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Federation Meeting September 2002 
Full details of this weekend excursion / meeting appear on page 5; please come along.
Excursion Reports 
Outing of 9 June 2002 to Bluff River Gorge
This Sunday outing attracted seven members who took a gamble on the weather, which, much to our comfort and delight, turned out to be fine, definitely the place to be in the South on that day (Hobart had rain).  The destination was unfamiliar to most of us, but Don had been there before and had explicit telephone instructions from Tom Terry, who wisely stayed home! The location was in State Forest about 11 km north-northwest of Buckland; the walk went through dry sclerophyll forest for about two km before descending into the gorge of a tributary of the Bluff River. Although there are taped tracks there, the start of the descent is not clear.  We eventually found the taped route and followed until about 1.30pm, when our stomachs and legs said time for lunch.  Tom had mentioned that there was a loop track in the gorge, but he did not tell us the diameter of the loop. After following it past several overhanging sandstone outcrops, reminiscent of Chauncy Vale, the President, the night out at McGregor’s Peak a year before still in her consciousness, and no end of the ‘loop’ in sight, started viewing the caves as potential overnight campsites! As none of us really knew where the loop finished, we turned back, much to the relief of the President (and her partner, who also remembered McGregor’s Peak) and followed another taped route to the top of the gorge, after a sortie on another branch which started going back down to the gorge.
The dry sclerophyll forest had quite a few fungal species in it, but was too early for orchids.  However, it appears to be a good venue for a further trip, since the drive to the start is all on sealed road and only takes about an hour from the Museum.  The vegetation type changed as we descended into the gorge, with Pomaderris apetala and Cyathodes glauca (cheeseberry) making an appearance, but no rain forest species. We did see gorse in the paddocks close to Buckland, but none of us bothered to get out of the car to check whether the gorse mite had the situation under control. No gorse was obvious in the State Forest, which appeared to be relatively weed-free.

Agaricus sp.	Descolea recedens	Lepiota sp.
Aleuria aurantiaca	Discinella terrestris	Mycena ‘albidofusca’
Ascomycete (white, bruising orange)	Entoloma bloxamii	Mycena ‘bleach sulcate on wood’
Clavicorona colensii	Entoloma sp. (three distinct species)	Mycena ‘sticky date’
Collybia butryacea	Galerina sp. (two distinct species)	Mycena epipterygia
Collybia eucalyptorum	Gymnopilus sp.	*Mycena interrupta
Coltricia oblectans	Heterotextus miltinus	Mycena sp. (brown, on wood, white gills)
Cortinarius ‘acuti group’	*Hygrocybe graminicolor	Mycena sp. (subcapillaris group)
Cortinarius sp. (brown, with pink universal veil remnants on stipe)	Hypholoma fasciculare	*Omphalina chromacea
Cortinarius sp. (golden brown)	Inocybe ‘brunetta’	*Oudemansiella radicata
Cortinarius sp. (large, lilac Phlegmacium)	Inocybe cystidiocatenata	Psathyrella sp., with appendiculate margin
Crepidotus applanatus	Inocybe sp. (small, brown)	Ripartites sp.
Dermocybe sp. (dark brown)	Laccaria sp.	Russula persanguinea
Dermocybe sp. (grayish green)	Lactarius eucalypti	Stropharia semiglobata

Outing of 4 May 2002 to Clark’s Cliffs
A mild late autumn day saw 10 of us including Bruno, a visiting mycologist from Italy, assemble near Koonya on Tasman Peninsula.  Tracks in this area have been constructed and maintained by a team of locals including Peter Storey of Tasman Tracks.  We undertook the longer loop of around 10km.
The track traverses wet forest including, in one valley, a mixed assemblage of riparian trees including very tall Melaleuca ericifolia.  Ringtail possum dreys were seen.  Even though rain had been sparse creeks were flowing through sandstone boulders, and fungi were abundant.
Lunch was had at the cliffs themselves.  These comprise dolerite pillars and walls overlooking a mossy screefield, with more distant views across Nubeena and the western peninsula.  Leaving the cliffs we descended through a fine rainforest with gnarled old myrtle and massive stumps from selective logging using crosscut saws.
Several of us remarked on the conservation valueof these remnants; even though they may not be old-growth forest by some definitions they are locally unique and largely unexplored for invertebrates.  The view from the cliffs had illustrated the majority areas already alienated to intensive agriculture or forestry.

