About Georgia Fungi Find

GFF started as a personal question: What does Georgia's fungal landscape actually look like?

Thousands of people across Georgia observe, photograph, and report fungi through platforms like iNaturalist every year. That data is rich and growing — but scattered. There was no single place to see the big picture: which species show up where, how patterns shift with the seasons, or which counties are ecological hotspots.

GFF was built to change that. By aggregating and analyzing community science data, this platform transforms individual observations into ecological insights that serve foragers, educators, researchers, and anyone who's ever stopped on a trail to wonder what is that growing on that log?

GFF was created by Darling Ngoh — a Park Ranger and Data Scientist who brings a unique combination of field experience and analytical expertise to ecological data. Through Hikes of Georgia and the Ecological Data Alliance, Darling bridges the gap between the trails and the data — turning thousands of community observations into actionable ecological insights. No big team. No corporate funding. Just boots-on-the-ground knowledge paired with data science to make community science accessible to the communities that create it.

Every chart, every county mapping, every seasonal pattern you see here comes from real observations submitted by real people walking Georgia's forests. This platform exists to honor and amplify that collective effort.

GFF is and will always be free, open, and built for the community.