Mycelium healing project
a visual timeline
2021 Mycelium Workshop
2022 IYRA Mycelium Class
Overview
Spirit of the Sun began our Mycelium (mushroom) journey after hearing about the devastating environmental impacts of the Suncor Oil Refinery in Commerce City, Colorado. We teamed up with experts in Mycology; James Wieser and Andres Better. James Wieser is an experimental mycologist in Denver who has taught our team immensely the powers of mycelium in healing our soils. Andres Better is a youth mycologist on our team who hosted amazing oyster bucket workshops where folks were given all the materials to start growing their own oyster mushrooms at home!
From then on we have been teaching our community about mycelium through oyster bucket workshops. We also have started partnering with our youth leaders to inoculate community spaces with mycelium to ensure our community members have healthy soil and can then teach others about the benefits mycelium has on our individual selves and for mother earth.
Our intention
Through the use of mycelium, Spirit of the Sun youth leaders, with elders and community, will begin the process of restoring soils damaged by major corporations like Suncor that have dumped pollutants onto the lands on which we live and learn from. Through this long-term project we will be not only recognizing, but also continuing to support Indigenous-led restorative justice movements and the rights of nature.
Our process
We use a highly adaptive organism, mycelium, to mitigate contamination of soil, water, and air, to “plant water” to mitigate climate change. It has been recognized that most carbon-sequestering takes place at the level of the soil. Studies suggest that symbiotic fungi can store up to 70% more carbon in the soil and over 90% of plants on earth have a symbiotic relationship with fungi. Some sources also note that mycelium is the largest repository of biological carbon in soil.
Through in-person and virtual workshops, our youth leaders will educate the community about the restorative potential of mycelium. There will be a larger, in-person workshop held in Commerce City in spring of 2023 to teach community members how to build mycelial "mother patches" that remediate the soil in their neighborhoods.
2023 Mycelium Healing Project Planning Meeting
If you want to learn how to restore your own community through mycelium, reach out to us through the link below!
2024 MHP Save Seed Spores