Most mushrooms produced in the western US use indoor production facilities, but there is potential in the western Pacific Northwest to produce mushrooms using traditional methods using natural log substrates and grown under forest canopy. This 3-year project was the first known university-based research project on the feasibility of forest-cultivated mushroom production in the PNW. Two systems were evaluated along with three species of mushrooms; traditional Japanese shiitake production systems using small diameter logs, and oyster and lion’s mane production using “totem” systems using larger-diameter logs, a system previously developed in the northeastern US. Our research concluded that shiitake mushrooms strains that respond to forced fruiting (24-hr immersion of logs to incite fruiting) had potential for producing for market when logs are managed appropriately for the PNW climate, and that red alder (A. rubrum, the PNW’s most abundant broadleaf tree) performed well as a shiitake substrate, along with garry oak (Q. garryana) and non-native, naturalized birch (B. populifolia). Conversely, cool-weather shiitake strains, totem systems, and bigleaf maple substrates (the PNW’s second most common broadleaf tree species) showed significant downsides regarding both yield and/or quality control that compromised their viability in a commercial context. The project also established a method of mushroom quality control that was found to be indispensable for excluding pests during mushroom fruiting, along with a method for safeguarding against excessive log drying during the summer of the spawn run year. This project was funded by WSU’s internally-administered BIOAg program: https://csanr.wsu.edu/grants/evaluating-commercial-specialty-mushroom-p…