Our 2026 Presenter Roster
Elora Adamson
Elora is an environmental educator, naturalist and mycology enthusiast. She currently works for the BC Biodiversity Program with her work focused on making fungi collections in undersampled areas of the province. She is excited to be coordinating the new MycoMap BC project, aiming to document fungal biodiversity in the province through DNA sequencing. Elora is also a board member for the South Vancouver Island Mycological Society and enjoys running mushroom walks, teaching introductions to Mycology and crawling around on a mossy forest floor.
Juliana Bedoya, Plants Are Teachers
Comox Valley, Vancouver Island
plantsareteachers.org
@plantsareteachers | @julianabedoya
Juliana Bedoya is a community-engaged environmental artist and facilitator whose work sits at the intersection of art, ecology, and community. Born in the Colombian Andes and now based in the Comox Valley, she explores how people, plants, and places can become teachers in cultivating deeper relationships with the living world. Inspired by living systems and ancestral knowledge, her practice investigates how ecological patterns can inform human organizing, social innovation, and collective stewardship. Through Plants Are Teachers, she connects harvesting and processing plants, artmaking, ecological restoration, and collaborative learning as pathways toward belonging, reciprocity, and care for place. Her work tends the social soil from which trust, collaboration, and collective action can emerge.
Zoe Biggs
Kent Brothers
Kent Brothers is an amateur mycologist who has had a keen interest in biodiversity in general and macrofungi in particular for close to 30 years, not only in the Pacific Northwest but also in the neotropics. Through guided walks in forests he enjoys sharing knowledge of the extensive diversity of fungi in ecosystems and the valuable roles that they play in the environment. He participated in and prepared the final report for a 5-year inventory of fungi in Manning Park (640 species — http://www.vanmyco.com/Documents/ManningFungiTaxonomic.htm) and has for several years been working on a comprehensive list of the several thousand fungi reported to occur in the province of BC (http://brothers.ca/Kent/BiotaLists/BCFungi.htm).
Mandie Bumble
Miss Bumble is an Illustrator, Painter, Textile & Felting Artist creating on the unceded territory of the K’ómoks First Nation, in the province known as BC, Canada. The artist takes large inspiration from local mycology (study of mushrooms) as well as west coast natural flora and fauna in her illustrations and fibre works.
Creating works that have a deep representation of 2SLBGTQIA+ people, which the artist is a part of, comes from seeing a lack of representation in the small communities they were living in along the west coast. Her artwork has an air of whimsy but also carries a message of advocacy for underrepresented groups including bodies of all shapes, orientations and abilities. Each artwork has a story that people can connect to, and the artist hopes that some people also see themselves represented in their work.
Madeline Christie
Madeline is a death companion and educator with a mission to make end-of-life planning and deathcare more accessible. Her work encompasses home funerals, pet loss, grief rituals, earth-friendly disposition options, and more. Through education and empowerment, she helps individuals take a more active role in their own death journeys while fostering compassionate relationships and a more connected, holistic deathcare community.
Laura Clarke
Laura Maija Clarke’s creative writing workshops are inspired by her love for nature, folk magic and the occult. How does our poetry and fiction grow and get weirder when we co-create with fungi and slime molds, the moon, the tarot or folktales? She is the author of Decline of the Animal Kingdom (ECW Press), which was included in the Globe and Mail and the National Post’s Top Books of the Year.
You can find her poetry, fiction and literary criticism in the National Post, Hazlitt, PRISM International, Prairie Fire and Grain, among other publications. She is a past winner of the Bronwen Wallace Award from the Writers’ Trust of Canada and has received numerous grants from Canada Arts Council, Ontario Arts Council and Toronto Arts Council. She holds a Master’s in English with a specialization in creative writing from University of Toronto. She is currently working on a speculative fiction novel featuring fungi as one of the main characters.
Dawn Copeman
Dawn is an avid forest explorer, community historian and ‘naturalist in residence’ for the Cumberland Community Forest Society with a passion for the wild side of the forest including the incredible world of slime molds.
Last year Dawn championed the idea of the village adopting an official village fungus: the red belted conk. Red tape entangled that project so the new plan is to kick that project up to the provincial level. Stay tuned.
