We are putting together an Earthwise Aware (EwA) Nature Program called: EwA Nature Circles.

An EwA Nature Circle is essentially a Nature focus group where you and your companions engage purposefully in activities that are centered on Nature with us as being part of ‘it’. We also call such groups: experience or learning circles. Our circles develop and exercise naturalist and ecology skills paired with both art and ethics.

You can either join a circle if you know of some operating in your area, or you can create one and invite others to join.

Here this iNaturalist project is dedicated to any EwA circle member in the world so that they share their observations and findings to the EwA community at large. Doing this we help spread an enthusiasm and information about the species that we want to see protected and loved.

Check our website (www.earthwiseaware.org) for more info about what we do at Earthwise Aware, and this program specifically!

Lovely mushroom walk at a local wildlife habitat this morning. 🍄

We got to talk a little about the Northern Tooth fungus. Look at it closely and you’ll see that it has no gills. Instead, it has a series of dagger-like projections, or "teeth". The teeth produce a greater amount of surface area than gills resulting in the greater production of spores. This is necessary because so few spores find their way to a perfect host.

Although the vast majority of mushrooms are beneficial to plants and hosts, this one is a 'toughty: it is basically eating this tree alive. This tree doesn’t have much more to live. The fungus made its way up, and now it is high probably because it depleted this tree of its nutrient down below and inside, causing what’s known as ‘heart rot’. If you look up that tree (a sugar maple probably), it is definitely on its way out.

fungi #mushroom #decomposers #mycology #nature #naturePhotography #aWalkInTheWood #EwANaturalistCorner