Trial site, California, United States
Santa Cruz Mountains, CZU Lightning Complex burn area
The area where the 2020 CZU Lightning Complex fire destroyed about 1,500 structures. Ash and debris from the burnt houses release metals and plastic residues towards the creeks.
Contaminants
Mixtures and waste
Plants and fungi at this site
MycoremediationField pilot, 2021–
Pleurotus ostreatus
The non-profit CoRenewal laid straw wattles inoculated with Pleurotus mycelium (a local strain supplied by Far West Fungi) along the slopes below burnt houses, with uninoculated wattles as controls, and took baseline samples above and below the wattles.
Outcome No measured result in the source consulted (May 2021): the group planned to resample after one or two years. The effectiveness of inoculated wattles after wildfires is still to be shown.
Sources
- Experimenting with mushrooms to try and heal toxic burn scars in Santa Cruz, KAZU (NPR), kazu.org, 2021
Draft compiled from public sources, not yet reviewed.