LAMS General Meeting

Speaker: Maya Elson

Program: “Megafires, Floods and Fungi”

With the rise of catastrophic megafires and flooding, we look to fungi and other microbes as nature’s mediators between fire and water. They sink carbon, retain water, prevent erosion, digest toxins, and establish ecological balance in both pre and post fire ecosystems. As fires enter the human-made environment more regularly, there is a growing concern about post-fire toxic ash, and the consequences of ash-runoff entering the surrounding waterways. Wildfire also provides a unique opportunity to revitalize ecosystems, restore water and maximize nutrient cycling. There is a growing grassroots network with hubs in Colorado, California and Hawaii that seeks to generate fire resilience by allying with fungi and other microbes. CoRenewal's FENiXS program and the Biome Logs Project are evaluating the efficacy of fungal inoculation, with the aim of producing widely applicable tools and methodologies to facilitate ecological regeneration and recovery in the aftermath of disaster and environmental injustice, while honoring and taking inspiration from indigenous relationships with fire and fungi. In this participatory workshop, we will discuss how to organize and integrate inoculants into land tending practices, as well as how to contribute to community science that supports these efforts.

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