Corvee Foragers
Vanessa Sharkey and Cory Cliff have created a powerhouse of a venture that both revives indigenous traditional medicines and allows others to accompany them and learn how to harvest, process and create these medicines in sustainable and respectful ways. They share their knowledge everywhere we go.
DEATH CAFE Facilitators: Rhianna Walz & Richard
Rhianna: By surprise Rhianna fell completely in love and wonder with death, dying and grief work back in 2007 when she started her Hospice volunteer training. She feels blessed to sit with others and bear witness to their processes…. especially over tea and cake!
Richard has been a gardener since he was 5yrs. old and is still in awe of the circle of life. His connections with nature continue to be a source of joy and inspiration as he explores what it means to be human. He believes that the contemplation of what is called death is a path to greater fulfillment in life.
DJ Driem
(Aaron Handford) is a producer of organic electronica, deep house & downtempo bass whose festival credits include Burning Man, Pachena Bay, Valhalla Fest, Burn In The Forest, Otherworld, & SubLunar and releases on the Visionary Shamanics and Lump Records label.
He is inspired by the intersection of the traditional musical legacies of Africa, India, Europe and the Middle East with modern sample based electronic music making methods and is an active music producer. He enjoys collaborating with vocalists and instrumentalists to co-create musical journeys. His artistic goal is to forge connections between the spheres of deep house, downtempo global bass music, jazz, and world rhythms.
Jay de Montarnal
A non-binary person of both Métis and settler descent, Jay walks between the gaps and along the edges created by colonial boxes, finding themself far more at home in the larger circle that holds all within the more-than-human world.
Born and raised on a multi-generational family farm in rural Saskatchewan, the land provided their first paid work (trapping gophers and picking potato bugs by 7) as well as their first refuge. Jay has been running “away” to the land during tough times since mid-winter at 5 years old.
Passionate about the power of the land to hold, connect, and heal, and with past experience as a Forest School practitioner, solo back country adventurer, and search and rescue volunteer, Jay sees themself simply; someone confident holding a protected, inclusive, equitable space for others interested in wandering, wondering, and pulling on the threads of their own interests to create connected, individual experiences with the land
Tal Engel
Tal Engel is a forest restoration practitioner and regenerative farmer who lives in the Comox Valley, British Columbia, on his family’s farm, Honey Grove. He founded WolfTree Integrative Forest Rehabilitation to develop and implement forest rehabilitation models and services at a landscape scale, addressing challenges from fires, floods, and droughts to biodiversity collapse and hydrological dysfunction, and to foster the conditions for old growth forests to regenerate over time.
WolfTree’s approach rests on decades of scientific research across the Pacific Northwest into old-growth and disturbance ecology, and into conventional ecological forestry models. Tal is currently working on his master’s thesis in restoration ecology.
Catherine Euale
Catherine (Cat) Euale is a bio-artist, material researcher, and educator based in Halifax, Nova Scotia (Mi’kma’ki). Her decade-long practice spans biofabrication, mycomaterials, and ecological design, exploring fungi as active collaborators within a more-than-human kin-dom. She teaches and researches biomaterials through her project Slimy Futures, mentors with the Biodesign Challenge since 2019, is co-author of the forthcoming book Fungal Matters (Routledge).
Her practice is rooted in interspecies kinship, somatic and ritual pedagogy, and spiritual ecology.
Erin Feldman. M/Sc. Biology
Fascinated by fungi for as long as she can remember, Erin loves learning about these diverse organisms and sharing her acquired knowledge with receptive minds of all ages. With a background in molecular biology and genetics, Fungi were the fourth kingdom of life in Erin’s varied research career, but, after leaving academia, she established “Me, Mycelium & I”, a fungal cultivation and education business.
Erin has had the pleasure of wandering in forests across North America talking passionately about local Funga for nearly two decades and, more recently, is often joined among the trees of Vancouver Island by her favourite little mycologist-in-training.
Dylan Hawse
Dylan Hawse is a long time myco-enthusiast and proponent of DIY mycology in all its forms. After deep-diving into the rabbit hole of home cultivation, he became enamoured by the benefits, potential, and magic of fungi. Dylan focuses his efforts on demystifying the world of mushroom growing, with the aim of making these fascinating and useful techniques more accessible to all. He believes that through widespread at-home cultivation, fungi can provide profoundly positive effects on mental health, physical wellness, and food sovereignty.
