Mushrooms in Washington (Seattle, Spokane, Kirkland: renters, HOA, house)

[Algiz]

Thirteen years ago at age 40, I was able to make real my dream of moving to the PNW come true. That dream began at age 10 when we visited the Space Needle on a road trip. I was raised in San Diego.

As soon as I moved here, my health began to decline with symptoms so subtle I didn't pay much attention. I just thought I was getting older... About 5 years ago, I could no longer deny that when I went back to SD to visit family, I always got better and when I returned home to WA, symptoms returned. I've finally gotten validation that I'm allergic to mushroom spores, particularly the Basidiospores, that are prevalent up here.

The symptoms are so life-altering that I must sell our home on a heavily forested 10 acres in rural Stanwood. I notice when I'm off our property, I improve, but not sufficiently to say all I have to do is not live in dense forest. Mushroom spores are notoriously vigorous and are carried by the wind.

My question: I wonder if the Rain Shadow promotes less mushroom growth...Do you live in PA or Sequim or (my preference because of not needing to use the ferry) Coupeville area? If so, do you notice a lot of mushrooms everywhere, or not? Here, we even have mushrooms growing in the summer on the south hilly side of our property in sunniest, driest location where even some trees struggle for lack of water in summer! I wonder if this is the same even in the rain shadow - that mushrooms still proliferate because despite less rain, it's still relatively optimal mushroom growing conditions.

There is simply nowhere else I want to live. I spent my whole life working to move up here, planning, never wavering and finally made it happen, and I have grown to love it here. This my physical and soul home and even if I have to move to a less forested area, at least it's still Puget Sound. I've studied east of the Cascades, but it won't work b/c it's too cold in winter and I love the ocean.

Do you live in the rain shadow? Do you notice a lot of mushrooms? If you lived in Seattle but then moved to the rain shadow area, did you notice your health improving but never figured out why? I'd love to hear from anyone with any thoughts or experiences similar to mine regarding health when moving from the rainy part of the PNW to a a drier area with regards to your health, or if you moved from the drier area to the wetter area if your health declined. Thanks!

[Hemlock140]

We are in Sammamish, and get a bumper crop of mushrooms every year, sometimes fall-late Spring. I even saw a few last week. My parents are in the rain shadow, Blue Mountain area of Port Angeles, actually closer to Sequim. They never get mushrooms, but you need to research all allergies, because they have a lot of Scotch Broom, and that bothers a lot of people.

[Algiz]

Thanks Hemlock!

You know, when I last went to Sequim, I didn't see any mushrooms, but I wasn't looking for them especially. That's really encouraging about PA and the Blue Mountain area since it's a good bit more forested. You're right about other allergies, but I don't seem to have issues with anything but mushrooms. What I'm looking for now is a place that seems might work, and I'm going to rent a place for a couple weeks and see if my allergies go away. I've got a great benchmark with how I should feel because when I travel south to CA, all symptoms go away within a couple hours. It's weird.

[jacqueg]

You might also try spending some time in Spokane and.or Walla Walla Those cities both still have that PNW feel.

[Dendrite]

Hi Algiz:

I'm one of those you asked about in your OP- grew up in the north Seattle area, then lived in PA for a dozen years or so and built another home near Sequim where we now reside. There are plenty of mushrooms here in PA and Sequim, you just have to know all the right spots to look for them!

Why not contact the mushroom club in Sequim and ask them about the regional prevalence of the particular mushrooms that you are sensitive to?

Olympic Mushroom | Just another WordPress site

We enjoy attending the OPMS meetings from time to time as well as their wild mushroom show each fall. They have several members who are very, very knowledgable with respect to every type of fungi present of the Olympic Peninsula. I'm sure you would find them to be quite helpful in answering your questions about the Basidiospores.

[Algiz]

Thanks for the link, Dendrite!

Heh, heh, I was thinking that Sequim might have a mushroom or two. In my research, it appears mushrooms will pop up anywhere there is a conifer or wood and especially a forest of evergreens...but I am ever hopeful.

