The North American Mycological Association (NAMA) holds a national foray every year, and in 2005 the foray will be held on the campus at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse. This is the first time the NAMA foray has been held in the state of Wisconsin. The past several forays have been held in Asheville, NC, Diamond Lake OR, St. John's, MN, Asilomar, CA and many others. This is one you won't want to miss!
Registration Form is now available!
La Crosse is located on the Mississippi River in western Wisconsin in the famous "driftless" area of Wisconsin. You may recall that about 10,000 years ago, glaciers flattened most of Wisconsin, Minnesota and parts of Illinois. However, this glacier split near Red Wing, MN (north of La Crosse) and left the land directly to the south intact. However, these mile-deep glaciers retreated and eventually melted, and the enormous runoff of water carved many "coulees," our fancy name for small valleys with many rivulets and creases. Eventually the water from these coulees joined together, and the trillions of gallons of water carved out the Mississippi River. Several of our forays will be up these coulees and on the bluffs.
. If you're familiar with the Mississippi River only at St. Louis, Memphis, or New Orleans, where the river is contained by levees, the river essentially has become a big ditch. However, the Mississippi River north of the Wisconsin-Illinois border is very different, with 500-600 foot bluffs on either side of the river, with many flood plains and backwaters. At La Crosse the Mississippi River is about a mile across. La Crosse sits on a wide flood plain between the river and the bluffs, near where the Black River and La Crosse River join with the Mississippi. It's a beautiful spot to live and a great place to visit. You may also have the opportunity to collect in the flood plain of the Mississippi River, with giant cottonwoods and huge river birches. Because the glaciers missed us, the driftless area is a refugium for plant and fungal species not found elsewhere in the upper Midwest.
A highlight of the 2005 NAMA foray will be the chance to see a forest of American chestnut trees (Castanea dentata). You probably know that almost all the chestnuts in Appalachia and other parts of eastern North America were wiped out (or reduced to understory plants) by Cryphonectria parasitica, cause of chestnut blight. However while all this was happening, circa 1900 a farmer from Pennsylvania planted 11 chestnut trees along the edge of his field. These 11 trees grew and multiplied to about 6000 (six thousand) trees larger than 5 inches diameter. These trees were free from chestnut blight until about 1988, when the blight appeared on a single tree. Despite control attempts by researchers from the Wisconsin DNR, West Virginia University, and Michigan State University, the blight has continued to spread, and now about 1500 of these trees have died, although some parts of the forest remain largely uninfected. Inoculations of the trees with hypovirulent strains of the fungus have slowed it down, but trees are still dying. This may be your last chance to see a mature chestnut forest. The state record chestnut tree is about 4 ft diameter, and although it now has the blight, I hope it will still make it to July
In addition to the forays, there will be many lectures and workshops by mycologists from all over North America and Europe. All levels of expertise will be accommodated, from beginners to intermediate to advanced. The Chief Mycologist will be Andy Methven of Eastern Illinois University. Among the presenters are Dan Czederplitz, sharing with us his experiences collecting fungi on a mountain top in Belize, a novel session by James Scott from Toronto on indoor air quality that should be of great interest and Britt Bunyard's mysterious Agaricus pseudopollination topic. Walt Sundberg will be offering his popular 'hand lens anatomy' on demand and Bart Buyck, the Russula problem-solver will return to us from France. Heather Hallen will bring us up to date on Amanita toxins and ex-president Gary Lincoff will, as usual, will have something up his sleeve. Roz Lowen will share her considerable expertise on ascomycetes. Joe Krawczyk and Mary Ellen Kozak of Field and Forest Products of Peshtigo, Wisconsin will be discussing mushroom cultivation methods and festivals in China. We'll have sessions for beginners, mushroom poisoning, dyeing with mushrooms (really cool!), and of course the famous mycophagy (mushroom eating) session. Others topics and presenters are yet to be determined.
Getting to La Crosse
La Crosse (LSE) is easily accessible by air, being served by Northwest (via Minneapolis/ St Paul, MSP), American Airlines (through Chicago, ORD) and Midwest Express (through Milwaukee, MKE). I know that Northwest planes to LSE are at least 4 seats across, so at least that airline has no "puddle jumpers." The Madison airport is about 120 miles from La Crosse and the Minneapolis airport is about 135 miles from La Crosse. Both are very scenic drives, depending on which route you take. However, air rates are sometimes cheaper to La Crosse, so it's worth a look. We will likely have a shuttle from the airport to UW-L, only about 5 miles.
Once you arrive at the University, we have *very* reasonably priced housing in one of the residence halls on campus, a typical residence hall with shared bathrooms down the hall and no air conditioning. Fan rentals are available for cheap. We have also reserved blocks of hotel rooms in downtown La Crosse, about 2 miles from the university for those of you who might like more plush accommodations. For most people it will more convenient to stay on campus. More information will be posted here as details become available. Dining will be reasonably priced on the campus, with breakfast and lunch at the student cafeteria; actually they are very good. Catered dinners will be held in a banquet hall in the student union, followed by the programs for that evening (including the celebrated NAMA Photo Contest) in the same room. We'll have some special surprise activities that you will like a lot. We expect to have many mycological vendors in rooms right next to the fungal displays. We also have special reduced student rates for registration, saving students $100.
Registration Form is now available!
You should come to the foray in La Crosse!
This promises to be one of the best NAMA forays ever, as long as the rains and the fungi cooperate. -- but there's nothing I can do about that. In 2004 the third weekend of July there were many species everywhere. Forest, and there are some fantastic lectures and workshops plannedIn any case we will be able to see the chestnutsI hope you can join us at the 2005 NAMA foray in La Crosse, July 21-24. See NAMA website and check back here for continued updates as details become available.
Registration Form is now available!
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