What's Happening

 Daphne Stone leads a lichen walk.  Come see the large population of Sulcaria badia! This walk fills quickly, sign up right away.

Saturday, February 11, 2023, 1-4 pm

Wenatchee Valley Chapter WNPS

Leader: Don Schaechtel

Winter is a great time to look at lichens because many have fallen out the trees and are easy to find on the snow. That gives us a great excuse to put on snowshoes and seek them out. We'll begin with an easy snowshoe romp in Leavenworth to collect specimens, then we'll return to Don's house for refreshments and a discussion about what we found. We will also have time to look at the lichens under the microscope to see reproductive features and other structures. Expect to find at least ten species and learn how to identify them.

To sign up and get full details contact Don Schaechtel at don.safety@nwi.net.

Presemtation at the Snohomish County Mycological Society in Everett.

The association of a fungus with a green alga and/or cyanobacteria defines lichens.  They are a vital yet overlooked part of our forest ecosystems, rangelands and rural environments. Lichens can tell us much about the air quality of our local surroundings. The US Forest Service has used lichens to monitor forest health and pollution. Lichens, along with bryophytes (mosses and liverworts) and algae, are currently being studied for their contribution to soil conditioning and stability in rangeland areas. Lichens, as symbiotic organisms, play a major role in nitrogen and carbon fixation as well as mineral cycling.  The ecological study of lichens is becoming more essential in our understanding of how to manage terrestrial ecosystems. 

Lichens produce chemicals that were used for centuries as medicines, dyes, and perfumes.

Common lichens will be presented and discussed to facilitate our understanding of what they can tell us about the health of our environment and how they are used as indicators of clean air. You will also view some of our local species found around Seattle, Everett and the Puget Sound.

Winter is a great time for lichen hunting.

Snohomish County Mycological Society, meeting

2411 Hewitt Ave

Everett, WA

Take a stroll in the Washington Park Arboretum and learn all about lichens and their growth!

Looking for a Winter activity for those short days in Seattle? Why not consider lichens as an alternative? They grow on trees, shrubs and rocks in botanic gardens and can tell us about air quality and the make-up of plants and geology. Botanic gardens can take on new meaning as a *fun* place to observe a symbiotic organism made up of a fungus and algae. You will also learn about common lichens found in an urban environment and take home a user-friendly chart that lists lichens found in your neighborhood.

Join Dr. Katherine Glew at the Washington Park Arboretum on Saturday, March 5, to get a head start on learning lichens from one of Seattle’s botanic gardens. You can enjoy the late winter/early spring season by looking for lichens, rather than staying inside and missing out on the excitement of being outside.

Fee: $45

Bring a hand lens or cell phone with a magnifier to view lichen details.

The California Lichen Society is planning to hold our annual meeting at the Pt. Reyes UC Field Station near Olema. We will take a field trip to notable lichen locations at Pt. Reyes during the day, followed by an evening social, potluck dinner, meeting, and guest lecture at the field station.

We are very excited to welcome two of California's rising stars in lichenology, Danielle Ward and Michael Mulroy, as our guest speakers during the evening session. Danielle will talk about her study of the lichen flora of Brunei, Borneo, and Michael will talk about his research on serpentine lichens in California.

I look forward to welcoming you all to the Pt. Reyes. It should be a great opportunity to make new friends and catch up with old friends. Everyone is welcome, whether you are a novice or a seasoned lichenologist.

Locations and schedule details for both the field trip and the evening session will be sent to registrants before the event.

Camping and limited dorm beds are available at the Pt. Reyes field station for both Friday and Saturday nights. You are welcome to spend the night or attend for the day only, as you prefer. Hotels are also available reasonably close to the site. Some of our members may gather for additional lichenizing on Friday and / or Sunday--stay tuned for details.

Please be sure to register for camping or a dorm bed as an add-on to your ticket if you want to spend the night on-site.

I f you are staying for the evening session on Saturday, please bring a contribution for the potluck dinner, per the CALS tradition! We will send out a sign-up for the potluck shortly before the meeting.

We request a $10-30 donation (in addition to any lodging fees) to help cover the costs of the meeting, but no one will be turned away. Any proceeds beyond the meeting costs will go to support our grants program, which primarily funds student research on lichens. We expect that the cost to CALS of holding the meeting will be about $20 per person.

F or the first time, we will offer a limited number of $50 stipends to students who need help covering travel costs to attend the meeting. Please apply here if you would like to request a stipend. We will let you know if we can give you a stipend before the meeting.

