We were also receiving some squawks about Mother's Day on the 12th, so it makes sense to make the move to a later date. Sorry for the last minute adjustments. 

As always, any of our forays may be subject to rescheduling or cancellation, as conditions and events warrant.

As events unfold and our schedules are solidified, it is possible that we will be adding a few more forays. There may be a Saturday 5/11 or Sat/Sun 5/18-19 foray going out, which will be added to the event page and opened for registration beginning next week.

We are pleased to announce that the 2019 Dr. Chester Leathers Graduate Student Scholarship has been awarded to Nicole Colón-Carrión, a Ph.D. student in Dr. Betsy Arnold's lab at the University of Arizona School of Plant Sciences.

Ms. Colón-Carrión is studying the role of symbiotic mycorrhizal fungi for urgent reforestation of hurricane-damaged forest ecosystems, focusing on the biodiverse native forest communities in Puerto Rico that were severely impacted by Hurricane Maria in 2017.

Her work aims to develop new strategies to restore severely damaged ecosystems expediently and effectively through beneficial fungi that help plants become established, tolerate stress, obtain nutrients, and use water efficiently. Moreover, it will provide hands-on and meaningful educational experiences for Puerto Rican students whose education has been affected by the hurricane and its economic and social consequences.

The research program has three main aims overall:

• Aim 1: Analyze the abundance, diversity, and composition of mycorrhizal fungi in roots from 6 native species of trees in Puerto Rico. 
  
• Aim 2: Assess the effects of mycorrhizal-symbiotic relationships and native species of Puerto Rico by inoculating seedlings of five dominant forest trees and analyzing growth effects in a greenhouse setting. 
  
• Aim 3: Quantify the efficacy of mycorrhizal fungi in improving reforestation success by transplantation and growth experiments in highly damaged forest ecosystems.

These goals will be supported by a program of local outreach and citizen science participation, which is a topic of great interest to a number of our more scientifically-oriented Society members. Ms. Colón-Carrión has indicated that she will be coming to our annual foray or winter meeting to give us a presentation on her work, which we are eager to hear.

Our award comes with a $1000 grant, which will be used for transportation expenses to and within Puerto Rico to allow her to continue her field work. We wish her all success in this important endeavor, and are pleased to be able to play a small part in supporting it. 

The Leathers Scholarship was established by the AMS in 2017 to honor our Founding President Emeritus, Dr. Chester Leathers, retired Professor Emeritus of Microbiology at ASU. It provides an annual grant to a graduate student in a mycology-related field at one of the state universities of Arizona.

The AMS has completed 2018 in good financial shape. Income for the year was $17,335.54 and expenses were $8,168.67, giving us a net income on a cash basis of $9,166.87.

We presently hold $19,356.40 in liquid assets between our Wells Fargo checking account and our PayPal account. Of that sum, $4,938.00 is allocated to the Chet Leathers Scholarship fund and the rest is unrestricted.

It should be noted that we still are liable for an outstanding debt of approximately $4,000 for the food and hotel charges at the August 2018 annual foray, for which we have not yet been billed by the Sunrise Park resort due to some internal turmoil in their management. On an accrual basis, that would give us a more realistic "net worth" of approximately $15,000 and a net annual income of around $5000.

If you would like to see the more detailed Statement of Financial Activities (the non-profit equivalent of an income statement or profit/loss statement), it is at this link:

• 2018 AMS Statement of Financial Activities

If you wish to see the Statement of Financial Position, i.e. the non-profit version of a balance sheet, it is at this link:

• 2018 AMS Statement of Financial Position

Naturally, as a non-profit corporation, any or all of the receipts and other supporting documentation for our financial affairs is available for any member to inspect on demand. 

The Board is grateful for the generosity of the members of the Society, and eager to use the financial stability it provides to advance the educational, scientific, and charitable purposes of our organization to even greater heights in 2019.