Aaron Hilliard is an amateur mycologist and mycology educator from Port Orchard Washington. He is a father and active outdoorsman. His love for fungi started young when his grandma introduced him to wild mushroom foraging. After spending 20 years in the forest hunting for edible mushrooms and scouring the local libraries for mycological literature (before the internet), he went on to join the Kitsap Peninsula Mycological Society where he quickly got into service and became a trustee on the board. He went on to become the Vice President and program director and has held that position for the past 3 years.

Aaron attended Olympic College in Bremerton in 2001-2003 pursuing a degree in video production and integrated multimedia. In 2020 his passion for video making and mushroom foraging came together when he started a YouTube channel called Mushroom Wonderland. The channel has grown in popularity in the Pacific Northwest region and beyond, recently passing the 70,000-subscriber mark. He has had many well-known mycologists make cameo appearances and he releases weekly mushroom related videos. He has given various presentations for many clubs and at fungi festivals, led forays into the forest, and will be teaching a mycology course at Olympic College in the summer quarter. He remains current in the scene, with a deep interest in mushroom taxonomy, microscopy, foraging, and basically all things mushrooms.

For his current talk, he will be presenting all about Morel mushrooms, a culinary favorite for people around the world. We will talk about the classification of morels, their confusing common names, their life cycles, habitat, and mush more!