2018 Telluride Mushroom Festival

Symbiosis is just the beginning. Every wild thing in the forest or jungle depends on fungi to feed, protect, and digest it. Some mushrooms feed bears in springtime, others feed deer in August. Squirrels in the West rely on a diet of lichens and truffles. Fungi defend fir needles from inside, and dozens of species service the root needs of every tree. Rocky Mountain mushrooms are adapted to a "fire dependent" ecosystem, and a quarter of all ascomycete species here fruit only after a burn. Fungi are the masters of the soil ecosystem in the Rockies, and the loss of soil carbon and subsequent increase in wildfire are critical issues that few understand are connected. Human behavior unwittingly kills fungi, resulting in loss of water quality, moisture retention, and soil erosion.