Have the calls for social distancing in response to COVID-19 left you with cabin fever? Got squirrely kids? Here’s an activity that is timely, safe and fun. The goal is to see how many species of plants, animals and fungi you and your neighbors can record in your neighborhood.

Fungi may represent half of all multicellular life on Planet Earth1 and are critically important to both humans and ecosystems, but they are poorly understood by scientists compared with plants and animals. We have nowhere near enough professional mycologists to document all of North America’s fungi. Although protocols are well-developed for collecting and documenting fungi, there simply are not enough trained professionals to get the job done. Funding and time to survey are just too limited.