Katy Ayers, who made a canoe out of mushrooms in Nebraska, said it is doable in Hawaii and invited BYU-Hawaii students to try using it for their projects. Leslie Harper, the BYUH Sustainability Center manager, said he is willing to help BYUH students work on similar projects.
The invention of Myconoe
Ayers, a student at Central Community College in Columbus, Nebraska, made a canoe out of mushrooms on a school grant. Ayers’ 8-foot boat, she named Myconoe, is made from “mycelium, the dense, fibrous roots of the mushroom that typically live beneath the soil,” according to NBC News.
Ayers said she believes fungi can help solve some environmental problems. “Mushrooms are here to help us – they’re a gift. There’s so much we can do with them beyond just food. It’s so limitless. They’re our biggest ally for helping the environment,” she told NBC News.
The environmental benefit of fungi
Ayers’ goal was to raise broader awareness about mushrooms. “Mushrooms can be used for everything from household insulation to furniture to packaging, replacing plastics, Styrofoam and other materials that are hard to recycle and harmful to the environment,” Ayers said in a NBC news story.
Esprit Saucier, an assistant professor at the Department of Natural Sciences of BYUH, said she thinks they are heading in the right direction. “It is going to take big ideas and crazy designs to start the conversation using fungi as an eco-friendly alternative. I love that she is entering her boat in the state fair. She can generate a lot of awareness that way and gain public support. The more people who are thinking about using fungi as an eco-friendly alternative, the more likely it will happen.”
NBC News said although using mushrooms hasn’t been adopted to large-scale, some companies like the Ecovative Design has made packaging material out of mushrooms that companies such as Ikea and Dell use. They are also being used to clean up contaminated soil and toxic debris, known as mycoremediation.
How to make a fungi boat
In an NBC News article, Ayers explains how she got started and how she created Myocanoe. Ayers explains her college English instructor challenged students to find and study a potential solution to climate change. Ayers said she watched a 2013 documentary called “Super Fungi,” which made mushrooms an environmental ally and highlighted some of their innovative uses.
She reached out to a mushroom company nearby for help, sharing her idea with owner Ash Gordon. He agreed to help immediately and offered her a summer internship. First, they built a wooden structure to form the mycelium in and then a hanging structure to keep it suspended in the air.
Next, the mushroom spawn was laid in the boat’s skeleton structure to create the correct form, and they let it grow for two weeks in controlled temperature and humidity conditions. Finally, the 100-pound boat was laid outside to sundry. Ayers said she spent $500 on spawn and equipment for the project.
Is it feasible in Hawaii?
Ayers said she believes making a fungi boat would be doable to grow materials from fungi in Hawaii. “Especially if one were to culture a native strain in the genus Ganoderma on one of the islands.”
Saucier shared how Hawaii has a unique climate with two growing seasons, warm and humid, which are ideal conditions for fungi growth. “I don’t see why growing a tangible object out of fungi shouldn’t be tried. However, growing the fungi in a controlled environment like Ayers did would be best because it would take away a lot of confounding variables. By doing this, they were able to give the fungi the best environment possible, which sped up growth.”
Otgontuya Tumursukh, a junior from Mongolia majoring in biology and TESOL, said she believes that the idea to grow materials out of fungi is innovative and eco-friendly. “It is 100 percent recyclable material, so after usage, the fungi will dissolve in nature without any harm.”
However, her concern is that some fungi release toxic gas and can be dangerous for humans. Ayers said some fungi pose a threat to humans and plants, especially the pathogenic fungi, but said those are not the kind used for making products such as boats.
Tumursukh’s other concern was whether the fungi boat floats and stays dry in saltwater. Ayers shared that she has never been able to test her boat in saltwater before, but in a freshwater lake, the boat gained 2 ounces of water weight and stayed hard. “The fungi breathe air, so they use osmosis only to allow as much water as they need to come out of dormancy and fruit,” Ayers explained.
Harper said making a fungi canoe is more expensive than buying a plastic canoe, but he believes the ecological benefit of organic mushroom boats is beyond measure. He reasoned that plastic canoes can become garbage after usage and can pollute nature for hundreds of years.
He said he is in favor of encouraging people to use eco-friendly products like mushroom boats and other products made of fungi and believes the government should create incentives, such as tax benefits and more.
Harper has said all the Sustainability Center’s projects are student-driven, so he is open to any ideas. If BYUH students want to start a similar project to the fungi boat, he said he is willing to support them.
Of the possibility, Saucier said, “We are just at the beginning of understanding all the ways fungi can be helpful and learning of ways we can use it as an alternative for packaging, making eco-friendly products, waste clean-up, etc. It is going to take imaginative and driven people to explore and develop different ways to incorporate fungi into our everyday lives.
“I know our students are up to the task, and BYUH is always interested in ways, big and small, to conserve our natural resources and make our planet a better place.”
Currently, Ayers is focusing on using fungi for native bee habitats. She is making bee hotels to see if increasing the bees’ exposure to mycelium and its exudates (digestive juices and enzymes) will improve their immune systems and reproductive success.
Saucier said, “I love Ayers’ idea and fearlessness in trying something unique and new. If more people had that curiosity and tenacity, the world would be a much better place.”
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