Mycolab's Herstory
a Mycolab started out as a seed inspired from our participation in the Radical Mycology Community. We originally had a little Vermont Myconode through which we experimented with cultivating fungi in our apartments. We then raised funds through New England Grassroots Environmental Fund;s SEED grant (thank you!!!) to build a true lab in the basement of an ephemeral permaculture community that hosted a lavender farm in Charlotte. This was an amazignly fertile and inspiring time for us in which we learned a ton about cultivation, held monthy collective meetings and educational workshops, and grew spawn for local mycoremediation pilot projects MycoEvolve was conducting.
After inevitable community shifts occured the lab transitioned into germination mode relocating into a barn and repurposed wine cooler (culture library still there). Jess reentered academia for furthur training and the group became more oriented towards serving marginalized members of our community. This lab is now dedicated to serving these communities in ways which increase ecological literacy, accessability to scientific learning, and opportunities to engage and train all interested in the needed service of ecological restoration. While fungi are a huge part of this work, so are microbes and plants!
2020 summer, the lab hosted Abenaki members of Alnobaiwai to offer reclamation ceremonies at a site where we are conducting Myco-Phytoremediation research; this location like so many needs remediation from years of colonial land practices that still contribute to watershed degradation. We currently plant seeds to begin community remediation projects in urban areas which engage residents as primary stakeholders, decision makers and leaders.
This lab is currently our volunteer, community service offering and we will continue to write grants to New England Grassroots Environmental Fund and other local organizations to fund these endeavors as we slowly shift the paradigm through decolonial, racially just, accessible, non capitalist forms of community care, earth tending and rematriation.
Read below about our a small part of our participation in a much larger community project.
After inevitable community shifts occured the lab transitioned into germination mode relocating into a barn and repurposed wine cooler (culture library still there). Jess reentered academia for furthur training and the group became more oriented towards serving marginalized members of our community. This lab is now dedicated to serving these communities in ways which increase ecological literacy, accessability to scientific learning, and opportunities to engage and train all interested in the needed service of ecological restoration. While fungi are a huge part of this work, so are microbes and plants!
2020 summer, the lab hosted Abenaki members of Alnobaiwai to offer reclamation ceremonies at a site where we are conducting Myco-Phytoremediation research; this location like so many needs remediation from years of colonial land practices that still contribute to watershed degradation. We currently plant seeds to begin community remediation projects in urban areas which engage residents as primary stakeholders, decision makers and leaders.
This lab is currently our volunteer, community service offering and we will continue to write grants to New England Grassroots Environmental Fund and other local organizations to fund these endeavors as we slowly shift the paradigm through decolonial, racially just, accessible, non capitalist forms of community care, earth tending and rematriation.
Read below about our a small part of our participation in a much larger community project.
Community Science Ecological Inventory
Starting NOW spring 2022: https://fb.me/e/1BnhoeRit
All are welcome (from newbie naturalists, to amateurs to professionals) to join us in discovering who in the trophic web lives on this land and to record it for a baseline inventory.
This includes: mammals, reptiles, amphibians, flora, fungi, invertebrates, birds...
This parcel of land on Unceded Abenaki Territory is a Brownfield Site abutting a Superfund Site and has the potential to become a model of how the community can learn about the resilient earth here, document this and nurture a long term remediation - restoration plan into manifestation; to become a living laboratory that is accessible for all members of our community.
So join us if you can one or all sundays, 2nd and 4th of each month. Bring binoculars, hand lenses, field guides, your iphone for pictures and Inaturalist entries, a writing tool & clipboard for a paper recording inventory option, and your enthusiasm. For anyone with mobility challenges who wants to attend, please let us know your needs and we will do all we can to support your participation.
Since the site is a Brownfield Site, there will be a simple waiver to fill out. The only precautions you will need to take are: to not wear the shoes you wear in the field in your home for 2 few days (just leave it on the porch to air out), to do a thorough tick check afterwards, and of course tend to your hydration, sun protection, and snack needs.
We are so grateful to offer this opportunity and to welcome you to join us in whatever capacity you have and feel called.
Meet at the 'For Sale' sign on Pine Street. You can park across the street at Dealer.com or behind the Maltex building.
Let us come together to learn, witness our wild kindred living in this fragile zone, and record what we can for robust deliverables to share at the end of autumn 2022 as a bridge between our human and nonhuman urban wild neighborhoods in need of deep care.
This event is hosted by 'Friends of the Barge Canal,' Community Scientists, and this volunteer branch of MycoEvolve called Mycolab.
Thanks for spreading the word.
All are welcome (from newbie naturalists, to amateurs to professionals) to join us in discovering who in the trophic web lives on this land and to record it for a baseline inventory.
This includes: mammals, reptiles, amphibians, flora, fungi, invertebrates, birds...
This parcel of land on Unceded Abenaki Territory is a Brownfield Site abutting a Superfund Site and has the potential to become a model of how the community can learn about the resilient earth here, document this and nurture a long term remediation - restoration plan into manifestation; to become a living laboratory that is accessible for all members of our community.
So join us if you can one or all sundays, 2nd and 4th of each month. Bring binoculars, hand lenses, field guides, your iphone for pictures and Inaturalist entries, a writing tool & clipboard for a paper recording inventory option, and your enthusiasm. For anyone with mobility challenges who wants to attend, please let us know your needs and we will do all we can to support your participation.
Since the site is a Brownfield Site, there will be a simple waiver to fill out. The only precautions you will need to take are: to not wear the shoes you wear in the field in your home for 2 few days (just leave it on the porch to air out), to do a thorough tick check afterwards, and of course tend to your hydration, sun protection, and snack needs.
We are so grateful to offer this opportunity and to welcome you to join us in whatever capacity you have and feel called.
Meet at the 'For Sale' sign on Pine Street. You can park across the street at Dealer.com or behind the Maltex building.
Let us come together to learn, witness our wild kindred living in this fragile zone, and record what we can for robust deliverables to share at the end of autumn 2022 as a bridge between our human and nonhuman urban wild neighborhoods in need of deep care.
This event is hosted by 'Friends of the Barge Canal,' Community Scientists, and this volunteer branch of MycoEvolve called Mycolab.
Thanks for spreading the word.
