BC communities and organizations host many dozens of events over the course of a year, most of them in the autumn.
The majority of these events get listed, sooner or later, on the Fungi Events forum at the UBC Botanical Gardens site. Check this site regularly to find out where you can join others to learn about local mushrooms.
Also touch base with your local mushroom club or natural history club–these organizations often have informative presentations at their regular meetings. In Victoria, connect with SVIMS, the South Vancouver Island Mycological Society. In Vancouver, the place to meet up is VMS, the Vancouver Mycological Society.
We will list certain fungal events on these pages, especially those that involve the authors of Mushrooms of BC.
The fall/winter of 2025-2026 was a good year for BC mushrooms. In September the MycoMap BC Project was launched. In the 2026-2027 season, Andy and Kem will be collecting to-be-sequenced voucher specimens for this project at the various events listed below. We invite everyone to become a member of the MycoMap BC project and start their own collections.
The 2025-2026 mushroom events are past now. They have been pinked out below. (We’ll leave them visible, though, in case you want to query sites about 2026 plans.)
Andy will also be out and about in 2026 promoting his new book, Plants of the Pacific Coast. Contact Andy for more about dates and events relating to this new book.
—————— Fungi events in the fall/winter 2026-2027——————
The South Vancouver Island Mycological Society (SVIMS) will be sponsoring several speaker events and members-only forays in the fall/winter of 2026-2027. Watch for announcements on the SVIMS web site. The talks are on the first Thursday of each month at the Pacific Forestry Centre.
Strathcona Wilderness Institute Mycology Workshop, September 20-21, 2025. Andy will be one of the resource people.
Bamfield Fungus Fest, September 25-26, 2026.
The Cumberland Community Forest Society hosts the Cumberland Fungus Fest on October 1-4, 2026.
The Raincoast Education Society offers the course Mushrooms of the West Coast in Ucluelet from October 9-11, 2026. Andy MacKinnon and Ann McCall will be course facilitors.
The annual Whistler Fungus Among Us festival happens on October 15-18, 2026. Andy will be leading walks as part of this festival.
The Fall Continental Mycoblitz runs from September 30 to October 11, 2026. Everyone is invited to grab their cameras or smartphones or tablets and make iNaturalist or MushroomObserver records of mushrooms. These can be vouchered and sent in for sequencing.
Andy and Kem are doing a mushroom walk for Royal Roads University’s Healthy Planet Program on October 20, 2026, at noon. (Already oversubscribed)
On Friday, October 23, 2026, 1:00 pm, Andy and Kem are doing a fungi foray for the Wildwood Ecoforestry Institute.
The SVIMS annual Cowichan Foray happens on October 23-25, 2026 at the Cowichan Lake Education Centre. Andy and Kem and others will be leading walks and helping with the IDs. Details available on the SVIMS web site. You must be (or become) a SVIMS member to be part of this event.
The annual Mid-Island Mushroom festival happens on Sunday, October 25, 2026 from 11 am to 4 pm. It is at the Qualicum Beach Civic Centre.
On October 28 (lecture) and 29 (field/lab day), 2026, Kem and Andy are offering a hands-on mushroom workshop, Mushrooms of Greater Victoria through University of Victoria Continuing Studies.
The weekend at the end of October and the beginning of November be a mushroom extravaganza in Greater Victoria. The IMAX Theatre at the Royal BC Museum will be screening Fungi: The Web of Life. Kem and Andy will be doing a talk for the Royal BC Museum on Friday about “Scary Mushrooms.” The annual SVIMS mushroom show will be at the Royal BC Museum on Sunday, November 1, 2026, 10 am-4 pm.
On November 7 (lecture at 2 pm) and 8 (field/lab day), 2026, Kem and Andy are offering a hands-on mushroom workshop, Mushrooms of Greater Victoria through University of Victoria Continuing Studies.
Saturday, November 7, 2026, 10 am and Sunday, November 15, 2026, 10 am, the Land Conservancy of BC is hosting mushroom walks led by (among others) Andy and Kem.
The Seagirt Ponds Preservation Society is sponsoring a mushroom field trip with Andy and Kem on Saturday, November 14, 10:00 am at Seagirt Ponds Park.
On Thursday, November 19, 2026, noon, Kem and Andy are doing a mushroom walk for the Royal Roads Climate Community Gathering.
Monday, December 14, 2026, 7:00 pm, in the Community Hall in East Sooke, Andy and Kem are doing a fungal slide presentation on “What Makes Santa’s Reindeer Fly.”