He runs small gourmet mushroom and grow supply called Foxfire Fungi, based in Victoria.
Lyndsay Fraser
Lyndsay is a public educator, science writer, and communications professional, co-author of 125 Nature Hot Spots in British Columbia. She has been part of the Cumberland Forest Science Pub series since its inception and brings a very special voice to our collective science explorations. And, full disclosure: her favourite topic is bizarre animal courtships and mating, so brace yourself for some mildly lewd content.
Sarah Hoffman MA, RCC
For more than 20 years, Sarah has had the privilege of holding space for healing and personal exploration in our beautiful Valley. As an experienced RCC trained in Psilocybin and MDMA assisted therapy, she is dedicated to ensuring individuals intending to have psychedelic experiences can make informed choices and access safe, skilled, and compassionate support.
Led by love and acceptance, Sarah is relentlessly curious about the self, others, and the mysteries of the universe. This curiosity has fostered a deep passion for weaving together the healing power our fungi friends with ancient wisdom and modern neuroscience, inviting us all to shed what no longer serves and come home to our beautiful, radiant selves.
Erik Hrabovsky
Erik deeply bowed to the wisdom of the mycological queendom back in 2016 when his Free the Fungi Mushroom Co concept was conceived. Forming such a partnership with mycelium seemed only natural after witnessing them restore habitats, combat drought, clean water, cycle nutrients, build soil, remove pollutants, and introduce symbiotic relations for other life.
Erik brings to all things a diverse background, his experience as a father, biologist, natural builder, native plant enthusiast, teacher and more, to passionately cultivate (re-)integrations between people and fungi.
Ignisia Circus
Ignisia Circus, founded in 2017 by Denyse Dansereau, is a dynamic performance troupe specializing in fire, flow, and dance. Led by Artistic Director Denyse, a seasoned dancer, choreographer, and fire performer, each act is meticulously crafted with a blend of skilled technique, graceful dance, and unique stylistic elements. Every member of Ignisia Circus brings their own distinct style to performances, resulting in unforgettable shows that captivate audiences. From intimate gatherings to large-scale events, including weddings, festivals, and corporate functions, Ignisia Circus offers a range of performances, from choreographed stage shows, to stilt walkers and roving characters. www.ignisiacircus.ca
Jessica & Nicholas - Amanita Allies
Jessica: aroharising.com / Nic
Huge thanks to our incredible sponsors!
Jenn Laing
Jenn is a middle school and art teacher and amateur mycologist raising two kids with sensitivity and curiosity in the world of fungus and nature. Her family lives in Cumberland and regularly walks the forest in search of weird and wonderful biodiversity it is home to.
Natasha (Tasha) Lavdovsky (she/they)
Natasha is an artist/amateur lichenologist with a passion for integrating ecological activism into their artistic practice.
For 15 years Natasha has been experimenting with integrating environmental stewardship and anti-colonial perspectives into her video, performance, photography, installation, sound, and sculpture works. Natasha has spent most of her life on “Vancouver Island” and is grateful for her ongoing connections to the Territories of the W’SANEC, Lekwungen, Scia’new, T’Sou-ke, and Pacheedaht First Nations. Natasha holds a BA in Studio Art from Princeton University (studying earth sciences and visual arts), and she holds an MFA in Intermedia Studio Art from Concordia University, Montreal.
David Lyon
David Lyon is a carpenter and independent researcher based in Victoria BC. David has worked as a laboratory mycologist for a commercial mushroom farm and has developed novel techniques for at-home mushroom cultivation. He has offered numerous mushroom cultivation workshops on Vancouver Island and interior BC, focusing on simplicity and efficiency to reduce costs and minimize failure.
Working in the tradition of citizen scientists and mycology pioneers, David is primarily self-taught and aims to de-mystify, de-stigmatize and democratize approaches to DIY home mushroom cultivation.
