The Replications of Project One: Evergreen and Chatfield
Replications began the year after our initial inoculations at Berrian mountain. Having seen that our mushrooms had overwintered, we didn’t want to waste any time initiating large scale projects. The first project was on a private property outside of Evergreen Colorado.
A large pile of wood chips had been left behind after a 60 ac fire mitigation project. Sized at 90′ X 150′ and 4′ deep, this pile contained approximately 2000′ cubic years of material. Using 4 different trained strains from the area,we achieved 70% degradation in two seasons, and 85%+ the next year.
Our success at Evergreen allowed us to obtain funding for another, more fully monitored test. Pulling together a broad coalition of the Denver Botanic Gardens, The Army Corps. of Engineers, The Chatfield Reallocation project, Aurora Water and the Colorado Mycological Society we were able to fund the installation of a large wood chip pile at the DBG’s Chatfield farms.
This pile was inoculated in the Spring of 2020 with an array of volunteers and 4 types of local mushrooms. This demonstration project allowed us to generate the Chatfield Report and gather out first data on the piles carbon cycle. At Chatfield we averaged around 90% degradation of both mass and volume in 3 years time.
The results of the Chatfield run can be found Here.
As the only group in Colorado involved in actual study and publication, we are the experts in the use of native fungi for restoration and remediation. for 10 years the Coldfire project has laid low, and carefully documented out procedures and results. Our unique positions as professionals in forestry and fire, as well as mycology, makes us the hands down choice if you wish to mitigate the after effects of fire treatments or accelerate regeneration post-fire.