Latest PSMS News
Hildegard Hendrickson Free Public ID Clinic
The spring 2024 ID clinics are now in session Mondays from 4pm to 7pm at CUH starting Apr. 29th and we expect them to last through June 3rd. For more information click here. As this is subject to change, please always visit our home page to make sure the clinics are on before coming.
PSMS Inclusivity Statement
For over fifty years, the Puget Sound Mycological Society (PSMS) has nurtured collaboration amongst its members for an understanding and appreciation of the wide diversity of mushroom species in the Pacific Northwest. We also depend on a diverse membership to support our mission to foster the understanding and appreciation of mycology as a hobby and a science. In recent months, as systematic inequality in U.S. society is revealed to a broader audience, it becomes clearer that inequality imposes barriers on marginalized groups to participation in a wide variety of activities. PSMS opposes all barriers that limit participation in mycology. PSMS and its board members support a more diverse, inclusive, and welcoming organization where all people, especially those who are underrepresented in our organization and society at large, can enjoy mushrooms and all of the activities associated with them. We realize this will be an on-going conversation and are looking to our members for suggestions on ways to increase diversity, inclusivity, and welcoming. Thank you as we join together to make this long-overdue journey toward systemic equality!
Featured Content
If You Suspect
a Poisoning
Contact a physician or Washington Poison Center: 1-800-222-1222
More Poison InformationSpore Prints Newsletter
Spore Prints is the monthly newsletter of PSMS containing announcements of coming events and speakers, plus a variety of tidbits, trivia, recipes, and research developments.
Spore Prints Archive
Harvesting Rules
Washington state is divided into numerous federal, state, local and Native American jurisdictions. Learn the proper rules for each jurisdiction.
Harvesting Information
Upcoming Events
Tuesday, May 14, 2024 - 7:30pm
Monthly Meeting
Ron Post - PSMS Turns 60!
TBD - Click here to join this meeting virtually.
This spring the Puget Sound Mycological Society turns sixty - that's right 60! - years old. Please join us at our next general meeting Tuesday, May 14th, when one of our estimable past presidents (Ron Post, 2004-2006) tells a story that is one that all members, past and present, should be proud of. From the founding members in 1964, through the decades, PSMS volunteers and members have a story that is both as unique and diverse as our membership. Doors open at the Center for Urban Horticulture at 7:00pm. Ron Post will give this presentation in person, but if for some reason you are not able to attend, the meeting will also be available to view live via Zoom at the link above.
Here is what Ron has to say about his presentation:
I joined the society in 1988, the same year my son was born. That was 36 years ago but not the first encounter I had with the club. I attended two of the annual exhibits at the Pacific Science Center in the 1970s, one of them in 1978 when about 6.000 other people came to see the mushrooms. But I had to turn around and leave that show because I was living on Bainbridge at the time and needed to get home, and the mass of humans in front of me crowding in to examine the tables of specimens was so deep, I knew I would either get a parking ticket or miss the ferry I wanted.
I was encouraged to visit the exhibit again by a UW graduate student/friend who was familiar with Dr. Stuntz, the club's founder, and scientific adviser. Word of mouth was important in those days, as it still can be. I did join the society, but not until 1988 when I came back from two years in Alaska working on a newspaper. Very quickly I was swept up in the club's social and scientific undertakings. That same sudden immersion can happen to any new PSMS member.
A notice about my son's birth in 1988 appeared in the January 1989 Spore Prints, and at the next meeting I went to, long-time PSMS member Millie Kleinman came up and presented me with booties, mittens, a cap, and a sweater for my infant son. Millie knitted blue ones for boys and pink ones for girls, over time handing them to some one hundred other members who had children while they were active in PSMS. At a membership meeting soon after that, I dressed my son in his blue knitwear and brought him to the CUH hall. Ben Woo took him from my arms and carried him around for 10 or 15 minutes, introducing him around.
I hope you will come and join me as I reminisce about my experiences with PSMS over the past 36 years. One of my goals in giving this talk is for people to think about how social forces and habits have changed in the 60 years we have been a club, though our mission and scientific practices haven't varied much.