Solutions from Nature: How Mushrooms Can Help Save the World

Paul Stamets will discuss the evolution of mushrooms in ecosystems and how fungi can help heal environments. As environmental health and human health are inextricably interconnected, fungi offer unique opportunities that capitalize on mycelium's diverse properties. Fungi are the grand molecular dis-assemblers in nature, decomposing plants and animals, creating soils.  Forest dwelling mushroom mycelium can achieve the greatest mass of any living organism - this characteristic is a testimonial to the inherent biological power of the fungus.
Paul will demonstrate that mycelium offers many of the solutions we sorely need.

Stamets' short bio:
Paul Stamets has been a dedicated mycologist for over thirty years. Over this time, he has discovered and coauthored four new species of mushrooms, and pioneered countless techniques in the field of edible and medicinal mushroom cultivation. He received the 1998 "Bioneers Award" from The Collective Heritage Institute, and the 1999 "Founder of a New Northwest Award" from the Pacific Rim Association of Resource Conservation and Development Councils. In 2008, Paul received the National Geographic Adventure Magazine's Green-Novator and the Argosy Foundation's E-chievement Awards. He was also named one of Utne Reader's "50 Visionaries Who Are Changing Your World" in their November–December 2008 issue.
He has written six books on mushroom cultivation, use and identification.
Married to C. Dusty Yao, a plant finatic, who shares a passion for fungi, their love of the Old Growth forests, and that people properly armed with fungi can help save the planet.