Emergency Mushroom Walk to SAVE KNOWLAND PARK!
Constance Taylor
Have fun and sign the petition to Save Knowland Park!
When: Sunday Dec 28, 2014 from 12:00 pm-2:00 pm
Where: Knowland Park- we’ll meet at the Cameron Avenue entrance, a cul-de-sac off of Malcolm Avenue that dead-ends at the park. It’s fine to park on the street or any of the other nearby 1-block cul-de-sacs that are on the south side of the park. For a Google Map location go to www.wildoakland.org and click on the Dec 28 event in the "Upcoming Events" bar on the right side of the page.
Cost: FREE!
Why this is an “emergency” mushroom walk:
- Poster created by art student Kaley Bales, inspired by Knowland Park.
We want people to experience this amazing public open space because it’s under imminent threat of development by the Oakland Zoo. Friends of Knowland Park is working hard to get this issue on the ballot so the public can vote on what happens to its public land.
For this referendum effort we need 25,000 physical signatures from registered Oakland voters by January 9, 2015. There’s nothing you can mail in or sign via the internet- that means we need your help now!!! At the walk we’ll have petitions to sign as well as voter registration forms. Bring your friends!
- To learn more about the issue, go to saveknowland.org or read the October 2014 East Bay Express article “Zoo Gone Wild”.
- If you’d like to get a petition pack to collect signatures, e-mail knowlandr...@gmail.com
- You can also donate to the referendum effort
And now, the mushrooms!
With the excellent rain we’ve been getting, you’ve probably been seeing the blooms of fungal fruiting bodies (mushrooms) popping up everywhere. We’ll see what’s growing at Knowland Park, and also check out the ancient fairy ring of puffball mushrooms to see what surprises are there! The focus will be on learning to identify the larger mushroom species of the area and learning to read the landscape for where these various heterotrophs hide out and about their many roles in the local ecology.
- Knowland Park's giant puffball mushrooms (Calvatia pachyderma)
Left: intact puffball. Right: open puffball with billions of powdery brown spores. Photos: Constance Taylor
Please bring guide books if you have them. We will meet rain or shine! Tools that you may want to bring include a small pocket knife to dig with, a paintbrush to brush duff off with, and a jacket. You might also want to bring snacks, water, and dress for rain. There are no bathroom facilities at Knowland!With the excellent rain we’ve been getting, you’ve probably been seeing the blooms of fungal fruiting bodies (mushrooms) popping up everywhere. We’ll see what’s growing at Knowland Park, and also check out the ancient fairy ring of puffball mushrooms to see what surprises are there! The focus will be on learning to identify the larger mushroom species of the area and learning to read the landscape for where these various heterotrophs hide out and about their many roles in the local ecology.
We’ll meet at the Cameron Avenue entrance, a cul-de-sac off of Malcolm Avenue that dead-ends at the park. It’s fine to park on the street or any of the other nearby 1-block cul-de-sacs that are on the south side of the park.
This walk will not include tasting or collection of mushrooms.
Your guide will be Damon Tighe, an amateur mycologist or five years and former research scientist at the Joint Genome Institute, where many fungal genomes have been sequenced for biofuel applications.
Check out our blogs about Wild Oakland’s 2012 and 2013 mushroom walks with Damon Tighe!