Subject: Establishing a repository(?)

From: Roy W. Taylor <[email-masked]>
Date: 13 Mar 1996 03:17:25 GMT

Dear mycologists:

Over the course of the last 4 years, I have been researching various
saprophytic and parasitic species in a national park near at hand. My
interests have centered around the impact of fungi in the park
related to downed hardwoods from severe storms (tornadoes/hurricane)
and subsequent heartwood rot in surviving hardwoods (predominantly
oak).

I think that I have all my ducks in a row to put all of the pieces
together here; there's just one thing missing. In order to collect
specimens for positive ID by microscope, I have to be able to collect
the specimens. This requires a permit, and one of the conditions set
forth by the park superintendent is that I establish a repository for
specimens in a local college/university.

This is problematic in many ways. There's not a huge interest in this
part of the country for mycology (there's not a single mycology group
or association that I've been able to find in the entire region). I
have very little in that way to assist or interface with me in this
process.

I have doubts from my own understanding about the viability or worth
of such a repository to begin with. More than that, I have little
ammunition to convincingly express a need for said repository to a
university, and, as well, the method for constructing such a thing.
Put bluntly, I don't think that their interest level is any higher
than the population of mycology groups here.

If anyone has contacts or suggestions, I'll gladly accept them.

best regards,

R. W. Taylor

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From: Thomas O'Dell <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 13 Mar 1996 15:13:06 -0800

Where are you located?

[email-masked]
Mycology is better than Urology!