Fungus authority Dr Alison Pouliot covered a lot of ground in her workshop in Cobargo.
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Over four hours she took people on a sensorial journey while also educating and fielding questions from arborists, Landcare members, mushroom growers and someone wanting to increase fungal activity for the benefit of the native animals on his property.
The workshop on Saturday, July 1, was one of only two Dr Pouliot held for the Fungi Feastival.
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Fundamental to terrestrial ecosystems
Lichens, a symbiosis between a fungus and an alga, break down rocks to create soil, enabling plants to grow.
Fungi are often the first organisms to colonise after disturbances like bushfires and logging.
"Their cryptobiotic crust returns stability to the soil," Dr Pouliot said.
They are great recyclers through excreting enzymes, as humans do.
Fungi break up soil enabling invertebrates like insects and worms to move in, further breaking up the soil and aerating it.
"Once soil is aerated, water can trickle further down hence forests, rich in fungi, don't flood," Dr Pouliot said.
Paddocks flood however because they have lost the soil structure created by fungus mycelium.
Wood wide web
Tree roots are a conduit for water and nutrients and they have several fungus partners.
Some are very good at accessing water or nutrients, some secrete toxins to kill things that can harm the tree and others act as first aid kits.
In return the trees give fungi the sugar they produce from photosynthesis.
Dr Pouliot often references the work of Canadian scientist Suzanne Simard who identified hub or mother trees.
"On average the mother tree was connected via the wood wide web to 37 trees.
"So when we cut down one tree, particularly an old one, it reverberates but the effects are often insidious, invisible and may take years to be apparent," Dr Pouliot said.
Uncovering First Nations' knowledge
Dr Pouliot has worked with around a dozen groups of Aboriginal people to share their knowledge about fungi as food, medicine and a resource.
Some bracket fungi were used as kindling to start fires or used to carry fire as a source of light.
"There is a similarity between New Zealand Maoris and First Nations people using the fungi in the same way," Dr Pouliot said.
The only written records of First Nations' use of fungi is in the diaries of early settlers.
However, now scientists are working with First Nations people to try to retrieve and revive that knowledge.
It is the final week of the Fungi Feastival so it isn't too late to book a truffle dinner at Wheeler's in Merimbula, mushroom growing workshops at Sage Community Garden in Moruya and Farm on the Green in Merimbula and a truffle hunt at Gulaga Gold in Dignams Creek.
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