From Ashes to Renewal: Healing Together
I have some updates after having gone silent while I have been busy this past month helping with the human-related fire relief efforts here on Maui. My friends and I have been focusing on that first as people's needs have been immediately pressing. In recent days however, a group of folks here on Maui have begun shifting focus towards mitigating the next on-coming stage of this fire disaster: the next major rain event that threatens to wash toxic ash from structure fire burn scars onto the reefs. Dangerous chemicals from burnt plastics, pesticides, cleaners, batteries, paints & more threaten to pollute the soil, groundwater & ocean reefs for generations to come when the big seasonal rains return...
Burnt tarp on Maui, August 2023
Luckily, nature provides a whole host of ways to successfully mitigate the negative effects of this chemical runoff farther into the environment. We call this suite of natural mitigation methods "
bioremediation". Our group has formed a grassroots, Maui-based coalition in order to address this pending disaster by partnering with native plants, fungi, & healthy soil to help heal the burn scars so that the soil will one-day be safer to plant into, the water will one-day be safer to drink, & the life in the ocean will be shielded from toxic runoff.
Maui Bioremediation Group
The main objective of the
Maui Bioremediation Group is to ally with carefully selected geographically-&-culturally appropriate
plants, native
fungi, & locally-made
compost in order to mitigate the negative effects of toxic ash left by the recent fires here on Maui. Supervised by Maui community leaders, we are a group of passionate experts who partner with life to restore life using evidence-based bioremediation techniques. Our core members are Maui residents who work with collaborators throughout Pae ʻĀina o Hawaiʻi (the Hawaiian archipelago) & beyond. Our non-profit umbrella organization for this project is the Maui Nui Marine Resource Council & we prioritize collaboration with our local community in an effort to center & respect traditional land stewardship practices.
The fungal aspect of the project is called "mycoremediation". "Myco" meaning fungi...
Fungal-Infused Myco-Filter Sock installation on-contour downhill of toxic structure fire burn site will help filter & break down toxic compounds.
Photo by Maya Elson of CoRenewal
Please help us to fund these critical bioremediation efforts before the next big rain event...
DONATE to this Bioremediation Project Here: https://www.mauireefs.org/mauibiorem-lahaina/
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Educational Mycoremediation Experiment Program
Inspired by Maui Bioremediation Group’s larger work, some members of the group have launched
a program to teach students the methods of partnering with native fungi to clean up toxic waste left over after a fire. As these fires are becoming more-&-more common in recent years, it is extremely important to partner with future generations in the cleanup efforts in order to teach them what we’ve learned from our own cleanup efforts as well as to learn from their equally-important ideas & insight on how such cleanup can be done.
Please support our fundraiser to teach students on Maui about mycoremediation...
DONATE to this Educational Project: https://experiment.com/myco-filter 
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