Three years ago Justin and Nikki Triquet set out to help others heal through the use of medicinal chaga and to prove to the naysayers that commercial chaga farming, not foraging, is not only possible, but sustainable.
The Triquets have refined their techniques and routine since we introduced you to them two years ago. The headline predicted what is quickly becoming reality for the couple, who are already planning for more farms and a future of turning fungi found naturally in Maine into a key and sustainable agribusiness — the first of its kind in North America.
Checking on the chaga
After getting permission from the landowner, the couple — who call themselves The Chaga Farmers — took us into the woods in Franklin County to see how their plans are progressing. We can’t tell you where, but this is only one of their nearly 40 chaga farms throughout Maine, covering almost 9,000 acres in total.
On a brisk winter morning the sun was shining as our group of four zigzagged through what are mostly stands of birch and other hardwoods. Nearly half of Maine’s 17.5 million acres of forest are birch trees — a pioneer species — meaning it’s the first to grow back after a fire, flood or clear-cut.
“It thrives in the type of soil that we have here and also grows in boreal and temperate forest,” Justin adds. Yellow and white, or paper birch, are also the preferred host to chaga. The compounds found in birch trees give chaga its medicinal properties, like betulin, betulinic acid and lupeol.
This morning, a blanket of snow covers ice, which makes navigating the woods a little tricky. Winter is colder and can be harder to get around — sometimes requiring snowshoes. But the line of sight is extended with no leaves on the trees, and chaga is easier to spot in the winter.
“Not only are we helping people out financially, we’re giving them other additional streams of income from their forest that isn’t producing anything for them and really wouldn’t produce anything if they were to deforest it,” said Justin , who uses the term microforestry investment opportunity.

Justin Triquet checks a birch tree this month in Franklin County that was inoculated with chaga spores and is showing signs of chaga breaking through. Russ Dillingham/Sun Journal
He points out that the yellow and white birch trees they select to inoculate with chaga-infused dowels are 4-6 inches in diameter and worth about 30 cents each as pulpwood to the landowner. Larger diameter trees can be harvested for veneers or slabs and are not used for chaga farming.
The payout for chaga is 400% return on investment, according to the Triquets. But chaga requires patience as the first harvest takes five to eight years to materialize.
The Triquets work year-round in the woods inoculating trees, implanting more than 2 million chaga dowels since they started. Last summer, they started seeing their efforts come to fruition.
“When we went into the forest last summer and we saw that we had, for lack of better words, proof of concept,” Justin remembers. “We had all the science behind it to back it up but to be able to actually see our chaga growing … ”
Telltale signs of chaga growth were evident on all the trees we saw. A year ago, the bark was smooth. It has since started curling and peeling at the inoculation site — a sign the chaga is beginning to bear fruit outside of the tree.
“When the chaga starts to grow, it does something called cracking, bleeding and bulging,” Justin explains. “This is also in our contracts to let our clients know, ‘Listen, when you start seeing this stuff, this is totally normal.'”
Chaga as a sustainable product in Maine
Chaga is quickly becoming a $2 billion market in the United States with more demand for chaga in teas, powder form, extracts and supplements. Chaga is high in antioxidants and has long been touted to improve the immune system, reduce LDL cholesterol and reduce blood pressure. There is high hope backed by early studies that show chaga can slow or prevent certain cancers.
There are cautions for people taking insulin or those with blood clotting problems. Consulting a physician is always advised. The Food and Drug Administration does not regulate the sale or use of chaga.

Justin Triquet examines a birch tree earlier this month in Franklin County that is part of a chaga farm with up to 10,000 dowels inoculated with chaga spores. Russ Dillingham/Sun Journal
There are several caveats. First, the value of the chaga market ranges wildly from $1 billion to $28 billion, depending on the researcher, the type of product and what geographical markets are included. The chaga grown on birch trees naturally is valued for its medicinal components, which scientists have not fully unraveled.
Commercial chaga farming is proven in Finland and Estonia, but Justin and Nikki Triquet emphasize that, to the best of their knowledge, it is not done anywhere in the U.S. or Canada. The Maine Forest Service acknowledges this is the first state where chaga farming is being tried. They caution that about half of the chaga currently available, which is mostly imported from China and Russia, does not have the same medicinal qualities as chaga grown on trees.
“It’s grown on grain,” Nikki says without hesitation. “Mycelium is produced on grain and then it’s processed and put into pills and tea bags. That’s not really chaga.” She adds it only takes weeks to produce chaga in a production facility, not the years it takes to grow to maturity on trees.
Relying on foraging to supply the market is unsustainable because it is estimated to occur naturally at a rate of 1% to 3.5%. For landowners in Maine, commercial chaga farming on their land represents a sustainable alternative and attractive investment opportunity, the Triquets say, but not everyone is convinced.
Advocates say chaga farming replaces the natural chaga that is foraged. It also brings extra income for landowners and at a greater profit than timber harvesting and becomes a carbon offset by not removing trees cut to thin a forest.
There are a lot of myths and unsubstantiated statements about chaga and its relationship to the trees. Does chaga kill the tree it grows on and will it infect all the trees around it?
The short answer is there is no scientific evidence that inonotus obliquus, the scientific name for chaga, does either. The Maine Forest Service acknowledges this in its frequently asked questions on chaga and forest health.
Chaga and the host tree have a parasitic and symbiotic relationship, argues Justin. Chaga infects a tree through a wound in the tree.
“Chaga will continue to grow and continue to grow until the tree dies of natural death,” he said. “It lives in and on a tree. It’s a parasitic relationship.”
Infected trees can live 10 to 80 years after the chaga forms, so eventually the tree will die.
“Before it completely dies, it opens up something called a basidiocarp,” Justin adds. “The basidiocarp is the reproductive organ of chaga. The spores go into the air, they only live about 72 hours and they have about a 100 meter area in order to find a new wood (tree).”
That, he says, is why natural chaga is so rare.
In 2024, the Maine Forest Service began an inonotus obliquus inoculation project with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Forest Service working with North Spore company of Westbrook and the University of Maine Forests. One site is in New Hampshire, the other in Maine. The long-term study, using the same techniques the Triquets use, hopes to track the development and resulting chaga formation, as well as provide insights into the impacts of the practice of chaga farming on Maine’s forests.
FUTURE PLANS
The first trees inoculated by the Triquets will be ready to harvest in three to four years. The first year the couple are expecting 350,000 pounds, and double that the next year and the following year because they use a cascading system of planting and harvesting, providing a continuous flow of chaga.
“We’ll have trucking companies and processing plants, you know, at that point,” Justin said. They also are working on plans for a lab to process the chaga and extract the useful compounds. The investment is significant at up to $10 million.
What if someone decides to steal the chaga from their farms? There are several reasons Justin and Nikki are less concerned about that. First, the locations are all secret. Hiking in and out of private property is physically hard, illegal and would net the thieves less than $200 on the open market.
“It takes a lot of hard work in order to go out there in the forest … and people are allergic to hard work,” they agree.
The couple say they will have the only processing plant in the state, with the biggest ace in the hole being DNA. “We have the genomic code to our particular strain,” Justin said with a smile.
The couple does not use social media or advertise. If you want more information visit the website at www.justniksmycosilva.com, or call them at 207-205-2245.
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