Date: Saturday, November 8, 2025
Time: 10:00 a.m.-3:00 p.m.
Location: MNHC, walk along Kim Williams trail
Cost: $60 MNHC members/$65 non-members

Delve deep into the study of lichens and never look at your forest the same way again.
The Missoula valley has a high diversity of lichen species in an array of beautiful forms. Learn about the ecology and biology of lichens as you become comfortable identifying common species.

Join us this fall for a lichen presentation and field trip with Tim Wheeler, lichenologist and mycologist from the University of Montana. We will begin in the classroom with an introduction to lichens slideshow followed by a walk along the Kim Williams trail exploring saxicolous and terricolous lichen communities and then a short jaunt up the Smokejumpers Trail to interrogate the epiphytic lichen communities.

Instructor: Tim Wheeler is a biologist specializing in fungi (lichenized and otherwise). He has been teaching, studying, and publishing on Montana’s mycota for over 20 years. He is currently a research scientist for the Division of Biological Sciences at UM working on the genetics and genomics of the tree of life.

Activity Level (please read): Moderate. Most of the walking is on flat ground. The Smokejumper Trail section is steeper and a dirt trail. This program involves multiple hours of walking and standing. Lunch will be most likely be eaten seated on the ground. There are no bathrooms along the Kim Williams Trail or Smokejumper Trail.

What to Bring:

-Clothes appropriate for changing Montana weather conditions layers, rain, and more
-Good walking shoes or boots
-Hand lens (we have some to borrow)
-Lunch
-Water

Reading Materials for the Curious:

Ways of Enlichenment: Lichens of Western North America, photography by Tim Wheeler
Lichens of North America by Erwin M. Brodo, Sylvia Duran Sharnoff, and Stephen Sharnoff

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