It was one of our newest Oregon Mycological Society members who decided Oregon needed a state mushroom. Just after the latest taxonomy declared the West Coast to have an unnamed Cantharellus species, Dr. Kevin Winthrop and his legislator friend, Chris Beck, put their heads together to start the process for HJR 68. What a campaign was waged!

Enlisting Jack Czarnecki, famed mushroom chef of Joel Palmer House fame, Lorelei Norvell, OMS's Ph.D mycologist, and Maggie Rogers, co-editor, Mushroom the Journal of Wild Mushrooming, the group met twice with legislators in early-morning hearings. Dr. Winthrop contacted some of his colleagues to call and urge passage of the bill. By the second hearing, we had our charts and factoids together. Photographs, a review of the OMS Chanterelle Study, market value of the harvest, nutrient values -- and recipes! "The Pacific Golden Chanterelle, unique in Oregon's wild mushroom harvest: Cantharellus formosus, formerly thought to be Cantharellus cibarius."

From then on, it was all good fun. We had no idea five out of six legislators could have such a good time talking mushrooms before their next 5 p.m. hearing. They put a "do pass" recommendation on it, and two senators volunteered to bipartisan support on the floor. Chairman Charles Starr enjoyed it the most. When the other legislators urged moving on to "more important things," he demurred, saying, "These people came all this way from Portland , and I think they have some interesting things to share with us." So we did. Our best line, in spite of the media, became "The chanterelle's harvest is a peaceful harvest." The headline in the June 22, 1999 Oregonian read: "Fungi move faster than fiscal issues in Capitol." A tongue-in-cheek letter to the editor of the Statesman Journal was headed, "Mushroom measure wastes legislative time," and ended, "I will rise each morning with a song of mushroom praise warming my heart." By one vote, the bill passed.