On November 14, I joined a group of over 25 members of Nature Nanaimo for a guided stroll through the beautiful trails of Morrell Nature Sanctuary to learn about mushrooms, lichen, nurse trees, “mother trees” and other symbiotic relationships that exist within a forest. Morrell Sanctuary is a preserve of nearly 300 acres of mature second-growth rain shadow forest in Nanaimo.
Guided by Bob Harvey, a long time volunteer and education guide for Morrell, we got to see at least two dozen species of mushrooms. Bob taught us about the different subspecies of fungi that exist in a forest and the role they play both above and below ground.
Thank you so much to Bob at Morrell for the fascinating forest facts and beautiful guided hike!
-Outing Summary and photos by Laura Lefurgey-Smith.