Agaricus ‘cyanide’	*Anthracophyllum archeri	Armillaria novae-zelandiae
*Calostoma fuscum	Cantharellus cibarius	Clavicorona aff. piperata
Clavulina ‘stiffy’	Clavulinopsis amoena	Clavulinopsis miniata
Collybia butyracea	Collybia eucalyptorum	Coltricia oblectans
Conocybe sp.	*Cordyceps gunnii	Cortinarius abnormis
*Cortinarius austroalbidus	Cortinarius sp. (blue Myxacium)	Cortinarius sp. (orangy)
Cortinarius sp. (white, sticky)	Crepidotus applanatus	Crepidotus variabilis
Dermocybe sp. (two distinct species)	Descolea recedens	Discinella terrestris
Entoloma  sp. (beige, with blue-grey stipe)	Entoloma ‘goldy stalk’	Entoloma ‘orange splotch’
Entoloma aromaticatum	Entoloma rodwayi	Entoloma sericellum
Entoloma sp.	Entoloma sp. (blue-grey-pink)	Entoloma sp. (brown cap, red-violet stipe)
Entoloma sp. (brown with blue-grey stipe)	Entoloma sp. (grey)	Flammulina velutipes
Galerina ‘yellow foot’	Galerina patagonica	Gymnopilus sp.
Hohenbuehelia sp.	Hygrocybe astatogala	Hygrocybe aurantiopallens
*Hygrocybe graminicolor	Hygrocybe irrigata	Hypholoma fasciculare
Hypocrea sulphurea	Inocybe ‘Blondie’	Inocybe ‘brunetta’
Laccaria sp.	Lacrymaria asperospora	Lactarius aff. piperata
Lactarius clarkeae	Lactarius eucalypti	*Leotia lubrica
Lepiota ‘sooty’	Lepiota sp. (pinkish scales)	Leucocoprinus sp.
Lycoperdon perlatum	Lyophyllum sp.	Macrolepiota sp.
Marasmiellus affixus	Marasmius ‘angina’	Marasmius ‘equicrinis’ (pinwheel)
Melanophyllum echinatum	Melanotus hepatochrous	Mycena  sp., white, fragile, on wood
Mycena ‘albidofusca’ (blistered disc)	Mycena ‘bleach sulcate on wood’	Mycena ‘geosmus’ (sticky, yellow, earth-smelling & tasting)
Mycena ‘highlighter yellow’	Mycena ‘liver gills’	Mycena ‘sticky date’
Mycena austrofilopes	*Mycena austrororida	Mycena cystidiosa
Mycena epipterygia	*Mycena interrupta	Mycena kurramulla
*Mycena nargan	Mycena pura	Mycena sanguinolenta
Mycena sp. (brown, on wood)	Mycena sp. (dry, white, decurrent gills, on wood)	Mycena toyeyerlaricola
*Mycena viscidocruenta	*Oudemansiella radicata	Panellus stipticus
Paxillus muelleri	Phelledon niger	Pholiota squarrosipes
*Plectania campylospora	Pluteus atromarginatus	Podoserpula pusio
Psathyrella sp.	Pseudobaespora sp. (pink)	*Pseudohydnum gelatinosum
Psilocybe brunneoalbescens	Ramaria holorubella	Ramaria lorithamnus
Russsula ‘brown bruiser’	Russula  ‘red-yellow’	Russula af.. lenkunya
Russula albonigra	Russula marangania	Russula neerimea
Russula persanguinea	Ryvardenia campyla	*Stereum hirsutum
Tricholoma ‘large pink’	Tricholoma sp. (grey, sulphur odour)	Tyromyces caesius  (hard form)
Tyromyces merulinus	Tyromyces pellicolosus	*Vibrissea dura
Zelleromyces sp.

