Boulder County regenerative farmers and community members gathered Wednesday night to discuss how mushrooms could be used for local wildfire mitigation efforts and to improve soil health.

Mycelium: Nature’s Recyclers, a mushroom-centric event organized by Jonnah Perkins, director of media for Mad! Agriculture, was held at the Patagonia store at 1630 Pearl St.

Over 100 people attended the event, which was a collaborative effort between Boulder County’s Office of Sustainability, Climate Action and Resilience, Boulder Mushroom, Mad Agriculture and Patagonia.

Zach Hedstrom, founder and owner of Boulder Mushroom, began the panel by delving into how mushrooms could positively impact Boulder County’s ecosystem.

“For me and other people working in this space and taking on very large projects regarding ecosystem regeneration and wildfire mitigation, these kinds of things feel daunting, serious and very heavy sometimes,” said Hedstrom. “… I think something that drives our work is, what are the inputs? What are the organic waste products which are generated and how can those waste products be turned into assets to soil health or food production or whatnot.”

Mushrooms can help mitigate wildfires by breaking down wood waste, like wood chips, into nutrient-rich soil, according to Hedstrom.

Hedstrom also mentioned how Mark DeRespinis, owner of Estoterra Culinary Garden, prioritizes healthy soil to grow culinary ingredients.

“Here, we have a lot of wood waste generated from all kinds of projects, but a lot of those projects are fire mitigation,” said Hedstrom. “Mark is making big piles of wood chips on his property, maybe for different reasons, but the commonality there is that you need organic matter and biological activity in order to bring that soil to life.”Hedstrom discussed how the use of mycelium during fire mitigation efforts could also mean a decrease in carbon output.

“Conducting fire mitigation projects generates huge amounts of carbon based organic matter, matter that doesn’t always have a great end outlet,” said Hedstrom. “So there’s a lot of resources that are involved in getting rid of that material, tracking it to various locations, or building burn piles. But at the same time, that is valuable organic matter for depleted soil.”

Boulder Mushroom, a mycology center based in Boulder “uses fungi from forestry to assist in wildfire mitigation efforts” and produces medicinal mushroom tinctures, according to its website. The center received a $125,000 grant last year from the county’s climate innovation fund.

“Raw wood chips in an arid environment like this will take a long time to decompose,” said Hedstrom. “They’re not going to be a huge asset to soil health. But if you can make use of the organisms such as saprophytic fungi, it would decompose or facilitate the breakdown so that you are able to transform that carbon biomass into a soil health resource.”

Hedstrom described how hyphae, or the branching filaments that make up mycelium, soaks up rain water like a sponge.

“The network of hyphae forms almost like a biological sponge on the surface of the soil,” Hedstrom said. “So as mycelium grows through wood chips or any kind of biomass, it actually creates this living web which catches and holds moisture very effectively. When we get precipitation, that water is retained on the soil for longer periods of time.”

Hedstrom said that rich, hydrated soil is key in order to prevent drought and dried vegetation, both of which are big contributors to wildfires.

Andy Breiter, the owner and rancher of Grama Grass, a regenerative meat company in Longmont, said that he’s been able to help maintain the wildland aspect of the urban interface with the help of city officials.

“We have been able to work with folks from Boulder, Louisville and Boulder County … without them, (Boulder County land) would just be a subdivision for miles,” said Breiter. “… We see that in disasters like what happened in LA recently or the Marshall Fire, and those are things we need to really be aware of moving forward, whether it’s managing fires in the forest through thinning or taking care of fuel loads in the prairie.”