Pete Lypkie
Pete has been an avid birder since he was young, but in recent years has discovered macro photography and a love for the tiniest creatures. As a self-taught “citizen scientist”, he now studies springtails and mites in his spare time, and is working on scientific descriptions of new species from Vancouver Island.
Andy MacKinnon
Ecologist, author, activist and politician, Andy is renowned for his talents as an educator and is one of the modern architects of the widely-used biogeoclimatic forest classification system in British Columbia. His graduate research was in mycology and he is the co-author of six guidebooks to BC plants, and of the Royal BC Museum Handbook Mushrooms of British Columbia. His passion for the natural world persisted into a 30-year career as a forest ecologist. Andy is a retired registered professional forester and registered professional biologist. He still leads various field schools and guest lectures at post-secondary institutions and at Fungus Fests throughout the Pacific Northwest. Andy has an intimate understanding of BC’s coastal forests, how they have changed over time, and what is needed to safeguard them into the future.
Tsimka Martin
Rooted in ƛaʔuukʷiʔatḥ homelands and the broader nuučaan̓uł (Nuu-Chah-Nulth) cultural community, Tsimka gets creative and engages vocals in her heritage language (Tla-o-qui-aht and French) as well as the English language which is now dominant in her homeland. She also engages in field recordings, performance, and traditional drumming. She also facilitates the workshop Pathways from Settler Colonialism to Right Relationship and Indigenous sovereignty which is being offered on Sunday morning of Fungus Fest.
Alison and Loys Maingon
Life-long naturalists and educators, Loys and Alison are hard-working volunteers dedicated to the conservation and restoration of natural ecosystems. They were recently awarded the Ian MacTaggart Cowan Award, recognizing their life-time accumulation of support and education they have brought to BC Nature, the Comox Valley Naturalists, the Strathcona Wilderness Institute, and numerous other organizations.
Their great passion for our animal and plant relations is matched by their knowledge of, and sense of curiosity about, the living world. Both have strong empathy for nature, as well as the ability to convey their sense of wonder about it to others. Loys and Alison are both respected scientists, who have for many years tirelessly led hikes into natural habitats, instructing participants on numerous topics.
Dr. Randal Mindell
Randal is a Comox Valley-based cryptogamic botanist with a particular interest in mosses, liverworts and crustose lichens. He completed his B. Sc. at UBC and Ph.D. at the University of Alberta and is an in demand lecturer and guide. Amble through a diversity of lichen habitats around the Cumberland Forest and learn more.
Cadence Moffat McCann
Cadence is a somatic and nature-based therapist supporting people through grief, loss, and times of transition. Her work is grounded in the belief that healing happens through relationship — with our bodies, with one another, and with the living world. Drawing from somatic practice, grief work, and a deep relationship with the more-than-human world, she creates spaces where people can slow down, listen deeply, and tend what they are carrying.
Cadence is particularly interested in the many forms grief can take — from personal loss and life transitions to ecological change, cultural loss, and the grief of living in a rapidly changing world. She offers individual grief support as well as community grief rituals and circles, creating spaces to explore grief not as something to overcome, but as something we can learn to be in relationship with. She lives in the Comox Valley, where she continues to listen, walk, and learn from the land. www.innercadence.com
Adrian Oberg
Adrian works as a psychedelic counselor, consultant, and harm reduction coordinator on Vancouver Island. He helped to found the Victoria Association for Psychedelic Studies in 2014 and acted as Director from 2015-2023. Through harm reduction work in the city core and at arts and music festivals, as well as in-depth personal experience, he developed a familiarity with altered states that led to a practice holding space with medicine in 2016. He completed the Chiron Academy training in 2020 and trained in Psilocybin Therapy with TheraPsil in 2021. Adrian holds a BA in Psychology from the University of Victoria and is currently completing an MA degree in Child and Youth Care.
Thom O’Dell
Thom is a biologist specializing in plants, fungi and their interactions. He is a Ph.D. scientist with decades of mycology research and teaching and brings a critical, evidence-based viewpoint to the current mushrooming interest in medicinal fungi.
