DURANGO, Colo.—The mushroom, known for millennia for its role in cuisine, medicinal remedies and fabric dyes, is being employed to restore and build soil.
In a test of its newest role, the Mountain Studies Institute and MycoLogic Design are preparing to see how well mushrooms can hasten the decomposition of wood chips left after forest thinning.
They have a site off Log Chutes Trail not far from the Junction Creek Campground where 6 inches of wood chips left from hydromowing in 2008 has prevented natural revegetation.
“This cover is way too thick,” Katie Holgate, the principal of MycoLogic Design, said recently as she dug a hand into an accumulation of wood chips and small branches at the test site.
The Log Chutes Trail site is a pilot project, funded by a $2,000 grant from the San Juan National Forest Secure Rural Schools Resource Advisory Committee. Such federal funding is available for projects that benefit federal lands.
Grants are given to local government, nonprofits and others to restore watersheds, eradicate noxious weeds, thin forests and maintain or decommission roads and trails.
Holgate plans six plots covering about 6,000 square feet to test two types of mushrooms—commonly known as velvet foot and oyster—that produce enzymes that degrade wood chips. When they become established, the mushrooms create a microcosm that retains moisture that favors germination.
As fungi spores and roots spread, they will transport nutrients for revegetation, Holgate said.
Holgate also is working with the Southern Ute Indian Tribe’s Red Willow Production Co. to see if mushrooms can reduce the amount of petroleum in the soil.
The Log Chutes Trail project piggybacks on the work of Paul Stamets, a Washington state mycologist who has more than 30 years as a mushroom researcher, entrepreneur and author.
The research of Stamets and others finds that mushroom spores—mycelium—recycle elements such as carbon and nitrogen when they break down organic material to create new soil.
Stamets says mycelium can decompose toxic waste, trap silt from streambeds and improve the health of forests and gardens. Results from a mycoforestry project—forest enhancement through plant-fungi symbiosis—are still a couple of years away, Jim Gouin, a Stamets collaborator, said by email. No one at the family’s business, Fungi Perfecti, was available for interviews.
Mountain Studies Institute collaborated on the design of the test plot and will monitor for effectiveness.
“Mushrooms have been around forever,” said Marcie Demmy Bidwell, executive director of the Mountain Studies Institute. “But our understanding of how they work is relatively recent.”
If the use of mushroom remediation doesn’t prove feasible for large-scale forest projects, it could be used on wetlands or steep slopes where burning forest waste isn’t done.
Burning isn’t feasible at the Log Chutes Trail site because of its proximity to the Junction Creek Campground.
“We want to test for two years, minus the winters, because of the variable climate,” Holgate said.
