Spring Fungi of the Sierra Nevada - 2026 Recap
Each spring, the retreat of the snowpack provides a unique ecological window of opportunity for “snowbank fungi”, a group of mushrooms that (as the name suggests) grow in and around snowbanks. As spring gives way to summer, curious mycophiles from around the world gather at a rustic campus in Tahoe National Forest to study these fascinating fungi.
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Lisa Tesler
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June 18, 2026
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Snowbank fungi (Mycena overholtsii). Photo by Lisa Tesler
At the beginning of June, my mom and I headed up to the Tahoe area to participate in Spring Fungi of the Sierra Nevada. This is a 5-day mycology course designed for absolute beginners and experienced mycophiles alike.
Snowbank fungi are endemic to the high-elevation coniferous forests of western North America, where short, cold summers allow snowbank remnants to linger into August. To help others learn about these interesting species, the renowned mycologist Dr. Harry D. Thiers created this course in 1982.
Over the years, other instuctors have included Dr. Roy Halling, Dr. Andrew Methven, and Dr. Dennis E. Desjardin. As of 2017, Dr. Brian Perry has been leading the course.
Dr. Perry maintains a detailed species list and grows it each year. So in lieu of a field report, here's a recap of what we experienced in this year's course.
The Campus Setting
The academic setting is SF State's Sierra Nevada Field Campus, a semi-rustic outpost tucked off Highway 49, along the North Yuba River in the Tahoe National Forest.
Due to limited funding and historic preservation agreements, this campus' architecture sits somewhere between a 1970s research station and a U.S. Forest Service campground. In fact, a non-profit group, Friends of the SNFC, and the university are both seeking donations to improve student amenities and the facilities. (More info below)
The campus center is a two-story wooden building, housing a single communal classroom downstairs, along with bathrooms and showers, and a dining hall upstairs.
For this course, Dr. Perry (Brian) converted the classroom’s long tables into rows of temporary lab workstations. Each workstation included a compound microscope plus basic supplies (razor blade, forceps, slides, cover slips and lens wipes). Pairs of students also shared a dissecting scope and an assortment of diagnostic reagents.
Our classmates included a few mother/daughter participants (like my mom and me), as well as couples and friends who had come up together. So the pairs formed quickly, and those who came solo synced up to form the remaining pairs.
Other buildings on the property include housing for the campus director, teaching staff, etc., as well as forest-service-style showers and bathrooms at both ends of the campus for students who were camping.
On-Site Lodging
Most students rented large canvas-wall tents built on wooden platforms (which were apparently pretty comfortable), or pitched their own tents among the pines. Alternatively, some people slept in their own camper vans or trailers in the parking lot across the river. (For our own accessibility and health reasons, my mom and I opted to stay in Sierra City, about 10 minutes away.)
Due to an aging bridge and limited budget for road maintenance, students who camped could drive to their tents to unload/load gear on the first and last day, but otherwise we were all asked to leave our cars in the main parking lot during the week.
Food Options
As this is bear country, the campus provided an industrial refrigerator in the dining hall for personal perishables, plus shelves for non-perishables. If you attend this course and opt in to camping on campus, please note that the kitchen was for staff only, and students were asked not to cook or have food in their tents.
Campus chefs typically prepare one tasty main dish per meal (with variants for meat-eaters and vegetarians). When we were there, they offered stroganoff, Chilaquiles, Taco Tuesday, etc. and incorporated wild mushrooms as available. They also laid out self-service buffets for morning cereal, brown-bag lunches, and evening salads.
Daily Activities
We followed a regular daily schedule, with each activity building on what we had learned in the morning earlier in the week:
Morning Lecture
Each morning after breakfast, we gathered at 8:15am for a lecture in the dining hall. Dr. Brian Perry started the week with lectures on macro- and micro-morphological characteristics. As the week progressed, he shifted to beautiful slides covering the taxonomy of local Spring basidiomycetes and ascomycetes. (Heh--for my part, I spent most of that time taking notes on how Brian pronounced the Latin names--much to my mom’s amusement, along with her observations about California’s high school education system no longer requiring Latin...)
