From September 15 to 17, 2006, URI’s W. Alton Jones campus in West Greenwich was the site of the 31st A. Leroy Andrews Bryological Foray, an annual gathering of moss and lichen enthusiasts from around the Northeast. Thirty-seven Foray participants identified 178 species of moss and lichen, including 56 species not previously documented from Rhode Island. “This was the ‘Olympics’ of moss and lichen,” said David Gregg, Executive Director of the Rhode Island Natural History Survey, the Foray’s local sponsor. “The folks who came–and two-thirds of them are hobbyists, not professional biologists–possess an amazing amount of knowledge. They found a diversity of species in just 72 hours.”
The results of the foray were published in 2008:
Norton G. Miller and William R. Buck 2008. Bryological Results of the 31st A. L. Andrews Foray in Rhode Island. Evansia (Journal of the American Bryological and Lichenological Society) 25(2): 47-52.
The paper is available from BioOne Online: Miller and Buck 2008