Our Philosophy
Some of our ecological ancestors were fungi partnered with cyanobacteria. In remembering this on land where our species' ancestors lived, we acknowledge that we currently live on unceded Abenaki territory where blood, bones, and living chords lie below soil. As "settlers" living during 'The 6th Great Extinction,' aiming to transform extractive into regenerative systems, we remember to nurture our foundational partnerships with microbial, fungal, and botanical networks.
MycoEvolve honors the cradle to grave potential below and around our feet. When we tend ecological networks we revitalize, and facilitate the process of rehabilitation, rewiring, realigning into eventual rematriation, equitably tending our shared earth homeland. We consciously learn and practice interspecies communication. Listening... watching...feeling....sensing..responding...listening, observing...
MycoEvolve aims to reconcile how humans have and are disturbing earth's balance. Through research, earthworks, and education we support land tenders to consciously, diversify habitats in ways that support pollinators' resilience, protect the watershed, grow eco-literacy, and facilitate equitable land access. As we nurture the trophic networks, in which we are nested, we facilitate interspecies collaboration and renewable resource sharing synergy.
MycoEvolve honors the cradle to grave potential below and around our feet. When we tend ecological networks we revitalize, and facilitate the process of rehabilitation, rewiring, realigning into eventual rematriation, equitably tending our shared earth homeland. We consciously learn and practice interspecies communication. Listening... watching...feeling....sensing..responding...listening, observing...
MycoEvolve aims to reconcile how humans have and are disturbing earth's balance. Through research, earthworks, and education we support land tenders to consciously, diversify habitats in ways that support pollinators' resilience, protect the watershed, grow eco-literacy, and facilitate equitable land access. As we nurture the trophic networks, in which we are nested, we facilitate interspecies collaboration and renewable resource sharing synergy.
Long Term Vision
- Sound restoration science and practices guide land management in site specific mycoremediating & phytoremediating green infrastructure*
- Community members enhance water quality, pollinator habitat, and equitable land access through how they tend surrounding landscapes**
- Youth, versed in ecological literacy, grow earth care and repair skills, while living balanced lives protecting and revitalizing resilient ecosystems.
- Original Peoples regain access to their ancestral homelands and lifeways while all marginalized groups gain to nurture earth partnership and thrive.
- Aa being thrive as humans unite in earth system tending lifeways
*Including mycorrhizal &/or saprophytic fungi, and pollinator friendly, native polyculture flora, particularly along: rivers, drainages, point & nonpoint source pollution sites.
**Including farms, residences. lawns, school campuses, business fronts, property edges, parks, highway embankments, golf courses, industrial zones, brownfields, and Superfund sites.
Team
Founder, Earth Tender, Researcher, Educator, Facilitator, MycoLab Member & Mentor
Jess Rubin (she/her, they. we) practices listening to and reading surrounding landscapes. While gardening and wilderness guiding, Jess earned herbalism, nature awareness, outdoor education, & permaculture certificates, a BA from Cornell University in Ecological Literature with Native American Studies minor, an MS in Environmental Studies with VT middle & high school science teaching licenses from Antioch NE, and a MS with a concentration in Ecological Landscape Design from UVM Plant Soil Science Department. She has served as a nature mentor, wilderness guide, university farm co-manager, Waldorf earthcrafts educator, public school science teacher, environmental studies college adjunct, university guest lecturer, scientific researcher, conservation crew leader, ethical rewilding gardener, and corridor monitor, while remaining a lifelong student of trophic relationships.
As a restoration ecologist, dedicated to interspecies collaboration for ecological reconciliation, Jess ethically rewilds landscapes for clients across Unceded Abenaki Territory. Jess tends MycoEvolve's community branch Mycolab, while serving as a Myco-Phytoremediation Research Technician in the UVM Plant Soil Science Department. Jess teaches ecological restoration in local school programs, writes plays about watershed health for Very Merry Theater, and trains community members in eco literacy, ecological restoration science, and technical skills on local farms and in urban wilds. Additionally, she serves on the leadership council of Vermont’s Fungal Scientific Advisory Group (FSAG), which aims to elevate fungi through documentation, increasing understanding of fungal communities, diversity, sensitivities, and role in natural communities. She is grateful to her ancestors, mentors, and collaborators. Relevant resume.
Jess Rubin (she/her, they. we) practices listening to and reading surrounding landscapes. While gardening and wilderness guiding, Jess earned herbalism, nature awareness, outdoor education, & permaculture certificates, a BA from Cornell University in Ecological Literature with Native American Studies minor, an MS in Environmental Studies with VT middle & high school science teaching licenses from Antioch NE, and a MS with a concentration in Ecological Landscape Design from UVM Plant Soil Science Department. She has served as a nature mentor, wilderness guide, university farm co-manager, Waldorf earthcrafts educator, public school science teacher, environmental studies college adjunct, university guest lecturer, scientific researcher, conservation crew leader, ethical rewilding gardener, and corridor monitor, while remaining a lifelong student of trophic relationships.