Vail Paterson
Vail Paterson is a Mushroom Enthusiast from Salt Spring Island… who loves hiking in the forest and taking pictures. He is grateful to all the wonderful mushroom mentors in Pacific Northwest … who have generously shared their knowledge and experience … and loves to pay that generosity forward … with a focus on mushroom identification, bio diversity studies, collecting for dna sequencing, teaching … and leading “Mushroom Walk and Talks”.
Erik Piikkila
Erik is a Forest and Watershed Ecologist with an International Bachelor of Forestry in Finland and the University of Washington in Seattle. He has been trained by some of the premier forest ecologists in BC and the US Pacific Northwest including Dr. Andy MacKinnon and Dr. Jerry Franklin, and has developed a concept called “Ecosystem Decoding” where reading the clues on the land is important to try and understand what has happened or changed in a forest over the decades. Of interest to the Cumberland Community Forest, is Erik’s knowledge about Logging History and how that history has shaped Comox Valley Forests, and the legacies that are still being felt 100 years later. https://ecosystemdecoder.solutions/
Michael Red
At Fungus Fest this year, Michael will be performing a live set with Tsimka and also facilitating a solo Light Blues Session (his version of a sound bath mixed with a live ambient set).
https://linktr.ee/michaelred
https://linktr.ee/light_blues_
RootZ - Wild Child RootZ
Edgewalker, Deep Nature Mentor, Wildcrafting Creatrix – She/Her.
Rootz facilitates nature-based offerings, enriched by living community, fostering a kinaesthetic kind of presence and play, alive with curiosity and relationship-rooted connection. She collaborates with wild childs of all ages and abilities exploring life-skills, outdoor survival and stewardship practice from her off-grid Joy the Magic Botanical Skoolie Bus camp and g’nomadically guides “coyote” 8-shields mentoring, nonviolent communication, bushcraft, plant medicine, and wisdom from my diversity of teachers!
A fruitful factoid… When scouting ahead for forest school back in 2020, RootZ discovered Amanita phalloides “death cap” mushrooms. With the help of local Mycologists (especially Kent Brothers’ expertise) she harvested specimens for UBC research. The sighting made record as the most Northern sighting for Vancouver Island to date. Such an experience deeply ignited RootZ’ relationship with the wondrous kingdom of fungi; their transformative and healing abilities have enriched her songwriting, storytelling and community play ever since!
Follow her offerings, wildcrafting and mentorship stories @ facebook.com/ from #joythemagicbotanicalskooliebus wildchildrootz
Andi Grace Rose
Andi Grace Rose is a mother, doula, gardener, forager and folk herbalist. She has been foraging, making and selling herbal medicines for over a decade. She lives her life in sync with the rhythm of the seasons and the moon.
Heather Scott
Heather Scott is a wild harvester, mushroom enthusiast and educator, and operator of Halcyon Wild Foods, based in Winlaw, BC. Foraging and living nomadically has deepened a connection with the land both in British Columbia and beyond.
Since 2018, she has taught about mushroom and native plant identification, ecosystem understanding and forest ecology, sustainable harvesting and wild food preservation. Much of her teaching focuses on forging a relationship with, and an understanding of, our wild places and the many interactions ongoing within it. Honoring the importance of observing the natural cycles of plants, mushrooms and animals throughout the seasons, she aims to encourage an appreciation for all that surrounds us.
”The skills acquired through years of foraging and working in the bush have presented me with a unique opportunity to help others learn from these experiences as well. From learning about our lands together, to teaching children about safety in the backcountry, to encouraging others to embrace the wild food foraging world themselves, it has been a true blessing in my life to walk this path, and be a guide for others as they too find their way.” – Heather Scott
Jeanette Sheehy
Jeanette is an educator, researcher, and activist focusing on collective liberation since 2010. Rooted in hope and delight she facilitates small and large groups, courses, and events focused on creating a more loving and just world. She’s at her best supporting people through hard topics while grounded in our inherent goodness and potential for transformation. Her main projects are Pathways to Right Relationship with Tsimka and Spit Fire press.
Heather Soo
Heather Soo is a Professional Forester and fungus enthusiast. She is an active volunteer with the Canadian Institute of Forestry promoting forestry education through local initiatives on Vancouver Island including guiding walks in Campbell River in the Beaver Lodge Forest Lands. Heather is aco-founder of MIMSY (Mid-Island Mycological SYmbionts).