Further Thoughts on Foxes

As predicted in the last Bulletin, this issue has developed to be  parochial and at times somewhat hysterical in the public forum.  The local tabloid seems to regard it as a Sunday sensation issue, aided by politicians and fox-sighters / hoaxers seeking attention.  The usual red herrings of trying to exterminate feral cats are given an airing, not as exercises in futility (at least by shooting) but as practical benefits or alternatives.

The reality of introduction must still be deeply in question.  The supposedly incontrovertable evidence is said to be a fox carcase found near Longford with a Tasmanian ?endemic Long-tailed Mouse in its stomach.  This raises the underlying issue of how well we know our indigenous mammal biology including details of distribution and habitat usage.  The conventional wisdom for the Long-tailed Mouse is that it is a wet forest species unlikely to be found in that area, although unfortunately we don’t know enough because as usual the basic research hasn’t been done.

Given the large range of potential prey species, this concurrence of events and the doubt as to the Longford locality for the Long-tailed Mouse, make the finding highly suspicious.  Presumably the Longford distribution of the Long-tailed Mouse can now have been either verified or debunked although this level of analysis hasn’t been offered.
The surge in “sightings” of foxes in Tasmania must either alarm of bemuse.  That so many have been reported from such a spread of distributions in such a short spate of time speak loudly for the lurid public imagination on this issue; even under the worst case introduction scenario the population indicated by the “sightings” is impossible in the context of population biology.  Such credibility gaps are unfortunate.

Another concern in this whole area is the ongoing community management of conservation issues.  Within Field Naturalists’ circles there has been a longstanding partnership, especially interstate, between them and relevant government agencies.  More recently this dynamic has shifted with more clamorous conservation advocates often seeking dominant or exclusive coverage of many issues.  The government response to rising prominence of conservation seems often to raise its public profile, e.g. through NHT programs, but often on what many serious conservationists would see as tokenistic and short-term programs.  There is no doubt that dialogue is usually lacking between the parties.

Its certainly a pity that such fuss and expense has to be dedicated to what should, of course, be an unnecessary task.  Despite some of the reasons for concern about potential fox introduction being that Tasmania is the last stronghold for threatened species such as the eastern bettong and the barred bandicoot, the substantive underlying concerns about their conservation (inadequate reserved habitat and poorly understood detailed habitat requirements) remain neglected. Don Hird.

Accommodation: The Lodge is run by Tim Morris (the new Greens member for Lyons) and Wendy Armstrong, info@tvlodge.com. Junee Road is a turning to the right in the centre of Maydena. The Lodge is a couple of blocks down, on the right. Accommodation is in several cabins, each with its own bathroom, kitchen and sitting room. There are mostly two single beds per room. 
Bookings: If you’re planning on coming, or if you have any questions, please let Genevieve Gates know (ph. 6227 8638 or ggates@postoffice.utas.edu.au) by Friday 13 September.

There will be a catered meal on Saturday night, which will cost about $20.  Vegetarian or other specific dietary requirements can be catered for, but please advise early.

Guest speaker on Saturday night will be David Leaman, geophysicist, who is the author of: Walk into History in Southern Tasmania, Step into History in Tasmanian Reserves, and the recently released The Rock Which Makes Tasmania. 
He will be speaking on “Charles Darwin’s Unpublished Ideas”. Charles Darwin was on the Beagle as a geologist. During his travels he made several observations and formed opinions, which, if he had made public, would have ruined his reputation. In time these were proven to be true; thus Darwin was, in fact, ahead of his time. David will talk about three of these ideas (taken from his notebooks), one of which in present times, would have saved the government a lot of money!
David will also be leading a walk to Growling Swallet on Saturday. As parking is limited to 3-4 cars at the end of the F8 road, and as the overhanging vegetation may scratch your vehicle, the fitter participants will walk the 2 km in from Florentine Road, and then continue the 2 km walk to the Swallet. On the way back, we plan to look at Junee Cave, which is where the river re-emerges after its underground journey.

On Sunday a walk to Tim Shea is planned. For those who would prefer a shorter walk, there is plenty to choose from in the area, including those in Mt Field National Park, Wedge Forest Reserve, Creepy Crawly (on the Scotts Peak Dam Road), Timbs Track and Marriotts Falls. 

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