Attending Forays

Who can attend forays?

Members may attend our fungi forays.

No prior understanding of fungi is required to participate, and those with experience should also be willing to assist.

Forays were previously limited to only 10 adult participants who had registered, as we did not have memberships. As membership is a new arrangement from 2024, please bear with us as we may get more participants than we have volunteers to assist them.

What to expect at forays?

The Canberra Fungi Group is a not-for-profit citizen science group which aims to increase knowledge of fungi in the region. Records of fungi made during the foray will be submitted to NatureMapr.

We do not consume any fungi found on forays, nor do we seek to identify edible fungi.

Only people in our group with a licence under the Nature Conservation Act 2014 are permitted to take samples of the fungi we find, such as for the purpose of scientific study (like to create a collection for the National Herbarium).

We need people to find, identify, and record fungi on the foray. We usually work as a group, with groups discussing and identifying fungi found. We currently have only a few volunteers with experience in identifying and recording fungi or to lead the forays or these events, so please help out with this if you can.

Members sign in, get a brief explanation of fungi and how the foray will run, we then search for fungi, photographing them, attempt to identify them so we can upload them as a record. Upon leaving members sign out so we know no-one is missing.

See our Links Page for our Risk Assessment to understand the risks and obligations in participating in any of our forays.

Each foray goes for 2 hours (although you can leave earlier, but don't forget to sign out), and has an alternative date in case the first one is cancelled. Forays will be cancelled if it is raining, often within 1 hour of the scheduled event: check our facebook site for cancellations, or even better, if you register to let us know you're coming we'll email you notice of the cancellation.

Children can come along under the supervision of their parent/guardian. Please do not attend if you are unwell.

What to bring to forays?

Turn up wearing sensible enclosed walking shoes/boots for the outdoor reserve, clothes appropriate to the weather (usually long-sleeved to protect from scratches or animals, and rain jacket), hat, sunscreen and enough drinking water.

You may also wish to bring the following equipment if you have it: camera with macro function, hand lens, fungi identification resources.

Useful Apps on your phone include: Nature Mapr or iNaturalist.