On Wednesday, Aug. 26 Owen Cheevers and “Team Fungi” added straw inoculated with mushroom spawn to the bioswale adjacent to Island Market in Eastsound.

Team Fungi is made of students involved in the F.E.A.S.T. (Farm Education and Sustainability for Teens) program.

“Island Market is fortunate to have a functional, and generally healthy, bioswale that deals with the majority of the storm water runoff from the non-permeable asphalt parking lot,” Cheevers said.

The bioswale is located on the Prune Alley side of the Island Market parking lot. It is designed to slow the flow of storm water, filter pollutants, and remove toxic substances before it is absorbed into the surrounding ecosystem. The cattails already present will also absorb toxins coming off the pavement.

Team Fungi member Halley McCormick said, “I hope this will encourage more widespread use of fungi to clean up water elsewhere around the island.”

Team Fungi prepared a series of trenches across the bioswale and placed straw in them. The straw had been inoculated with oyster mushroom spawn during a mushroom propagation workshop taught earlier in the summer by Kyler Townsend and Owen Cheevers. After placing the inoculated straw into the trenches, it was covered with soil and more straw to keep it moist. The inoculated straw was already starting to fruit mushrooms when laid.

“The hope is that the oyster mushroom mycelium will not only create more of a natural filter but will also actually break down many of hydrocarbons- oil and petrochemicals,” Cheevers said.

After successfully completing the project at Island Market, Team Fungi went to Country Corner where the students weeded, applied more inoculated straw, and mulched an area under a large culvert leading into another bioswale.

Lee Gibbons of Team Fungi said, “It would be better for others to do similar things at their own storm water drainage sites.”