Non-Sludged Mycena
A key project is to compare the genomics of Mycena spp. that tolerate, survive and thrive in toxic sewage sludge with the genomics of Mycena spp. from a non-sludged adjacent forest. But, where do you find such a non-sludged forest around here?
Fortunately, Forterra (Marckworth Forest Inholding, King County, WA, 57 acres of wetlands, riparian and forested uplands below the headwaters of Stossel Creek) acquired a track of forest from the Washington State Department of Natural Resources (DNR), within Marckworth State Forest, King County, WA, to put into a preserved status. Odd thing is, this forest appears substantially healthier than the adjacent sludged forests. Could King County, the Department of Ecology and DNR have been wrong about the alleged benefits of disposing of toxic sewage sludge in a healthy forest, and about how toxic sewage sludge 'Improves Wildlife Habitat'?
It's Spring Break this week so the Field Team is out of school and available for a trip into the Forterra tract, a brilliant forest, wholly deprived of logging roads, access trails, camp grounds or any other public or industrial access, other than by hard–trudging through the forest, downhill to the wetlands below, which we did.
We headed down steep slopes through storm-torn forests, toward the wetlands. This critical wetlands is part of the Stossel Creek flow, a major Salmon stream and wetlands complex that flows to the Tolt River, the Snoqualmie River and then to Puget Sound. The weak link is that the Stossel Creek flows that enter the Forterra tract originate uphill in DNR forest areas that have been used as sewage sludge dumping grounds for decades. If you don't protect the origin, you don't protect the downstream, without exception.
I am not accustomed to hiking through a clean forest in King County, uncontaminated by toxic sludge, so it may take a few days to recover. No eye infections; no respiratory illnesses; no skin infections – life is good today!
We found numerous samples of Mycena spp., actively growing on decomposed organic matter in the forest floor duff above the influence of the contaminated Stossel Creek wetlands. We collected multiple specimens for the later genomic studies. The point is to determine if we will be able to identify inducible sequences that are expressed in response to exposure to the toxins in the sewage sludge; these specimens will be the non-toxin-exposed controls.
Two hours in, two hours out, and time to observe a spider eating a fly that succumbed to the attractiveness of fresh Cougar poop.
The Field Team, headed downhill
Resting a lot, near the bottom
Searching for specimens
Discovery of Mycena spp
Confirmation
Taking a break
Checking equipment
Moving on into the wetlands; field work is exhausting
There are the Spider and the Fly, but where is that Coug?
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