I'd found the Puget Sound Mycological Society website earlier but hesitated to contact them considering my question would be a bit unusual. I would be asking them where NOT to go to find mushrooms, but it's as you say: a lot of people in clubs like these know a great deal, and in my experience, they love to share what they know. I will contact the OPMS in Sequim as well as the other two in the Puget Sound area. Who knows what I will discover? Again, thanks for the link and the nudge.

Jacqueg, I do like Spokane a lot, in fact, but those winters...brrrrr! Who knows, though, what the future holds?

[Thom52]

My wife has had symptoms that sound similar to yours. Oddly, she seems to get respiratory problems and allergies worse when it rains and generally in "mushroom season".
We lived in Kirkland WA for 31 years with a bumper crop of shrooms in our yard. She started to think it was "mold", but our house checked out mold free.

Then we noticed symptoms improved every time we visited my sister in Bend OR.

As of last week, we now live in Bend. We already see an improvement.

Sometimes dreams need to be tweaked due to circumstances. We are not considering Bend to be a compromise on our PNW dream, just a slight fine tuning.

[Algiz]

Originally Posted by Thom52

My wife has had symptoms that sound similar to yours. Oddly, she seems to get respiratory problems and allergies worse when it rains and generally in "mushroom season".
We lived in Kirkland WA for 31 years with a bumper crop of shrooms in our yard. She started to think it was "mold", but our house checked out mold free.

Then we noticed symptoms improved every time we visited my sister in Bend OR.

As of last week, we now live in Bend. We already see an improvement.

Sometimes dreams need to be tweaked due to circumstances. We are not considering Bend to be a compromise on our PNW dream, just a slight fine tuning.

Thom52,

Thanks for the input. My symptoms are unusual (not respiratory), which is why it took so long to make the connection, but like your wife, it's when it rains that things are the worst. The transitions between rain and sun are when I notice the worst symptoms. And yes, fall is very bad when the mushrooms are at their peak.

I also had our house checked for mold, and it was essentially spore-free, but our back yard, where a spore trap is used as a control, registered an excessive, and I mean over-the-top OMG, really?, spore count. This is why I am hoping maybe if we move off our property it might be enough, but I think I might have to tweak my dream, as you say. It isn't until I leave Oregon on I-5 and cross over the Oregon/California mountains and drop down into a more arid environment that I notice a shift. I usually drive, so I can tell exactly where things begin to happen. And on the way back, by the time I hit Roseburg, symptoms have returned. It's obvious. Sigh...

I resonate with your last sentence...it's hard sometimes to shift, easy to stay in static mode and not see, ahem, the forest for the trees. I like the concept of fine tuning but keeping the dream after all. I'm so glad your wife is thriving - that's just great!

[oregonwoodsmoke]

I don't think that drier weather stops mushrooms. I get them in Bend, Oregon, which is desert.

[Thom52]

Originally Posted by oregonwoodsmoke

I don't think that drier weather stops mushrooms. I get them in Bend, Oregon, which is desert.

I think its a whole different scale of mushroom density in western WA than Bend.

Sure, when I took over our house from the renters in Bend, I was surprised to see a couple of shrooms in the front yard, which sadly is required to be lush green lawn by our CC&R(in the DESERT fer Gawd's sake! ).
But the tenants were way over watering, in violation of Bend water conservation guidelines and common sense. I adjusted the automatic sprinkler to every other day, instead of twice a day every day, and the shrooms were instantly gone. Now I work on forcing the HOA to allow Xeriscaping.

In contrast, I can water my Kirkland house lawn/moss once a week, and count up to 6 to 10 varieties of shrooms growing in my yard, and even in the one month of summer, still get clouds of spores puffing up from the puffballs when I mow.

Hiking in a natural setting is similar. You might see a mushroom or two in the high desert, but you see an amazing variety and quantity for much of the year in Western WA. Shrooms spores don't seem to affect me, so I always enjoyed them, but someone like my wife, with a sensitivity, its a big problem.