Chase McLean

Chase is a myco-permaculturist who is passionate about facilitating the diversification of backyard, community and school gardens by adding mushrooms and other fungi to the landscape. He has been growing mushrooms and researching fungi since 2004.

Since 2004, Chase has studied and successfully implemented the growing techniques of Marc R Keith, Peter McCoy and Tradd Cotter and has completed two Cornell University courses on mushroom cultivation including the Specialty Mushroom Production Course as well as the Woodland Mushroom Cultivation: Growing Mushrooms on Logs, Stumps, and Woodchips course lead by Steve Gabriel of Wellspring Forest Farm and Cornell Small Farms. He is also certified in wild mushroom foraging food safety by Tradd Cotter of Mushroom Mountain.

He has completed five Permaculture Design Courses, has been permaculture gardening and organic farming since 2012 and is interested in how mycelium can inform the design of our gardens, farms, and communities.

Chase is passionate about growing local varietals of fungi and enjoys culturing mushrooms foraged in the wild. He uses this local master spawn to get more mycelium out into his community so that mushrooms can be grown in gardens using traditional and low-tech methods. Chase facilitates the closing of waste streams in his community by growing local mushrooms on the wood of invasive trees cut by tree trimmers, as well as on spent coffee grounds and old banana leaves. He frequently leads in-person and online mushroom cultivation and identification workshops with Tropical Fungi Academy.

Since the devastating fires across Maui, Chase is currently serving as the local, Maui-based field mycologist for the Maui Bioremedation Group.

August 2023