To make our meeting welcoming to all participants, including immunocompromised people and others with health concerns, we ask all participants to wear a face mask during all indoor sessions.

You can stay updated on lichen-related events in California by following the CALS facebook page and joining the CA lichens google group (to join, send an email to california-lichens+subscribe@googlegroups.com).

And check out our CALS store with t-shirts, hats and more!

Feel free to contact me with any questions about the meeting.

Symbiotically yours,

Jesse Miller, CALS President

president@californialichens.org

FALL LICHEN WALK at the BELLEVUE BOTANIC GARDENS 

Saturday, November 12 & December 10, 2022

Looking for an Autumn activity for those shorter days in Seattle?

Why not consider lichens as an alternative? They grow on trees, shrubs and rocks in botanic gardens and can tell us about air quality and the make-up of plants and geology.  Botanic gardens can take on new meaning as a *fun* place to observe a symbiotic organism made up of a fungus and algae.  You will also learn about common lichens found in an urban environment and take home a user-friendly chart that lists lichens found in your neighborhood.

Always wondered about what lichens are and why they are found on your trees, Rhododendrons and Azaleas? Lichens are harmless to your plants and add aesthetic value to trees and shrubs. We can actually use them as indicators of air pollution!  Join Dr. Katherine Glew at the Bellevue Botanic Gardens on Saturday, November 12 to get a head start on learning lichens from one of the Seattle areas botanic gardens.  

Registration: Fall Lichen Walk - Bellevue Botanical Garden

Fee: $35

The Eagle Hill Institute is offering an online seminar, taught by CALS member Gary Perlmutter, from November 28 through December 7.  Cost for the seminar is $195.  More info:

https://eaglehill.us/programs/sems-online/flyers-online-pdfs/2022-Perlmutter4.pdf

Cemetery Lichens - Mount Pleasant Cemetery, Seattle

​Why not consider lichens as an alternative for Hallowe'en?  Lichens are friendly and interesting organisms that love to grow on headstones and old trees. They are harmless to your plants and add aesthetic value to trees and shrubs.  We can actually use them as indicators of air pollution!

Katherine Glew is offering a 2 hour lichen experience at the Mount Pleasant Cemetery in Seattle, on Saturday, October 29 from 10:00am to noon. This offering will occur - rain, shine, wind, snow.........

To sign up for the course and read a description, go to the following link:

Classes & Workshops | University of Washington Botanic Gardens (uw.edu)

Bring a hand lens or cell phone with a magnifier to view lichen details.

Lichens in Puget Sound

Always wondered about what lichens are and why they are found on your trees and Rhododendrons?  Lichens are harmless to your plants and add aesthetic value to trees and shrubs. We can actually use them as indicators of air pollution! Lichens are friendly and interesting organisms that love to grow on trees, shrubs, picnic tables, benches, and rocks.  

Lichens are major components of most terrestrial ecosystems, and a few can be found in aquatic environments.  They are symbiotic organisms made up of a fungus and a photobiont (green algae and/or blue green bacteria). They indicate levels of air quality and forest health, contributing to nitrogen and carbon fixation. 

This course will provide an opportunity to learn the most frequently found
lichens in our urban Puget Sound area and major taxonomic groups.  In addition, an overview of how they have been used by people, both economically and for monitoring pollution, will be offered. You will learn about common lichens found in an urban environment and take home a user-friendly chart that lists lichens found in your neighborhood.

The class meets on Saturday, October 15th & 22nd at the UW Seattle Campus. 
There will be one field trip on Tuesday, October 18 (10:00 AM - 12:00 PM) at the Washington Park Arboretum.

Registration:  Lichens (campusce.net)

Fee: $40

Cowiche Canyon Trail is a 5-6 mile out and back walk located near Tieton, Washington. The trail follows the Cowiche Creek with spectacular views of basalt cliffs. This area is a fabulous example of shrub-steppe landscape, made up of grasslands, sagebrush, flowering plains, and oak woodlands

Our objective will be to admire and identify some of the many species of lichens, foliose (leafy, including umbilicate) and crustose (crusty, almost 2-dimensional) forms, particularly those growing on basalt (mafic volcanic rock). In addition, we will discuss the ecological importance of lichens in eastern Washington and how they can be used as detectors of air quality. 

This event is sponsored by the Washington Native Plant Society (WNPS) Study Weekend.  We will meet in Ellensburg, carpooling to the site.

The class has been filled.

WNPS Study Weekend

Trip leaders: Richard Droker and Katherine Glew