Arleta Turnbull
Arleta Turnbull (Yellow Petal Photo) is a spiritually minded Lifecycle Photographer, trained and devoted to holding the full spectrum of life’s sacredness, from birth to death and everything in between. The documentation and reflection of her own Sacred Legacy journey has gifted her with the profound awareness of the healing a photography session and the result photographs bring to people.
Paul Walde
Paul Walde is a Canadian interdisciplinary artist, composer, curator, and professor based on lək̓ʷəŋən territory in Victoria, British Columbia. Originally trained as a painter, Walde has developed a diverse practice spanning visual art, sound, video, performance, and installation.
Paul’s work explores relationships between landscape, identity, technology, and environmental change, often bringing artistic and scientific approaches into dialogue. He is particularly known for large-scale performances staged in natural environments, where music and choreography respond to specific landscapes and ecological conditions.
His acclaimed 2013 project, Requiem for a Glacier, brought a 55-piece choir and orchestra to the Farnham Glacier in the Purcell Mountains and was subsequently transformed into a widely exhibited sound and video installation.
Walde is Professor of Visual Arts at the University of Victoria, a founding member of Experimental Music Unit a Victoria-based sound and music ensemble, and a core member of Awi’nakola: Tree of Life, an Indigenous-led research group focused on forest preservation and restoration through the confluence of Indigenous knowledge, scientific research, and the arts.
Jess Wild
Jess Wilde is a wilderness skills educator with a deep passion for helping people build confidence, curiosity, and connection in the outdoors. Her journey began in her teens when she left the city to live in a teepee in the woods, and study herbalism. Jess has continued to expand her knowledge over the years. She teaches at wilderness skills gatherings and occasional workshops. Since Jess grew up in the city without a mentor, she is especially passionate about teaching others wilderness skills. Gowildeadventures.com
Wildebeest
Wildebeest is the self produced electronic solo project of Denman Island keyboarder/vocalist Megan Rose. Wildebeest is synth forward, dark dance pop heavily influenced by Goldfrapp, Yaz, Eurythmics, New Order and LCD Soundsystem. She lives in the wilds of Denman Island and is a self identified fungiphile.
Yarrow Willard
Yarrow is a second-generation Clinical/Master Herbalist, Co-Founder of Harmonic Arts, and Director of the Wild Rose College of Herbal Medicine. Known as the Herbal Jedi on YouTube, he is an educator, storyteller, and herbal ambassador who inspires people to reclaim their health and deepen their connection with the natural world.
With a profound affinity for functional mushrooms and a lifelong love of plant medicine, Yarrow blends science and spirit, roots and reason, tradition and play. His teachings combine time-honoured healing systems with modern research, creating an innovative and accessible approach that empowers people to care for themselves—and the Earth.
Wormwood
Wormwood is a forest-dwelling worm who calls the Cumberland forest home. He spends his days underground, tending to seeds, pushing things around, and taking care of the small jobs that keep the forest moving.
For a worm, Wormwood is quite large.
He is a creature of simple pleasures: good soil, a quiet forest, and the occasional satisfying wiggle. He is curious about the world above ground and has a tendency to get involved when something catches his attention.
Wormwood has lived among the trees for as long as he can remember, quietly doing his part and noticing things that others might overlook.
Mark Worthing
Mark Worthing (he/him) is a settler of Scottish and English ancestry based on Vancouver Island. He is a multidisciplinary community organizer, researcher, and policy-analyst working at the intersections of environmental activism, applied conservation biology, decolonization and land-based methodologies. Mark is experienced in direct-action, movement building, intersectional advocacy, and ecology field-work research with a focus on the landscapes of so-called British Columbia. He works with and for many coastal First Nations communities, bringing nearly two decades’ experience working for many Environmental Non-Governmental Organizations at the global, national and grassroots levels.
Mark can be found somewhere between the old growth forests of coastal British Columbia, the boardroom tables of biodiversity-policy development, or global climate justice movement spaces where he centers a trauma-informed approach to healing, learning and creativity.
He is the Director of Programs & Campaigns at Awi’nakola Foundation.
Huge thanks to our incredible sponsors!