JAY — Regional School Unit 73 directors on March 13 were given an update on the mycosilviculture [chaga mushroom] project being conducted by teachers and students.

In August 2023 directors approved a contract for JustNiks Micosilva LLC to work with teachers and students to raise chaga mushrooms on district-owned land behind Spruce Mountain High School. Materials needed to grow the mushrooms would be provided and when they are harvested, proceeds will be donated to the district for STEM projects.

“A lot of work has been done,” Rob Taylor, high school science teacher and Envirothon advisor said. “It’s been a really nice project to be involved with.”

What is mycosilviculture, Skylar Condon, one of Taylor’s students and an Envirothon team member asked. “Silviculture is the art and science of growing trees,” she said. “”Myco” is the Greek word for mushroom or fungus. Mycosilviculture is the science of growing fungi in a forest ecosystem.”

Chaga is a fungus that is commonly found on birch trees, Condon noted. “Chaga mushrooms are a valued commodity, prized for their high levels of antioxidants, and are traditionally harvested by foraging in the Maine woods,” she stated.

Details

There are 60 trees in the experimental group, five dowels per tree, and 60 trees in the control group, Lily Fortier, also one of Taylor’s students and an Envirothon team member, stated. “There are many educational benefits that come along with this project for science and mathematics, including experimental design, scientific method, forest management skills and for math, measurement, diameter at breast height [DBH], compass bearings, statistics including growth rate, statistical significance,” she said.

Economic value

Project benefits can really be seen when it comes to the economic model, Fortier stressed. “If the birch trees located within the stand of trees located in our forest were traditionally harvested, birch wood isn’t really very valuable so it would sell for about $300 per 1,000 board feet, which means that one birch tree is around $30,” she said. “So the 60 birch trees inoculated would be valued at $1,800. With our new inoculated trees the 60 trees are worth almost $37,000 because the five dowels are capable of producing 2.5 pound conks each.”

The market price for chaga is pretty steady at about $50 per pound, Fortier said. “So each tree would be then worth about $625 as opposed to the $30 if you were to just harvest them normally,” she stated.

Inoculation

June 17 was inoculation day with JustNiks Mycosilva LLC, Taylor said. The company is doing this all over the state of Maine and New England, he stated. “They’re really having some great success, and they’re very, very busy, but they came and spent the day with us,” he added.

Fortier said Justin and Nikki came on a day when she thought there was no school.

It was the last day of school, exam makeup day with no classes, Taylor explained.

“We came out pretty early in the morning, at like nine, and they came out and joined us, and we started …” Here she was interrupted by laughter. “It’s early if you don’t have school,” she noted to even more and louder laughter. “Okay. They explained to us what the process would be like,” she continued.

Fortier compared the inoculation to drilling holes to collect sap for maple syrup. A small wooden dowel made with birch wood from trees in Maine is used since firewood is not supposed to be transported across state lines, she noted. Using Maine wood prevents introduction of bacteria or invasive species, she said.

Chaga spores are on the dowel which is tapped into the hole with a rubber mallet and then covered with paste so that nothing else can get in, Fortier explained. “Before we inoculated the trees, we measured DBH and compass bearing and all the trees were tagged so that they found later to collect data,” she said. “It was pretty fun. We got to walk around all of the new trail system.”

In September a control group of 60 white birch trees and their GPS location was chosen, Zen Wakefield-Dostie, one of Taylor’s students said. DBH was measured to be able to compare growth rates, see if chaga has any effects. “If there is any negative effects to the health of the tree, we could see that in the data,” he added.

Austin Gilboe, Spruce Mountain alumnus and former Envirothon member works for Sappi Paper obtained a $3,000 grant to fund things for the project and environment programs, Taylor noted. “That’s helped us to buy measuring equipment, tools and other things,” he said. “We also bought some water quality equipment for the work we do with Livermore Falls Water District. We really appreciate Sappi Paper in Austin for all their help with that.”

Fortier detailed questions that are hoped to be answered through data collected from the project:

Does chaga affect how fast the trees are growing?

Does chaga grow best at a certain height off the ground?

Does chaga grow faster facing a certain direction?

Does chaga grow better in white or yellow birch?

Programs

Programs contributing to helping learn about chaga are the Envirothon team, early college environmental science class, Maine natural resource class, and college preparation and honors biology classes, Natalie Furka, Taylor’s student and Envirothon member stated.

Taylor said a lot of  students are involved with different programs at the school. “We’ve actually already developed lessons and materials and have been sharing them with the middle school and we’re hoping the middle school,” he noted. “We are hoping science teachers are going to get middle school kids involved out there. We’ve also talked with Mrs. Ellingwoods AP statistics class, because when we really start to look at this data, her work with statistics will be invaluable to analyzing the data when we get done.”

Opportunities to keep involving more kids is a goal, Taylor said. “The project is going to take five to seven years,” he explained. “If you go out there now and you look at an inoculated tree, you’ll see five holes drilled in it. They have arborist paste covering the holes so the trees can’t get infected. We’re now just playing the waiting game to watch the chaga grow.”

In the fall, every year, students will measure DBH, check on the chaga growth and measure the 60 control group trees, so they can analyze how well these things are growing over time, Taylor said. “One those essential questions is, what is this relation between chaga and the birch trees.” he noted.

Symbiosis is when two things live together, comes in many forms, Taylor said. “There’s a parasitism where one negatively affects the other,” he stated. “Is it commensalism where one is not affected and other one benefits? Is it mutualism, where they both benefit? This project might help us to answer those questions to determine what kinds of things are going on with the trees.”

Answers

“Thank you very much,” Chair Don Emery said. “I think this is an absolutely fantastic program. Quick question. Have any of you had chaga tea?”

“It’s disgusting,” Furka, who was the only one to have tried it responded.

“Lily actually found a giant conch at her house,” Taylor said. “My Maine natural resources class actually found wild chaga growing out where we’ve put the chaga in. We’ve been marking those trees. so we know that that chaga is not part of our study. It’s already there. It’s interesting the kids found it so now they know what to look for.”

Emery asked about the maturation of the chaga.

“Five to seven years,” Taylor replied “They also say that after they do the harvest, they can do it sustainably. So you’re leaving some of the chaga on the tree and it can kind of scab over, regrow, and you may get a second harvest a couple years down the road from the first.”

Is there a minimum diameter of tree that you impregnate with chaga, Emery asked.

“Surprisingly, we actually prefer smaller trees,” Taylor responded. “Larger trees fight the chaga off a little bit better. It’s harder for the chaga to get into the tree. A 10 inch diameter birch tree is kind of perfect but five to 15 inches is where most of our diameters fall.”

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