Morphological identification of Chaenotheca phaeocephala and Chaenotheca subroscida in the Pacific Northwest is difficult. Both have stalked mazaediate ascomata with yellow pruina and ascospores that are relatively large for the genus. In Scandinavia, their thalli are distinguishable and they occur in different habitats. We used thin-layer chromatography to examine the secondary metabolites in thalli of 36 specimens from Oregon and Washington identified as C. phaeocephala or C. subroscida. Nine specimens contained pseudoplacodiolic acid, which places them in C. subroscida. The thalli of six of these had dense whitish granules and no verrucae; other specimens had a mixture of verrucae and white granules. The rest of the specimens did not have pseudoplacodiolic acid and were therefore C. phaeocephala; their thalli had varying amounts of verrucae and granules. Our results suggest that identification of these two species in the Pacific Northwest is not possible without TLC.

Umbilicaria hirsuta colonized an old travel trailer parked in a pasture in western Montana, U.S.A. Although the species has been reported several times from Montana, beginning with Llano (1950), all of the previous reports were based on the same initial record from Glacier County on the east side of the Continental Divide in Glacier National Park (McCune et al. 2014).

In 2020 the Beachie Creek Fire burned a large, forested area in the northern Oregon Cascade Range that included public and private land and much of the Opal Creek Wilderness. We compiled a pre-fire baseline data set from various sources of the lichens and allied fungi known to occur before the fire within the fire perimeter. These data are presented as an annotated species list documenting two hundred and eighty-three species. Euopsis pulvinata, Lepraria elobata, Miriquidica instrata, Plectocarpon nephromeum, Porpidia flavicunda, and Rhizocarpon distinctum are reported as new for Oregon based on an online search of herbarium records and relevant literature. Near the wilderness area, where populations of listed rare species are known, their occurrences are mapped against a fire severity gradient. Drone-generated images of selected locations before and after the fire are included to help gauge the fire effects on lichen communities. Increased fire activity in the area is potentially causing landscape-level changes in biodiversity, and the data we present represent a historical baseline for future analyses of the effects of the Beachie Creek fire on lichen diversity.