2024) – MYCOLOGY WORKSHOP EXPOSES FUNGI SECRETS

Central West Lachlan Landcare are welcomed Mycologist Alison Pouliot to Forbes this week.

This workshop is part of a series of Mycology in the Mix workshops that are being delivered across the Central West.

This event is possible thanks to the shared work of the NSW Biodiversity Conservation Trust (BCT) and Landcare NSW under the Private Land Conservation Matters project.

Central West and Western BCT Regional Manager, Glenn Harpley explained that the BCT was established in 2017 to deliver on four key goals:

Increase private land conservation in areas of strategic biodiversity value.
Deliver efficient, effective, and strategic biodiversity offset outcomes
Support participating landholders to conserve biodiversity
Promote public knowledge, appreciation and understanding of biodiversity and the importance of conservation.

This is achieved through a number of programs:

The Conservation Partners Program – A voluntary program available to landholders who wish to conserve and protect biodiversity on their land by entering into a Conservation Agreement. Landholders with these agreements can get access to grants to help manage pests, weeds and improve fencing.
The Conservation Management Program – Funded Conservation Agreements which provide landholders with annual management payments that help provide a financial contribution to the conservation and management of biodiversity areas on private land.
The Biodiversity Offsets Program – Landholders can enter Biodiversity Stewardship Agreements that generate Biodiversity Credits that can be sold on the NSW Biodiversity Offsets Market.

Fungi are the great recyclers. Lignum and cellulose in wood can be broken down by fungi. Many of our plants rely on a symbiosis relationship with fungi. We aren’t sure of the degree of the extent of the networks. We often underestimate the connectivity within our ecosystems.

Relative to plants and animals, the diversity and significance of fungi is little known. Yet fungi are vital in creating and stabilising soils, nourishing and interconnecting plants, recycling nutrients, retaining and filtering water, restoring environmental damage and essentially underpinning ecosystem health and resilience.

The workshop introduced participants to the diversity of the Kingdom Fungi and the basic principles of fungus identification, including fungi from the various local habitat types and those from further afield. In addition to their ecological significance, the group also discussed various cultural aspects of fungi such as edibility and toxicity and their use in land restoration.

For further information on this and other Landcare activities go to www.centralwestlachlanlandcare.org.au or via our social media @cwllandcare