As a restoration ecologist, dedicated to interspecies collaboration for ecological reconciliation, Jess ethically rewilds landscapes for clients across Unceded Abenaki Territory. Jess tends MycoEvolve's community branch Mycolab, while serving as a Myco-Phytoremediation Research Technician in the UVM Plant Soil Science Department. Jess teaches ecological restoration in local school programs, writes plays about watershed health for Very Merry Theater, and trains community members in eco literacy, ecological restoration science, and technical skills on local farms and in urban wilds. Additionally, she serves on the leadership council of Vermont’s Fungal Scientific Advisory Group (FSAG), which aims to elevate fungi through documentation, increasing understanding of fungal communities, diversity, sensitivities, and role in natural communities. She is grateful to her ancestors, mentors, and collaborators. Relevant resume.
Myco-Phytoremediation Research Intern
This position is open. Read here for application instructions!
2024 Myco - Phytoremediation Research Intern
Kat O’Neill (she/they) recently graduated from UVM studying plant biology and food systems. She is passionate about collaboration with plants and their allies to bring healing and nourishment to people and the land. Kat’s contributions to this include herbarium research, nursery work, helping to implement nature-based climate solutions, and creating a student-led herbalism organization. She finds immense joy and purpose in working closely with the earth, and is grateful for the opportunity to follow her calling in the intersections between science, ancestral knowledge, sustainable activism, and community with MycoEvolve.
This position is open. Read here for application instructions!
2024 Myco - Phytoremediation Research Intern
Kat O’Neill (she/they) recently graduated from UVM studying plant biology and food systems. She is passionate about collaboration with plants and their allies to bring healing and nourishment to people and the land. Kat’s contributions to this include herbarium research, nursery work, helping to implement nature-based climate solutions, and creating a student-led herbalism organization. She finds immense joy and purpose in working closely with the earth, and is grateful for the opportunity to follow her calling in the intersections between science, ancestral knowledge, sustainable activism, and community with MycoEvolve.
Volunteer Coordinator, MycoLab Core Member
Brianna Arnold (Bri) is a creative facilitator, visionary, youth mentor, and student of earth. She received a BA in Plant Biology from the University of Vermont and has pursued studies in permaculture, outdoor education, yoga, and collaborative leadership. Bri is eager to support and steward impactful healing processes among our human and more-than-human communities. Bri is mentor for nature-based healing programs for youth and teens with ReTribe. She also volunteers with the Caliata Initiative, a participatory action research group that supports Indigenous agrarian communities in Ecuadorian highlands. Woven through Bri’s service are values of joy, courage, patience, and tikkun olam, translated as: repairing the world.
Photographer & Videographer, MycoLab Core Member
John Howard is a photographer and videographer (of Black Oak Media LLC) who is passionate about conservation, land stewardship, healing damaged ecosystems, and public land access. specializing in creating media for environmentally and socially impactful businesses, as well as artists, creatives, and inspired people. Website: john-howard.com
John Howard is a photographer and videographer (of Black Oak Media LLC) who is passionate about conservation, land stewardship, healing damaged ecosystems, and public land access. specializing in creating media for environmentally and socially impactful businesses, as well as artists, creatives, and inspired people. Website: john-howard.com
Abenaki Plant Teacher and Consultant for our Shelburne Farms Research
Grandmother Carol McGranaghan was born and raised in Vermont and is a member of the Abenaki Nation of Missisquoi. She served as Chair of The Vermont Commission on Native American Affairs for several years. Her presentations to schools and libraries around Vermont have and continue to include subjects on Abenaki culture, history, and customs as well as plant identification, care, and use of wild plants. She has provided testimony to the Vermont Legislature on the Vermont Eugenics Survey and other topics which affect Abenaki. She has also served on the Racial Equity Task Force and serves on the Friends of the State House board of Directors. She guides us in plant palette and harvesting strategies traditional to her peoples on her ancestral lands and facilitates educating Abenaki youth (via Circle of Courage), and works with other Abenaki such as Holly LaFrance of Alnobaiwi in our research plots. You can read more about here here in her work with the Abenaki Artist Association.
MycoLab
MycoLab is a network of scientists, educators, practitioners, academics, community organizers, artists, students, and volunteers, collaboratively led by a core team. As the community branch of MycoEvolve, MycoLab facilitates connection and learning through hands-on experiences, bioregional engagement, and educational resources. We aim to be a node for Earth Care Community.
Community Support
MycoEvolve is grateful to work with talented beings. Our team consists of project-oriented, seasonal, Covid-responsive, grassroots nurturing networks. There are many life forms (living & transforming) who were/are foundational to our inspiration & endurance. A special shout out to all Original Peoples, youth, elders, marginalized humans, community volunteers, interns, specialists, young workers & Radical Mycology Community .
