Yuba Watershed Institute

Want to go on a mushroom hunt? Fungus Foray 2022

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Early rains bring the promise of a good mushroom hunting season!

Join us for the 25th Annual Yuba Watershed Fungus Foray and Wild Mushroom Exposition, December 10-11, 2022

Located at the North Columbia Schoolhouse Cultural Center, 17894 Tyler Foote Rd, Nevada City, CA 95959

** Please note our new location this year **

Tickets and registration at www.yubawatershedinstitute.org/register

Science advisor: Else Vellinga UC Berkley

Saturday December 10th, 9 am to 4:00 pm

Our traditional Saturday morning wild mushroom hunt will visit several sites in the local forest. Afterwards, an afternoon of identification and mushroom related presentations will take place at the North Columbia Schoolhouse. Be prepared to walk in the damp woods and off trail for an optimum mushroom hunting experience. Also useful to bring: collection basket, waxed paper bags, knife, camera, notebook, field identification guide, and hand lens. This is a rain or shine event.

Lectures on Saturday will be “How to Photograph Mushrooms” by Alan Rockefeller and “Mushroom Spores” by Professor Else Vellinga.

PLEASE NOTE: Online pre-registration is required to attend Saturday’s event and Sunday may sell out as well.

Sunday December 11, 10 am to 4 pm

On Sunday we host the Wild Mushroom Exposition once again. The Exposition will be filled with our collections of seasonal Sierra mushrooms labelled and organized from the weekend. This year a few beginners’ forays will be offered in the morning. Sunday lectures, included with the general admission ticket, begin at 11:00 am with a presentation and cooking demonstration entitled “Fungialo: The History, Heritage, Lore, and Food of the Italian-American Mushroom Hunter.”  Afternoon presentations will include “Mushrooms of the Arizona Sky Islands” by Damon Tighe, and at 3:00 pm Dr. Christopher Hobbs will speak on “Mushrooms as Medicine,” as few can speak better on the subject.

Please be aware there are No Dogs and No Smoking allowed at the North Columbia Schoolhouse.

Tickets and registration are available at: www.YubaWatershedInstitute.org/register

Saturday:  $30 general; $25 for YWI members. No children discount sorry.

Sunday: $20 general; $10 for YWI members. Children under 12 free with adult

Sunday beginner forays: $30. Children under 12 free with adult

Purchase tickets at www.YubaWatershedInstitute.org/register For more information or questions visit www.YubaWatershedInstitute.org or email  Daniel@yubawatershedinstitute.org


Fire in the Sierra Nevada: Virtual Panel Discussion

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Zoom link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83340491831?pwd=Q2R0VHhMVk15dU1zWDVOVlpBbFNoZz09
Call in: +1 669 900 6833, Meeting ID: 833 4049 1831, Passcode: 757324

The Yuba Watershed Institute (YWI) is collaborating with Sierra Forest Legacy, South Yuba River Citizens League, Fire Safe Council of Nevada County, Sierra Streams Institute, and Open Canopy LLC to bring you an evening of learning and discussion about the history of fire in the California landscape.

Following these two lectures, a panel discussion will focus on how examining historical cultural burning and what we know about factors influencing fire severity can drive management of our increasingly fire-prone forests.

This public event is in support of the Spring 2021 Cal-TREX Yuba prescribed fire training workshop, during which representative from local non-profit organizations will receive training in prescribed fire skills. Prescribed Fire Training Exchanges (TREX) are a nation-wide program coordinated by The Nature Conservancy.

For more information about this event, contact the YWI at info@yubawatershedinstitute.org.

Need a good romp in the woods? Fungus Foray 2020

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Want to see what treasures await us in the forests of the Yuba River watershed?

Join the Yuba Watershed Fungus Foray and Wild Mushroom Exposition on December 12-13, 2020 at the North Columbia Schoolhouse Cultural Center (17894 Tyler Foote Rd., Nevada City, CA 95959). Please note: this is a different location than the previous several years.

The event will be significantly scaled down and completely outdoors in order to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

At the Fungus Foray, on December 12, we have space for 6 participants in each of the 7 foray groups. Each group will leave the Schoolhouse at a different time on Saturday morning or early afternoon and drive to a separate foray location. Participants will drive separately in single-family groups and will maintain 6 ft. of distance at all times. Purchase Tickets for the Yuba Watershed Fungus Foray (12/12/20)

On Sunday, December 13, the Wild Mushroom Exposition will take place outside the Schoolhouse, and participants can sign up to view them and talk to our mushroom experts during 1-hour shifts throughout the day. Each shift is limited to 12 participants. Masks or face covering will be required, and proper social distancing will be encouraged. Purchase Tickets for the Wild Mushroom Exposition (12/13/20)

PLEASE NOTE: The Sunday Wild Mushroom Exposition will be cancelled in the event of rain. All ticket-holders will be reimbursed in full if the event is cancelled.


Help support the work of the Yuba Watershed Institute!

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Nikko Garvin demonstrates the use of an edging mill to make wood slabs during YWI’s “Working with Local Wood” workshop in July 2019

Dear friends and supporters of the Yuba Watershed Institute (YWI),

Wildfires, power outages, and the rising cost or cancellation of homeowner’s insurance are making it more challenging to live in the Sierra Nevada region.

There is a question I hear a lot these days: what are proactive steps we can take to reduce fire risk in our neighborhoods? One answer has become clear. We have to learn how to live with fire, just as indigenous peoples have for thousands of years before Euro-American settlement of this area.

There are steps each of us can take, such as hardening our homes and maintaining the proper vegetation clearances around structures. There are also actions we must take that require cooperation on a neighborhood scale or larger. For example, it takes cooperation to:

  • Maintain landscape-level fuel breaks that can slow fire behavior, allow for safe evacuation during a fire, and provide a safe place for fire personnel to attempt wildfire suppression;
  • Reduce the risk of high-severity fire on public lands that border our neighborhoods;
  • Protect the places we love to recreate by improving ecosystem resiliency to climate change, droughts, and bark beetle infestations;
  • Reintroduce healthy fire to these landscapes using prescribed burning; and
  • Preserve ecological values like wildlife habitat, clean water, and native plant diversity while reducing fire danger.

The YWI was founded 30 years ago to facilitate this kind of cooperation. In recent years, we’ve raised over $800,000 from state and private sources for planning and implementation of forest health and fire prevention projects on 1,200 acres of public lands on Nevada County’s San Juan Ridge.

And just this year, the YWI has begun working with neighborhood groups and Firewise Communities in other parts of Nevada County to replicate the success of our work on the San Juan Ridge.

We need your help to spread the vision of healthy forests supported by an active, engaged community of land stewards.

Please consider supporting this important work by starting or renewing your YWI membership today!
Join at www.yubawatershedinstitute.org/membership/

Your generous support will also help us provide other programs the community has grown to love, including:

  • The annual Yuba Watershed Fungus Foray and Wild Mushroom Exposition;
  • Our annual publication Tree Rings: The Journal of the Yuba Watershed Institute, where we bring you essays, artwork, and poetry on current watershed-related themes; and
  • Popular educational field programs, volunteer events, and evening and weekend workshops.

We are grateful for your past support and hope that you will be inspired to help the YWI by contributing at an increased level. Thank you for your enduring dedication to preserving the biodiversity of the Yuba River watershed and beyond!

Sincerely,

Chris Friedel
Executive Director