The San Francisco Bay Area may be one of the densest metropolitan areas of the country, but roughly 40 percent of the region's total land area is made up of farms and rangelands.

Yellow Foot Chanterelle (Craterellus tubaeformis), an edible mushroom found in the Bay Area and displayed at this year's MSSF Fungus Fair (Photo by Trent Pierce)

Before the Annual Fungus Fair, It’s All About Finding the Right Mushroom

 • 

Served in French dishes under the alias pom pom du blanc, lion’s mane has a texture and taste resembling lobster or shrimp. Chris Schoenstein, a lifelong enthusiast and member of the Mycological Society of San Francisco, has only seen one 2 or 3 times. But that, if you’re a mushroom hunter, is the hook that keeps you coming back to an event like the Wunderlich Foray.

Behind the Fracking Boom: Unearthing the Secrets of the Monterey Shale

 • 

But the pressure to exploit these resources isn’t going away anytime soon either, nor is the debate over the wisdom of doing so. As we weigh the pros and cons, a missing piece of the conversation is the land itself: What is the Monterey Formation? What is it made of and how did it get here? And what kind of habitats, plants, and animals live atop it?