Western Australian Naturalists' Club

The Western Australian Naturalists' Club

Fungi Group

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 2002, 2003 and 2004. These Forays were held at Donnelly River, Dwellingup and Busselton. 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 past 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 aims to improve awareness and knowledge so that fungi become an integral part of longterm 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 FOR 2007

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 2007 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 2004, 2005 and 2006, news items, information to assist with learning about fungi, Fungus of the Month and more We invite your assistance 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. This year, due to funding constraints, the only workshop we are conducting will be in Augusta as we initiate our plan to test and apply PUBF protocols in other regions of Western Australia. In Perth we are conducting four fungi walks which will take the form of 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 will be produced as a permanent record of our visit. Fungi specimens will be 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 below and determine which you would like to take part in. For further information contact Roz Hart, the PUBF Community Education Officer on 9334 0547 weekdays or by email Roz.Hart@dec.wa.gov.au. There is no need to register for this year's events in Perth. Please note that Registration is required for the Augusta workshop. See details below.

Workshops:

This workshop will be for people in Augusta and surrounding regional areas. This workshop will use protocols developed by PUBF as we initiate our plan to test and these protocols in other regions of Western Australia.

Saturday, 16 June

Augusta

Contact David Dale of the Environmental Research Group Augusta to register and for information on this workshop

Walks:

1	Sunday, 24 June	Canning River Regional Park
2	Sunday, 1 July	Bungendore Park, Bedfordale
3	Sunday, 8 July	Lightning Swamp Bushland, Noranda
4	Sunday 22 July	Murdoch University Bushland

Details of meeting times and places for these walks are on the project website.

Fungi Reports have been presented to the groups which participated in events held in 2004, 2005 and 2006. A hardcopy of all the reports is available at the WA Naturalists' Club library, the Urban Bushland Council office and the DEC WA Herbarium library. All the fungi reports are also available electronically on the project website to download as required.

Please visit our PUBF website for further information.

WA FUNGIMAP INFORMATION

Contact Roz Hart on 9334 0547 or email wanats@iinet.net.au

Katie Syme with Gymnopilis pampeanus at Donnelly River

More Donnelly River photos

Visit the Fungimap website

For information on using fungi to restore landscapes visit the Fungibank website at:

www.fungibank.csiro.au/

For fungi photos from around the world, try this website:

www.fungiphoto.com