Daily Foray(s)
At around 10:30am each day, we packed up our lunches and baskets, and we headed outdoors. After a short walk across the Yuba River, we gathered in the parking lot, while enjoying the fresh air and a swarm of California Tortoiseshell butterflies. From there, we carpooled along Highway 49 to seek the types of fungi we had studied so far.
Some participants were experienced snowbank mushroom foragers, and seemed to easily find interesting species left and right. Others initially found the hunting to be a little more challenging--especially if used to hunting for large edibles in areas where the mushrooms practically stand up and wave at you. With some time, everyone still found plenty to study for the class.
On the first day, a fellow participant whom my mom befriended approached our car during a break, reverently holding a beautiful Spring King. “It’s the first porcini I’ve ever found, after all these years!” she bubbled. We congratulated her, and my mom asked if she was planning to prepare a special meal with it. “I’m going to donate it to the campus kitchen, so everyone can enjoy it!” she replied with delight and generosity.
Another delightful foray location was at around 7,000 feet, where the air was cooler, and the mosquitoes were still blessedly dormant. Hunting here was familiar and yet different (compared to our typical FFSC forays). For this hunt, we started by looking for patches of snow. Then, with sunglasses and face masks on for sun protection, we carefully peered under and around the melting edges of the snowbanks.
Note: One passerby was clearly baffled to see people surrounding snowbanks near the road, each of us hunched over, squatting, or nearly lying down amongst broken logs and rocks.
In this habitat, we found elegant mushrooms like the snowbank fairy helmet (Mycena overholtsii). This is a paradoxical giant among the usually tiny mycenoids, growing up to 6 inches tall, with caps over 2 inches wide. Like other snowbank fungi, their fruiting bodies are just warm enough to melt small caverns in the snow, allowing them to grow tall until they break through the surface (or the snow melts away) to release their spores.
The snowmelt also created an ideal habitat for spring orange peel fungi (Caloscypha fulgens), black snowbank cups (Donadinia nigella), and other beauties.
On another foray, we visited a wide open area at around 5,000 feet, where we found more black snowbank cups, along with bird’s nest fungi, and more.
One day after lunch, some people began a little show-and-tell and “what is it?” with Brian and others. My mom took the opportunity to rest, so in the last few minutes before we left the area, I strolled back to revisit some trees where I had seen a couple of large, decomposing porcini, but I still didn’t find any others.
That is, of course, until I experienced the classic foray trope: On the way back to my car, right smack in the middle of the area where 20 other students had just been hunting for over an hour, three robust porcini caps peeked out at me from under pine needle ‘shrumps, like sleepy foreheads emerging from blankets after a long winter slumber.
With strategic mercy, Brian saved the wettest and most mosquito-choked habitats for Thursday, our last day of foraging. Some of the rarer high Sierra species only grow in marsh grasses or tucked into soaked logs, so upon arriving at this soggy location, students donned sandals and/or rubber boots—and a lot of mosquito repellent—to see if they could find some rarities.
My mom and I didn’t find any of the rare specimens, but we were at least pleasantly rewarded with other enjoyable species.
The group forays typically ended at around 2pm, giving everyone time to hunt at their own secret spots, rest/shower, or get ice cream at the Bassett’s Station Store. (My mom reported that the ice cream was very good.) At 3pm, we reconvened in the coolness of the lab.
Afternoon Lab Session
On our first afternoon in the lab, Brian briefly reviewed the morphological characteristics of basidiomycetes. Assistant instructor Taye Bright made sure everyone had at least one mushroom of the same species, and then they led us through a traditional group ID session. We used a set of dichotomous keys which Brian and Dennis Desjardin had developed for the course. (If you’re not familiar with dichotomous keys, think of an eye exam where you are asked to choose “A or B?”, and then each answer takes you to the next “A or B” question until you drill down to the species.)
Next, we used our microscopes to look at the mushroom’s spores, to ensure everyone was able to see the same shapes. On Tuesday, we reviewed how to study more complex microscopic features, and Taye walked us through another ID session as a group.
From then on, each of us began to work at our own pace in the lab—given that some students were professional biologists, and others were microscopy newbies.
