Addressing uncertainty: How to conserve and manage rare or little-known fungi

One of the greater challenges in conserving fungi comes from our incomplete knowledge of degree of rarity, risk status, and habitat requirements of most fungal species. We discuss approaches to immediately begin closing knowledge gaps, including: (1) harnessing collective expert knowledge so that data from professional experiences (e.g., personal collection and herbarium records) are better organized and made available to the broader mycological community; (2) thinking outside the mycology box by learning and borrowing from conservation approaches to other taxonomic groups; (3) developing and testing hypothesis-driven habitat models for representative fungi to provide support for habitat restoration and management; (4) framing ecological questions and conducting field surveys and research more directly pertinent to conservation information needs; and (5) providing adaptive management guidelines and strategies for resource managers to conserve fungi based on incrementally improving knowledge from experience and conservation research.