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August 2017: 'Shroom Juice, Webinars, Interview
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'Shroom Juice Fuels Trees

They call it "shroom juice," a dark slurry of fungi that won't get you high, but does help tree roots go deep into the soil. Workers dump packages of magic powder into buckets, add water, and stir. Then they grab saplings, dunk the roots into the mix, and drop the baby trees into the ground.
 
All right, fine, the powder isn’t actually magic, at least not in anything but the ecological sense. But it is loaded with six different species of fungi called mycorrhizae, which form one of the strangest and most mysterious networks in nature. Hidden in the soil, tangled among the tree roots, the fungi both take energy and give energy to the trees, on top of running a protection racket. Trees couldn’t make it without the fungi, and the fungi couldn’t make it without the trees, forming an expansive ecosystem that scientists are just beginning to understand.

What does this have to do with LF? The ‘shroom expert is none other than Randy Swaty, TNC-LF ecologist, who used LF data to inform the project, and whose story is featured in Wired Magazine. Be sure to watch the two minute video that accompanies the feature.

Below: mycorrhiza (left) and LF map of mycorrhiza in West Virginia (right). Photos: Randy Swaty
LF Webinars Resume

LF colleagues, constituents and users often weigh in with topics for us to address via webinars. We start the autumn series in September, and are looking for more topics and partners to fill out the calendar. Contact us to set up a webinar -- we customize each one.

September 20: LANDFIRE 101 -- Co-hosting with Network for Landscape Conservation as part of their NPS "Scaling Up" webinar series. Presenter: Randy Swaty, TNC-LF ecologist. Registration, other information available in late August.

September 26: LANDFIRE - All Lands Data from Vegetation to Fuels: Planning, Engagement, and Feedback. Co-hosting with Utah State University Forestry Extension. Presenter: Henry Bastian, Department of Interior Business Lead. Registration, other information available in late August.

October 4: MoD-FIS in the Southwest. Co-hosting with Southern Rockies, Great Basin, and Southwest Fire Science Exchanges. Presenter: Charley Martin, Technical Support Services Contractor to the U.S. Geological Survey Earth Resources Observation and Science Center. Registration, other information available mid-September.

CONTACT US TO SET UP A WEBINAR.

Alexa McKerrow  is an ecologist and remote sensing analyst who has been with the U.S. Geological Society's National Gap Analysis Program (GAP) since the mid-1990s. She started her USGS career in 2008, and now leads a team of geographic information specialists involved in a variety of projects for the Core Science Analytics and Synthesis Program. Alexa is on the LF Remap Strategy Team, researching improvements in land cover mapping methodology. Read our interview with Alexa and learn how LF and GAP address challenges of land cover mapping.
The story behind MoD-FIS: How did they do it?
 
Kurtis Nelson and Julia Deis take us behind the scenes of the innovative approach that captures seasonal fuel change.
The LANDFIRE Program is a cooperative agreement between the USDA Forest Service, agencies of the Department of the Interior, and The Nature Conservancy. In accordance with Federal law and U.S. Department of Agriculture policy, the Program is prohibited from discriminating on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, age, or disability.
 
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Henry Bastian
DOI Business Lead
Frank Fay
USFS Business Lead
Don Long

USFS Technical Lead

Kurtis Nelson
EROS Technical Lead
Jim Smith
TNC-LF Project Lead

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