About the Rewilding Community of Practice
The Rewilding Community of Practice aims to build a network of rewilding enthusiasts and professionals who can exchange ideas and information to help build a better world.
The virtual community gathering ‘Fascinating Fungi: Invisible Allies in Rewilding’ held on Tuesday, the 22nd of November 2022, aimed to bring a fantastic opportunity for rewilders to learn more about the incredible role fungi play in rewilding – and how to rewild mycological networks – from three experienced practitioners who work on turning these invisible allies into a visible force for good.
About the speakers
David Satori, Founder of Rewilding Mycology
David Satori is a mycologist, consultant, and the founder of Rewilding Mycology. He holds a MSc in Plant and Fungal Taxonomy, Diversity, and Conservation. He is a former Species Conservation Researcher at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew where he contributed to IUCN Red List assessments of tropical plant species.
David has extensive experience designing fungal surveys, generating baseline data, and recognising opportunities for fungal conservation on sites with various land use histories. He draws from his experience at Kew Gardens, where he managed large databases on plant documentation, distribution, population trends, and threats. He will introduce the field of rewilding mycology , highlight the importance of science being fungi-inclusive and discuss recent strides in the field.
Michael Hathaway, Professor at World Matsutake Research Group – Simon Fraser University
Michael Hathaway is a cultural anthropologist working in China for over a quarter century on two major topics. His first project explored how global conservation programs were re-configured by Chinese scientists, villagers and wild animals (such as Asian elephants), and his second examines the role of fungi in reshaping economies and ecologies on a vast scale.
He will speak about a mindset shift the world urgently needs: a shift from viewing other organisms as objects of utility (as things to be eaten, commodified or even used in rewilding projects) to fellow beings that are also worldmakers. What might it mean to recognize the presence and power of fungi all around us, especially from this different perspective?, he asks.
Bethan Manley, Program Manager Global Data Science at SPUN
Bethan began studying underground fungal networks during a Ph.D. at the University of Cambridge examining Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi and their genetic interactions with crop plants. She has since continued work on the genomics of symbiotic fungi as a Postdoctoral Researcher, and worked as a Senior Computer Biologist at the Sanger Institute, UK, on the Tree of Life Project that aims to sequence all eukaryotic species on Earth.
Bethan now works for SPUN | Society for the Protection of Underground Networks, a non-profit initiative that aims to map, understand, and conserve underground mycorrhizal fungal networks. She will speak about the awe-inspiring work the SPUN team does of mapping underground mycorrhizal networks that regulate the Earth’s climate, and the advocacy and innovation work the organization do to protect and preserve our underground fungi kingdom.
