Michael Beug - Contributing Editor

Michael Beug started mushrooming in 1969 in graduate school after taking an adult education class from Dr. Dan Stuntz at the University of Washington.

Three years later as a beginning professor at The Evergreen State College he met Kit Scates and Dr. Alexander Smith and began photographing fungi. His photographs now have appeared in roughly 30 books and articles on mushrooms. In about 1974 he joined the North American Mycological Association (NAMA) and the Pacific Northwest Key Council, a group dedicated to writing macroscopic keys for the identification of fungi.

He has served four terms as president of the Pacific Northwest Key Council. In NAMA serves on the Education Committee, is chair of the NAMA toxicology committee and was winner of the 2006 NAMA Award for Contributions to Amateur Mycology. He regularly writes about mushroom toxicology in McIlvainea, The Mycophile, and Mushroom: The Journal of Wild Mushrooming.

By 1975 Michael had created seven slide-tape programs on mushroom identification for use by the NAMA education committee. Michael revised and expanded the slide tape programs in the late 1980s and early 1990s and is currently in the process of creating a series of mushroom education DVDs. Four of his programs can be found on the web at www.evergreen.edu/mushrooms.

Michael lectures to mushroom clubs in throughout the Pacific Northwest and occasionally ranges farther afield on speaking engagements. He loves to teach beginners workshops and several times has taught the beginners classes at national NAMA forays. For 32 years he taught Evergreen State College students mushroom identification whenever his schedule would permit it. In retirement, he still looks forward to returning as a guest speaker on mushrooms or going with students on extended field trips. He also has remained active as an identifier and speaker at local mushroom club forays including forays with the Spokane Mushroom Club and the Oregon Mycological Society.