VMS members are gathering again for this year’s Earth Day at Everett Crowley Park, providing public mycology education and inoculating pollinator-friendly native shrubs and nurse logs with fungi. This revitalized landfill site has taken on a new life as a rewilded natural green space for wildlife and people, and is Vancouver’s largest off-leash dog park. Partnered with the Vancouver Park Park Board, Wildcoast Ecological Society will be leading a salmon berry planting along the banks of Kinross Creek, and the Environmental Youth Alliance will be giving away native plants. There will also be an interpretive walk of the park, and Vancouver Public Library will be on hand hosting its many books on natural history. We are looking for extra VMS volunteers to help with our booth and to assist families in inoculating native shrub plantings with mycorrhizal spores and nurse logs with myceliated wooden dowels. For more information and sign up: Cody Labossiere (cody@netc.it) John Ames (johnrmames@gmail.com)

Mycologist/artist Willoughby Arevalo and environmental artist/community organizer Carmen Rosen will present on fungal biology and ecology in Renfrew Ravine and the Still Creek Watershed and their upcoming mycelial sculpture projects Mycelial Connections and Fruiting Bodies in Renfrew Ravine. If weather is conducive this event may include a foray into the ravine.

Beatrix Potter was a woman of many interests and ambitions. However, we often come to know only one of these, her children’s books. Renowned for her fabulous Peter Rabbit storybook illustrations at the turn of the Century, during this period Potter was also involved in the study of fungi (mycology) and, later in life, land conservancy efforts in Britain.

Join opening night post-screening discussion with Director Louie Schwartzberg, and special guests. When so many are struggling for connection, inspiration, and hope, FANTASTIC FUNGI brings us together as interconnected creators of our world. FANTASTIC FUNGI, directed by Louie Schwartzberg, is a consciousness-shifting film that takes us on an immersive journey through time and scale into the magical earth beneath our feet, an underground network that can heal and save our planet. Through the eyes of renowned scientists and mycologists like Paul Stamets, best-selling authors Michael Pollan, Eugenia Bone, Andrew Weil, and others, we become aware of the beauty, intelligence and solutions the fungi kingdom offer us in response to some of our most pressing medical, therapeutic, and environmental challenges. Please note: this is not an event organized by the VMS. Please contact the event organizers for all inquiries. 

FANTASTIC FUNGI (Louie Schwartzberg, 2019 / 81 mins) Imagine an organism that feeds you, heals you, reveals secrets of the universe and could help save the planet. ‘Fantastic Fungi’ is a revelatory time-lapse journey, from 2019 Maui Film Festival Visionary Award honoree and director Louie Schwartzberg, about the magical, mysterious and medicinal world of fungi and their power to heal, sustain and contribute to the regeneration of life on Earth that began 3.5 billion years ago. Better yet, you’ll see it through the eyes of mycologists, like renowned Paul Stamets exing about the unlimited potential of fungi in the fields of food, medicine, expanding consciousness, bioremediation, neurogenesis and treating end-of-life anxiety. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. 19+ Please note: this is not a VMS event. Please contact event organizers or the Rio Theatre with any questions.