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Start Date
4-4-2023 3:00 PM
End Date
4-4-2023 3:09 PM
Abstract
Fungi have enormous potential to be incorporated in the stewardship of natural areas. Mycorrhizal networks demonstrate the importance of fungi to the resilience of ecosystems as facilitators of communication, nutrient allocation, and carbon sequestration. Wood decomposing fungi can degrade human-created persistent toxins, build soil, and create edible and medicinal mushrooms. What if land stewards prioritized the caretaking of fungi for the benefit of all species? The City of Portland’s Revegetation Program has been experimenting with different fungal species to inoculate weeds, downed wood, thinned trees, and wood chips. We have also created a morel bed to grow this mycorrhizal and saprophytic fungi that has the potential to improve tree resilience and soil structure. We will show you the techniques that we have used and where we have been successful and where more work is needed. We are learning new ways to work with fungi that can improve soil and plant health, filter water, reduce fire risk, and produce mushrooms that can feed wildlife and people. Other potential collaboration with fungi includes mycorrhizal spore production, rare fungi propagation, mushroom species lists, myco-filters for stormwater, and creating a spore library. Working with fungi can be incorporated into land stewardship but there needs to be more experimentation, knowledge sharing, and infrastructure.
Subjects
Habitat restoration
Persistent Identifier
https://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/40486
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 License
Human-Fungi Collaboration in Natural Area Stewardship
Fungi have enormous potential to be incorporated in the stewardship of natural areas. Mycorrhizal networks demonstrate the importance of fungi to the resilience of ecosystems as facilitators of communication, nutrient allocation, and carbon sequestration. Wood decomposing fungi can degrade human-created persistent toxins, build soil, and create edible and medicinal mushrooms. What if land stewards prioritized the caretaking of fungi for the benefit of all species? The City of Portland’s Revegetation Program has been experimenting with different fungal species to inoculate weeds, downed wood, thinned trees, and wood chips. We have also created a morel bed to grow this mycorrhizal and saprophytic fungi that has the potential to improve tree resilience and soil structure. We will show you the techniques that we have used and where we have been successful and where more work is needed. We are learning new ways to work with fungi that can improve soil and plant health, filter water, reduce fire risk, and produce mushrooms that can feed wildlife and people. Other potential collaboration with fungi includes mycorrhizal spore production, rare fungi propagation, mushroom species lists, myco-filters for stormwater, and creating a spore library. Working with fungi can be incorporated into land stewardship but there needs to be more experimentation, knowledge sharing, and infrastructure.