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Chronological Thread  
  • From: Vinton Lawrence <vlawrence@nets.com>
  • To: permaculture <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [permaculture] Mycoremediation of petroleum-polluted sites.
  • Date: Mon, 17 Dec 2007 14:09:33 -0700

David,
The remediation that you are referencing was, in fact, done by Paul Stamets in association with a project sponsored by Batelle Labs which compared many different remediation technologies side-by-side. At the end of the "test", Paul's plot of diesel contaminated soil was the only one with "life" in the soil, and the only one with no trace of aromatic hydrocarbons evident in the pile. The species, pleurotus ostreatus, oyster mushroom, is an edible species and is rather easy to propagate.
Paul has also done work with other species that are capable of breaking down the toxic molecules in Sarin nerve gas by "cleaving the molecule" into two separate and non-toxic compounds. It is amazing work.
The best resource on mycoremediation is Paul's book _Mycellium Running - How Mushrooms Can Save The Planet,_ which I strongly recommend.
Paul also has done yearly mycorestoration workshops at his facility in Washington. Check Fungiperfecti.com for details on obtaining spawn, books, supplies, and workshop registration.
Vint Lawrence
Santa Fe, NM

David wrote:
Lawrence,

Lawrence F. London, Jr. wrote:
I've seen a episode of "Bioneers: Saving The Planet" where a renowned
Mycologist showed using compost and added fungi to de-comtaminate soil
soaked in fuel oil.

I highly recommend watching this, if you can find it.
A bit more description may help. At the 2006 Bioneers Conference, for example, Paul Stamets talked about mycoattractants and mycopesticides, and referenced a patent <http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-adv.htm&r=1&p=1&f=G&l=50&d=PTXT&S1=stamets.INNM.&OS=IN/stamets&RS=IN/stamets> which had just been issued to him that could "revamp the pesticide industry". He said that it could rid a house of termites and carpenter ants for $1 a year! A really, really short excerpt from that talk is linked via this page <http://fungifest.com/2007/03>. Apparently the whole talk is available for download (audio only) for $2 from here <https://secure.bioneers.org/node/580>.

But a talk at a conference does not sound like an episode of... a TV/web show(? "an episode of 'Bioneers...'"). I suppose an episode could extract from and be built around such a talk, but is that what happened? Was it even this particular mycologist or some other?

Would it be possible to offer more information, if you remember or have it?

d.





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