A Mushroom Walk will be held in the Big Thicket National Preserve (BTNP) on Saturday, June 11, 2011. We will meet at 10:00 AM at the Big Thicket Field Research Station (FRS) located in Saratoga, Texas. The FRS is on the west side of FM 770 in the small town. It is marked with a brown, Park Service sign.

We will foray into the nearby Lance Rosier Unit of the BTNP, near the Cypress Swamp on Teel Road, and collect and record species. This activity

is part of the BTNP All Taxa Biodiversity Inventory (ATBI). The collections

will be displayed, identified, and dried for deposit in an herbarium. This

is an opportunity for our Society to contribute to the ATBI.

The mushroom walk will be led by our President, David Lewis, who is also the ATBI Taxonomic Working Group (TWIG) leader. Students from Eastfield College in Mesquite TX will be present, and mycologists Jay Justice and Juan Luis Mata. We will foray in the morning, and display and discuss our finds over lunch at the FRS. We will furnish collecting labels to document your finds.

Bring a sack lunch, a basket, waxed or paper bags, knife or spoon to dig

specimens, water, hats, rain gearJ, and bug spray.

As of this date, ATBI activities have yielded three species new to science;

Megacollybia texensis, Boletus roodyi, and Cantharellus texensis, more than 40 new records for the State of Texas, and more than 100 for the BTNP.

Saratoga is approx. 35 miles NW of Beaumont. It is located on FM 770, north off TX Hwy 105 between Beaumont and Cleveland. FM 770 turns north 13.8 miles west of Sour Lake and 2.6 miles east of Batson. The FRS will be on your left. Coming from the north on US Hwy 69/287, turn right in Kountze on FM 326, go 2.7 miles, turn right on FM 770 and follow to Saratoga. The FRS will be on your right. If coming from the south on 69/287 you will turn left on FM 326 south of Kountze.