February 2017 Meeting: Mushrooms, Mosses and Lichens - David Kopitzke

The presentation at our February meeting, the first of 2017, was a very valuable talk on Mushrooms, Mosses and Lichens by David Kopitzke. In addition to general background on this interested group of organisms, we learned to tell the difference between some common edible mushrooms and lookalikes that are not so edible. Valuable knowledge indeed!

David Kopitzke’s interest in the natural world began early, with childhood family outings to state parks and with many Boy Scout camping trips. His education furthered these interests with a Bachelor’s degree in Biology and a Master’s degree in Plant Ecology. Thereafter his career included work as Curator of Botany at the Milwaukee Public Museum, operating a native plant nursery, protecting rare plant species with the Wisconsin Bureau of Endangered Resources and teaching at the University of Wisconsin-Richland.

In addition, he has been an active member of The Nature Conservancy, The Toyama Prefectural Friends of Plants and a founding board member of the Driftless Area Land Conservancy, a land trust protecting natural, agricultural and historic sites in southwestern Wisconsin. At home he keeps busy with a huge vegetable garden, botanical illustrations and language studies. His interest in plants is not limited to the large (trees) and the colorful (flowers), but also includes the more obscure, but no less fascinating, world of mushrooms, mosses and lichens.