People excited about fungi are helping scientists learn more

Nearly everyone can name birds, mammals and trees, but the quiet organisms that connect those worlds—mushrooms, lichens and other fungi—have long sat on the margins of conservation. AP reported that a growing community of scientists and citizen researchers is trying to change that as climate change and habitat loss increase the pressures on fungi. The campaign focuses on raising attention to species and gathering the field data conservation planning depends on, from local discoveries to global assessments.

The effort highlights how many fungi remain poorly known even as they are widely described as essential to ecosystems. Scientists estimate there are about 2.5 million species of fungi on Earth and that only about 6% have been identified. AP described how a study published in Springer Nature estimates fungi contribute $54 trillion to the global economy as food, medicine and more—yet conservation efforts often have overlooked them as threats mount.

In California, AP followed Jessica Allen, a fungi scientist, during a search that began with a rare mushroom and quickly turned into a broader hunt for overlooked life. Allen searched for the Manzanita butter clump, a yellow mushroom AP said has been found only along North America’s Western coastlines and last seen in California’s Napa County two years earlier. Instead, she spotted lichens—AP described them as a type of fungus—growing on a rock nearby, and she said, “It’s so easy to get distracted, but there’s so many lichen!” AP also quoted ecologist Jesse Miller, who is president of the California Lichen Society, saying, “That was a good rock.”

AP linked that hands-on search to a wider model of conservation that relies on people who can repeatedly monitor rare species over time. Allen and Miller are part of a “growing community of people working to protect them,” AP reported. In Allen’s role at NatureServe, AP said she helps accelerate and support fungal conservation across the U.S. and Canada, and AP quoted her saying, “It’s a pretty exciting time in fungal conservation.” AP also quoted Allen describing how amateur discoverers often make key findings: “They tend to be the people that often make the most important discoveries, and they’re the ones who are going to be keeping an eye on those rare species over time.”

Other local enthusiasts have also built expertise outside traditional academic pathways. AP described Larry Cool’s long interest in lichens and reported that Cool, a chemist, said lichens are used as natural dyes. AP quoted Cool saying, “Lichen are more than the sum of its parts and are mysteriously unpredictable,” and he added, “I get a lot of pleasure seeing the incredible variety of creation.” In Santa Cruz, AP described Ken Kellman, a retired air conditioning and heating mechanic who has spent roughly a decade learning from friends and on his own, and AP quoted him saying, “It just keeps your brain in that place where you’re saying ‘Wow!’ all the time. ‘That’s cool!’ And that’s my favorite place for my brain to be.”

Beyond individual forays, AP said fungi conservation requires knowing which species exist, where they are and what threatens them—information conservationists use to assess imperiled species and decide where to put resources. AP said fungi are not plants or animals but a broad kingdom that includes yeasts used in foods, molds, lichens, and mushrooms. Because most fungi spend much of their lives hidden as a threadlike network called mycelium and produce mushrooms only when conditions are right, AP reported, scientists have documented only about 155,000 species.

Global and U.S. policy context remains limited, according to AP reporting. Gregory Mueller, co-chair of the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s fungal conservation committee, told AP that the group’s Red List shows 411 of 1,300 evaluated fungi worldwide are at risk of extinction. AP also reported Mueller saying that parts of Europe have focused on fungal conservation for decades while the U.S. “is still far behind,” and that only two fungi species—both lichens—are protected by the federal Endangered Species Act. AP said Mueller noted that some states, including California, offer legal protections, while other states like New Jersey have added fungi to conservation plans.

Mueller also tied conservation momentum to increasing “community science” initiatives. AP quoted him saying amateur mycologists are documenting fungi with photographs, putting images on iNaturalist and “our Mushroom Observer,” and that this has helped researchers better document fungal diversity and “starting to get some idea of what species might be in trouble.”

AP also described the threats that can push fungi toward decline, ranging from climate change—shifting rainfall patterns, hotter temperatures and worsening wildfires—to pollution and habitat loss, as well as logging, development and invasive insects. AP reported that prolonged flooding can starve fungi and their forest relationships of the oxygen they need. It also pointed to overharvesting, citing the grapefruit-sized quinine conk in Europe, which AP said has been listed as endangered since the 1980s in part because people have picked too many for medicinal properties. AP quoted Nora Dunkirk, a botanist and mycologist at Portland State University’s Institute for Natural Resources, saying, “This is an organism that grows on larches all across Europe, and so people see this as a valuable resource and they use it,” and she added, “But this species specifically has been harvested to its detriment.”

In the final scenes of AP’s California reporting, Allen and others kept looking for the elusive Manzanita butter clump but did not find it. AP said Allen described the search as still meaningful despite the outcome, quoting her saying, “How many of my days have ended this way? So many,” and concluding, “It was still a great day.”