Western Australian Naturalists' Club

The Western Australian Naturalists' Club

Fungi Group

Koondoola Walk - Photo: PUBF

Fungi Photographic Competition and Exhibition May 2010: Details

INTRODUCTION TO THE GROUP

In 2001 the first Australia-wide Fungimap Conference was held in Denmark in southwest WA. The Fungi Study Group of the Western Australian Naturalists' Club was formed at the conference. Since then, the Study Group has organised a number of Fungal Forays, most notably over the Western Australian Foundation Day long weekends in early June. These Forays were held at Donnelly River, Dwellingup, Busselton and Wongan Hills. The Group is still actively involved in Fungimap and members play an important role in the Perth Urban Bushland Fungi Project, commonly referred to as PUBF.

PERTH URBAN BUSHLAND FUNGI PROJECT

Perth Urban Bushland Fungi (PUBF) began in 2004 as a collaborative project between the Urban Bushland Council and the WA Naturalists' Club in conjunction with the WA Herbarium, with financial support from Lotterywest. Over the previous 10 years, many well attended fungi forays and workshops have been held in urban bushlands of Perth. These events have highlighted growing requests by community and professional land managers to address the generally low level of awareness and knowledge about fungi and their importance and role in bushland management. PUBF addresses this gap and is working to improve improve awareness and knowledge so that fungi become an integral part of long term urban bushland management.

Perth's urban bushlands lie within one of the world's 34 terrestrial biodiversity hotspots for conservation priority. Our region is the only hotspot in Australia. The fungi in bushland are part of our rich biodiversity and yet we still know very little about their identities, their distribution and their role in ecosystem functioning. Fungi underpin the long-term health and resilience of bushland. Building knowledge of the fungi and other organisms that help keep the region's plants healthy is essential for effective conservation management of this hotspot region.

PROJECT ACTIVITIES

Working with community groups to collect data on fungi and build inventories of fungi for Perth bushlands, in many cases for the first time.
Increasing community skills and knowledge of fungi in bushland via surveys, workshops, walks, production of fungi kits and posters and presentations to bush care groups.
Teaching community group members to identify fungi and conduct fungi surveys.
Building an accurately identified reference collection of fungi at the WA Herbarium accompanied by high quality data.
Fostering a volunteer and salaried fungi workforce in the field, laboratory and herbarium.
Encouraging Federal, State, and Local Governments to integrate fungi into natural resource management strategies for the Perth Region.

Major priorities for future phases of the project are continuing development of an on-line fungi information base for the Perth region and continued community participation and education.

WANT TO PARTICIPATE?

In 2009 the PUBF team will continue to organise Fungi events to satisfy the various needs of community groups and the requirements of the project. See our Perth Urban Bushland Fungi Project website. Here there is a Fungi field book for you to download and create individually to fit your requirements, information about this year's events, fungi reports for different bushlands, news items, information to assist with learning about fungi, Fungus of the Month and more. We invite you to join us to survey and collect fungi from different vegetation and soil types. We are building inventories of fungi for Perth bushlands, in many cases for the first time. In Perth we are conducting fungi walks which are usually a 2 1/2 hour stroll in an urban bushland to point out the existence of a diverse range of fungi and how to find them, as well as raise awareness about the importance of fungi to the environment. These walks will cater for everyone from beginners to enthusiasts. A report with a list of fungi recorded and collected in each bushland and a dossier of fungi photos is produced as a permanent record of our visit. Fungi specimens are lodged for permanent curation at the WA Herbarium as a basis for key scientific studies from these events.

To participate please refer to the list on the PUBF website when it goes up (April or May each year) and determine which events you would like to take part in. Then email us to book in. Details of meeting times and places for all events will be emailed to those who contact us and book in. We do need to know numbers attending, to arrange fungi leaders for groups. For further information please contact us by email. Please visit our PUBF website for further information.

WA FUNGIMAP INFORMATION

For WA FUNGIMAP queries contact us at wanats@iinet.net.au

The next Fungimap Conference will be in May 2009 near Lithgow in NSW. Many Nats members are planning to go. For more information visit the Fungimap website.

OTHER FUNGI WEBSITES

Putting Australian Fungi on the Map	Fungimap
Using fungi to restore landscapes	FungiBank
Australian National Botanic Gardens	Australian Fungi Website
Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts (Australian Government)	Australian Biological Resources Study: Fungi and their Kingdoms
Perth Urban Bushland Fungi project	PUBF (the site has a Fungi Field Book available for downloading)
An online textbook (Mark C Brundrett)	Mycorrhizal Associations: The Web Resource
New Zealand Fungi	Exploring the Kaimai Bush - Fungi
	Landcare Research: NZFUNGI - New Zealand Fungi
	New Zealand Fungi Gateway
Taylor Lockwood's fungi photos from around the world	FungiPhoto.com