Mycolab's Herstory
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 upcoming contribution to 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 upcoming contribution to a much larger community project.
Citizen Science Ecological Inventory
Starting spring 2022 through autumn a small inter-generational group of citizens will begin to gather baseline ecological inventory at a local brownfield site. Remediation has already started via our wild kin networks and we aim to document their presence, learn from their networks and responsively craft a long-term remediation plan from this: after asking permission from Chief Menard of the Missisquoi Nation. While UVM students gather other data and investigate solutions, citizens work through complex municipal networks to halt plans for development & redirect for conservation. Stay tuned for when it is time.
