Fun Picture from Lake Ashby

Swampy area on the trail at Lake Ashby, near New Smyrna Beach, Florida offers agood mix of plant life and food for birds. Florida ecology is different from my native WA environment. The level plain, sandy soil, palmetto, pine and oak forest, swampy lands requires a more intimate look to find differences and the unusual. Many seeding plants are wonderful to see in the Fall and Winter.

Finding Mushrooms in the Cedar River Watershed

I never knew that there were so many mushrooms. I always wondered why people worried about what was edible or not. During an about 2 hour scrounge through the Cedar River Watershed, in Washington, US, we found a collection of about fifty types. We actually had another container with all the larger mushrooms, too. We went as a group and afterwards, we found there was very little duplication, some, but not entirely. The one factoid I remember from the hour lecture was that tree health relies on fungus' in the dirt. There were many more.

Here's the link to the Cedar River watershed webpage for more information about classes such as this one:

http://www.cedarriver.org/

Expect to find hikes, birding, history and more...including rain drums!