Town + Burlington. Technically the Watershed of Lake Champlain Is
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Town + Burlington. Technically the watershed of Lake Champlain is what we are aiming for but starting with the hub of Burlington. State +-Vermont Amount requested +3500 Primary Issue Area + Environmental Health Describe the group's overall program(s) + The general activities of our group include: improving the lab facility, meeting seasonally, conducting research, educating, cultivating mushrooms in and outdoors, and implementing our findings in surrounding communities. Efforts to improve the lab include adding an antechamber, writing protocols, obtaining lab infrastructure, and inventorying supplies. Travis and Jess currently use the lab. The lab will be open to other community researchers once protocols and construction is completed. We have had two logistic, core member meetings discussing: lab construction, protocols, and group structure. We have had two work parties per season, inviting a larger audience beyond our core group. We are beginning community potlucks. We currently research the potential ability of King Stropharia fungus to destroy E. coli, remediating manure runoff to reduce lake pollution. While this project is primarily through an EPSCoR grant between Mycoevolve and UVM, Vermont Myconode members are learning through volunteering about petri dish transfer, microscopy, and fungi vs. bacteria dynamics. We are cultivating fungi in outdoor beds, indoors in bins of wood chips and pasteurized straw, onto petri dishes, from wild specimens, and through liquid cultures. We are also developing mushroom grow kits, experimenting with hemp hulls, a local hemp farm’s waste product, and compost as substrate. We are attending and hosting workshops on fungi and soil to grow literacy in mycology and soil health. Describe how your program(s) balance built environment, working landscape and wilderness We understand that wilderness provides ideal ecosystem balance that needs to be preserved. We go into these areas to learn, ethically harvest, and mostly observe relationships, species’ functions, and network dynamics. The working landscape around us in Vermont has not been modelled after the dynamic equilibrium which governs the wilderness. As a result, caus pollution in the watershed. riparian buffers; no till farms; wildlife corridors; rain gardens; the ecosystems already in place. The built environment is often harder to change as it is often in place until the next big hurricane, discovery of lead paint, or sewage overflow.Our focus is to replicate as best we can what we have studied in the forest apply ecological restoration practices into working landscapes to simultaneously support the economy and social networks. As these efforts become successful they can be applied to the built environments s in the crisis situations described above. What does your group propose to do with a Grow grant? + We aim to improve our research lab ‘GreenMountain Mycelium, identify and strengthen our group capacity, develop our skill sets to a proficient and efficient level, educate through various mediums, and improve the terrestrial and aquatic landscapes of the Lake Champlain watershed. The Green Mountain Mycelium Lab will host various research projects involving a diverse array of fungal species, store an extensive mycelium library, provide a resource to fungal and microbial scientists, and provide learning opportunities about fungal cultivation and inoculation for students. Our group will evolve in such a way that the current two guides, Travis and Jess can redistribute some of their responsibilities throughout the group. As we identify each member’s skills, we can expand our current ‘working groups,’ to include:: regenerative economic plans, free curriculum, citizen science opportunities, grow kit recipes, and resilient medicine. We will continue taking workshops in cultivation and inoculation while experimenting and practicing our current skill set. As we record our findings and compare results with others we can contribute to a growing body of best practices to share while applying this to our next projects. As we hone in on troubled areas in the watershed and develop corresponding understanding, protocols, and skills we can practice ecological restoration. Tangible places to start include applying fungal mycelium matts to remediate point and nonpoint source pollution from dairy farms, roads, parking lots, and driveways. Currently Shelburne Dairy struggles with downstream beach closures due to high E. coli counts in runoff leaving the farm during high rain events. They are interested in how our current research concerning mycelial mats can inform a future installation of a remediating wetland system incorporating fungi, plants, and trees through topographically aligned swales on the farm’s western edge. Describe the group's strategy to engage neighbors/community in your work + The group currently has 28 members. We pass around a sign up sheet at each community meeting, work party, and gathering which includes: name, email address and phone number. We understand not everyone uses acebook so are considering a bulk email tool to send out seasonal reminders once we have a working calendar in place to reach a broader audience. We also intend to print and put up flyers throughout the watershed. We have a working partnership with Burlington Permaculture and various other ecological groups which we cross post with to advertise events. We post in ront orch orum and will begin to also post ads in papers such as . We are pursuing a broader audience via: a fundraiser with local ecological musicians and poets, offering a by donation information workshop through Burlington Permaculture’s education series at various libraries in the county, writing articles for local papers, and continuing to work with Abenaki folks, Intervale, and CSA’s to incorporate fungi into their gardens. What relevant skills and lived experiences/perspectives do core group members offer that will help with the work? + Jess Rubin is a licensed educator, scientific researcher, grant writer, mycology student, community collaborator, and permaculture practitioner. Travis Berg is an electrician, mechanic, amateur carpenter, soil science student and Valhalla VT resident farm Manager. William Kinney is a banker with construction experience. Alex McGown is an experienced restaurant worker with construction experience, permaculture knowledge, and homestead access. Jeff Corbet is a farmer with manual labor experience and conservation community connections. Sue Van Hook is a professional mycologist with extensive grant writing and research experience. Hannah Huber is a student, mycology instructor, research technician, and grant editor. Rowan Cignoni is a mycology enthusiast and Burlington Permaculture facilitator. Cat Duffy Buxton is a compost educator and community organizer through VT Healthy Soils Coalition. John Schreiner is a digital media artist and Valhalla VT resident. Show row weights Please share the names of key individuals or representatives in your community whose input is needed to implement the project. Who needs to approve, review, advocate, participate for the project to be successful? What type of trainings/resources will help the group implement the work? + equity/inclusion Networking with more diverse populations would help us implement this work more broadly. fundraising Training in crowd source funding, regenerative economic models, and fundraising techniques asset mapping/communications Mapping assets of our group in a way that is honoring, accessible, transparent, and safe will help us be more efficient with our in house resources engaging young adult leaders Networking with local youth programs throughout the county will allow this awareness to spread group governance/resilience Helping a collective group with minimal leadership guided by two individuals doing most of the work transition to more equitable role and responsibility sharing other Cultivation and Mycoremediation Strategies Training in cultivation: Tradd Cotter of and Ja Schindler of Fungi for the People are offering trainings this coming year which we intend to attend. Describe how your program(s) prevent and eliminate toxic pollution According to (Winslow 2013; http://www.middlebury.edu/media/view/452657/original/wqm_final_v3_dm.pdf), since Lake Champlain’s watershed to surface water ratio is much higher than other lakes, the pollution collection area is large compared to dilution capabiltiy. Stormwater runoff spots, chemical dumping flows, point source and nonpoint source discharges are tangible places to apply mycoremediation practices. While ultimately proactive education to cease toxin movement into the environment is a first prong prevention approach, ecological restoration practices in riparian buffers, transportation route margins, and ecotones between impermeable permeable surfaces provide a second prong to prevent toxic watershed bioaccumulation. Multiple combinations of fungal through myco, microbial through bio, and plant through phyto remediating species can denature, transform, or sequester toxins such as petrochemicals, pesticides, herbicides, chemical dyes, pathogens, and heavy metals. While each toxin has corresponding remediating microbial, fungal and plant species, the research requires tremendous work. For example our current focus on pathogens, though grounded in peer reviewed studies requires new protocol and installation development which we are attempting. Overtime, findings can be applied on a local and bioregional scale. How much money does your