Several course alumni and guest advisors joined the sessions for the first few days, including Mike Woods, Douglas Smith, Dr. Andrew Wilson, and others. Thus, those of us who were new to microscopy (or who hadn’t touched a microscope since high school) got plenty of one-on-one help. They showed us (or in some cases re-showed us) how to prepare a basic squash mount, operate the microscope, understand which parts of different specimens to dissect, etc.
Note: If you’ve attended this course in the past, Dr. Perry said alumni are welcome and encouraged to come back as guest advisors. You can join the forays, assist students in the lab, and sit in on lectures.
Evening Talks (and Final Exam Day)
After dinner each evening, students could attend optional evening talks, gather around picnic tables to socialize, or do their own thing. This year's speakers were Brian, Dr. Andrew Wilson, and campus Director Lynx Gallagher. In addition, J.R. Blair led an evening trip to go birding in the Sierra Valley.
On Friday morning, the instructors set out several specimens on those same picnic tables, with test questions as a final exam. (This was an open-book test, mostly for ourselves.)
By Friday, my mom and I were mentally and physically exhausted, but happy about what we’d learned. Despite being tired on the drive home, we couldn’t resist stopping a few times to explore potential foray areas. “Let’s just look for 5 minutes…” we’d say, and then of course we’d poke around for 20 minutes.
Knowing we still had a long drive back to the Monterey Bay Area, we finally agreed “This is the last spot!” The elevation was lower and the ground was pretty dry by then. We only found the remains of one morel, some Dyer's polypore (Phaeolus schweinitzii), and not much else. “Time to go,” said mom. But then, once again, while walking back toward the car, I noticed a clearing where the sun lit a pile of pine needles on an odd-looking rock. “Hmm… Is that a rock, or could it be a ‘shrump?” I wondered, and detoured over. Sure enough, another three porcini!! A tasty end to a long week.
Course Registration
Speaking of porcini, this year the course registration fee was $395 (plus meals and camping fees). Given the price of fresh morels and porcini at my local fine foods store, the edibles we found on this trip were probably worth about the same as the class fee!
Even if you don’t look at the pricing that way, many commercial half-day and weekend ID classes range from $100-$150 per day and only have enough time to cover a fraction of this course’s depth.
SNFC classes are treated like part of an extension program, which means you don’t need to be a matriculated student at SF State (or anywhere else) to take this course. In fact, this year’s cohort ranged from teenagers to octogenarians, and beginners to biologists.
It should be noted that this course may be canceled if conditions are overly dry (as occurred in 2014). In fact, Brian normally co-leads a course with Alison Pollack the following week (Myxomycetes of the Sierra Nevada), but that course was canceled this year, due to inopportune conditions.
Scholarship (and Donation) Options
If you’re hesitant or unable to afford the $400 investment, I would encourage interested students and members to apply for an FFSC scholarship to cover (or at least offset) the fees.
A non-profit group, Friends of the Sierra Nevada Field Campus, also offers scholarships for this course-and for any other SNFC courses and workshops.
The Friends group also accepts tax-deductible donations. Over the years they've successfully funded many of the amenities that affect day-to-day campus life. Plus, the university is seeking larger donations to help fund infrastructure improvements to the bridge and buildings.
Final Comments
If you’re not interested in fungi that grow in the Sierra Nevada, there are many excellent courses in the Bay Area (including through FFSC) that can teach you how to use dichotomous keys and/or how to use a microscope.
That said, the length and depth of the Spring Fungi of the Sierra Nevada course (not to mention the lack of cellular, WiFi, and TV distractions) gives you a unique opportunity to focus (no pun intended) on your microscopy and ID skills. After you learn a skill, you get several more days of practice with attentive instructors and advisors in the room. They’ll answer your “Did I get this one right?” questions in real time, troubleshoot your squash mounts, and/or thumb through the keys alongside you to figure out why you went down an unexpected path. And it's a lot of fun!
Where to Learn More about the Course
In this YouTube video, Dr. Brian Perry gives an overview of what he covers in the course.
You can read more about snowbank fungi in the Spring 2009 issue of Fungi Magazine:
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