The Fungal Environmental Sampling and Informatics Network (FESIN; www.bio.utk.edu/fesin) is an NSF-funded network of mycologists and ecologists who are working together to evaluate the current use of genes as tools for fungal identification from environmental samples and to develop guidelines for the curation and naming of unknown fungi from environmental samples. This full-day workshop is for ecologists with some experience using molecular approaches for identification of microbes. The goals of the workshop are to highlight the key challenges of identifying fungi (and fungal sequences) collected in field studies and to work toward the development of strategies to overcome those challenges. This workshop will be the launching point for a "Methods in fungal ecology" wiki page to be served from the University of Tennessee with oversight by Dr. Karen Hughes. The workshop will include introductions to the challenges from both ecological and molecular genetic perspectives and guided discussion among workshop participants to address the following questions: (1) What are the limitations of rRNA genes and spacers for identification and what other loci might be used to supplement them? (2) How can we precisely, accurately, and efficiently identify and name environmental sequences of unknown fungi? (3) What are the gaps in current sequence databases, and how can we generate data to fill those gaps? (4) How should we curate and organize environmental samples and the data derived from them?