Events Recap

The 2005 NAMA Foray - July 19th-24th, 2005

The Great River Bluffs State Park Foray, Awards and Prizes and the Mislaid Black Boot.

The NAMA Foray officially began with the arrival in La Crosse of the Trustees Tuesday, July 19. That evening the Trustees met for a fine dinner at the Cartwright Center on the campus of the University of Wisconsin in La Crosse. The next morning, the actual meeting of the trustees began at 9:00 AM and continued through the day until adjourning at 5:00 PM. The usual topics were covered, including the budget, Committee Chairs’ reports and new business. You will be interested to know that it was decided the 2006 NAMA Foray site will be in Alberta, Canada, 120 miles west of Edmonton, at the foot of the Canadian Rocky Mountains. The 2007 NAMA Foray will be in West Virginia.

The foray consisted of workshops, lectures and forays to the surrounding countryside with the unique opportunity to visit the last Chestnut forest in the United States. Our club offered to take a group across the Mississippi River to the Great River Bluffs State Park in Minnesota. Tom Volk, the sponsor and chairman of the foray, accepted our offer and the event was scheduled for the afternoon of Saturday the 23rd of July. It had been particularly dry for many days in the La Crosse area, so the day before the scheduled foray Lee Moellerman and I made a trip to the Great River Bluffs State Park to evaluate conditions there. The park was dry as expected and the mushrooms scarce. Lee and I then decided to visit the nearby Beaver Creek Valley State Park. Upon inspection, the area looked to be promising, so we decided to take the foray there rather than the Bluffs State Park. Tom approved the change, so it came as quite a surprise to everyone that the bus driver refused to go to the new site, saying that he could only do so with his supervisor’s approval. Tom tried to intervene to no avail, as the supervisor could not be reached. So in spite of our best efforts to provide our group of about 20 people with a productive foray, we were stymied by the bus contractor’s perverse control system. Fortunately, the foray to the Bluffs turned out to be better than expected, but the finds included a great many mushrooms of the bracket variety. No surprise there as the same was true for most of the foray sites visited in Wisconsin as well. Even with such dry conditions, the NAMA searchers did manage to find over 250 species of mushrooms.

A smiling John Mikesh shows his contentment

Saturday evening was the traditional Dinner Banquet consisting of the awards presentations and raffle. Tom Volk won the prestigious “NAMA Award for Contributions to Amateur Mycology”. Tom is clearly one of the most deserving winners ever of this reward as his contributions to amateur mycology are legendary. We are most fortunate to have Tom as a club member and as one of our scientific advisors. Tom, the Minnesota Mycological Society could not be more proud to have you as one of our members and especially as one of our good friends. Congratulations!

Tom Volk accepting the prestigious “NAMA Award for Contributions to Amateur Mycology”

During the raffle the MMS attendees won some very fine and, in some cases, unusual prizes. Adele Metha won a pair mushroom earrings and a couple of other items, John Mikesh won, among other things, a beautifully hand-made bird house that is, in fact, a work of art, Ron Spinosa won a copy of David Arora’s “Mushrooms Demystified” and I won a small mushroom sealed in a glass bottle. The note accompanying the bottle makes the promise that it will provide the owner with fine dreams. I would have preferred a genie in a bottle to make my dreams come true, but I will be content with a pleasant dream now and then.

MMS attendees at 2005 NAMA: (from left) Ron Spinosa, Mark Chekola, Betty Jo Fulgency, Bob Fulgency, John Mikesh, Peggy Lane, Lee Moellerman, Adele Mehta, Dean Abel, Jackie Lallier, Tom Volk.

You may be wondering what the black boot referred to at the beginning of this story has to do with the NAMA Foray. Well, when packing our car Sunday morning before leaving La Crosse, my wife and I did some last minute adjustment of our luggage and in the process of doing so, one of her black hiking boots was removed from the trunk and placed on the pavement of the parking lot. When we arrived home and all the luggage and whatnot was carried into the house, we discovered that there was only a single black boot. A thorough search of the car failed to produce the other boot. The questions now in our household are: (1) who removed the boot from the trunk, and (2) who closed the trunk lid without replacing the boot. I am of the opinion that my wife made the mistake and, of course, she insists otherwise. I am not overly concerned as—although it was a new boot—it was not my boot. At any rate, Tom has been alerted and asked to let me know if the boot turns up at the University’s lost and found department.

All those attending this year’s NAMA Foray agreed that it was another great get-together with fellow mushroom enthusiasts from around North America as well as some from Europe. And once again, NAMA members are looking forward to visiting Canada next summer for the second time in three years. I encourage you to try and attend this remote foray site, as it will no doubt prove to be a memorable experience.

Bob Fulgency

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