Join VISITING MYCOLOGISTS for a family friendly bioblitz and scavenger hunt to see the forest in a new light for THE City Nature Challenge! We will explore the diverse, nocturnal ecosystem of central Autin with UV flashlights and cameras to look for mushrooms, night pollinators, birds, glowing plants, lichens and more.

Bring your own 365nm UV flashlight or purchase one from us and pick-up at the event.

This event will be filmed. Waiver must be signed by all attendees. Tickets are limited you must register to attend. Your donation goes to support the mycological society and help cover costs of hosting mycologists.  Event is brought to you by Blue Circle Mushrooms, Central Texas Mycological Society and Auguste Escoffier School of Culinary Arts.

AGENDA

We will meet early at 6:30 pm and then hike to watch the sunset and then looking for glowing organisms until 9:30 pm.

This walk will highlight fungi’s role in transforming a former dumpsite into a thriving urban forest. Learn how fungi is entangled in the forest helping plants gain water and nutrients, creating the pigments that give flowers their beautiful colors, to helping plants communicate with pollinators. Guests will learn how to look for, photograph and be community scientists in adding fluorescing organisms to the iNaturalist project. 

We will be giving away recycled mushroom blocks, and warm reishi mushroom tea and snacks will be available. Get creative with glowing outfits, face paint and don’t forget your camera and tripod.
Learn more here about how some plants, mushrooms, lichens and insects have evolved color patterns that are visible in the ultraviolet portion of the electromagnetic light spectrum, which humans cannot see but many insects, birds and animals can see.

CREATE YOUR OWN BIOBLITZ

Anyone can participate individually or put together a bioblitz in your neighborhood or own backyard. Choose a park in your neighborhood and then meeting up with outdoor enthusiasts and showing them how to ID flora, fauna and funga using the iNaturalist app! We will be competing against other cities to photograph and observe biodivesity. Download the app and check out this page on how to use.

ABOUT CITY NATURE CHALLENGE

Started in 2016 as a competition between Los Angeles and San Francisco, the City Nature Challenge (CNC) has grown into an international event, motivating people around the world to find and document wildlife in their own cities. Run by the Community Science teams at the California Academy of Sciences and the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County (NHM), the CNC is an annual four-day global bioblitz at the end of April, where cities are in a collaboration-meets-friendly-competition to see what can be accomplished when we all work toward a common goal.

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