By the Mycelial Collective
Beneath the canopy of our global forests, a slow-motion dialogue is taking place—a metabolic conversation between the standing giants of the timber world and the persistent, creeping network of the fungal kingdom. To the untrained eye, a mushroom is a mere ornament. But to those who walk the path of the Watu Wa Miti—the “People of the Trees”—it is a profound indicator of a landscape in transition.
The Ancestral Pledge
In 1922, Richard St. Barbe Baker and Chief Josiah Njonjo founded a movement in Kenya that would ripple across a century. The “Men of the Trees” (now Watu Wa Miti) understood a fundamental truth: our fate is intertwined with the sap and the spore. Their pledge—to plant ten trees a year and do one good deed daily—was more than a conservation effort; it was an acknowledgment of our role as stewards of a living, breathing respiratory system. Today, as we navigate an era of climate instability, the health of our forests depends on our ability to read the “language of the limb.”
The Polypore: Nature’s Hardened Wisdom
Look closely at the trunk of an aging oak or a weathered hemlock. You may see a woody shelf, hard as a horse’s hoof, jutting from the bark. These are the Polypores. Unlike the ephemeral meadow mushrooms with their delicate gills, these organisms possess millions of microscopic pores. When they take on this woody, hoof-like form, we call them conks.
These structures are not merely growing on the tree; they are growing with it. A conk like Fomes fomentarius (the Tinder Polypore) or Phellinus tremulae (Aspen Bracket) adds a new layer of spore tissue each season, mirroring the growth rings of the tree itself. If you find a conk with eight distinct layers, you are looking at a four-to-eight-year history of fungal respiration. It is a biological clock, ticking in the key of decomposition.
The Art of Decay
Among these architects is the Artist’s Conk (Ganoderma applanatum). Its creamy underside is a living canvas; a gentle scratch with a fingernail leaves a permanent brown line, preserved through the drying process. But the “art” goes deeper than the surface.
These fungi are saprophytes, the grand recyclers of the planet. They target the lignin—the very “rebar” of the tree’s structural concrete. While a white-rot fungus like the Artist’s Conk leaves the wood flexible but weakened, the Common Split Gill (Schizophyllum commune) thrives on the sun-scorched, drought-stressed limbs of trees already gasping for relief.
“A hollow or dull sound when knocking on a trunk is the tree’s way of whispering its internal secrets. It tells us that the mycelium has already moved into a tree wound, claiming the heartwood for the next generation of life.”
The Inevitable Transition
We must address the uncomfortable truth: once a polypore fruits, the mycelium has already occupied the fortress. Whether the infection began via a lightning strike, a pruning wound, stress on the root or a territorial woodpecker, the decay is a one-way street. There is no “cure” for wood-decay fungi.
In our human desire to “fix” nature, we often want to rip the conks off the bark. Do not destroy the evidence. Removing the fruiting body does nothing to stop the vegetative hyphae devouring the nutrients inside. In fact, if you tear a conk away during a humid rain, you may unwittingly help the fungus broadcast its spores to the rest of the grove.
Stewardship in the Mycelial Age
To care for our forests is not to wage war on fungi, but to mitigate the stress that invites them. Wood-decay fungi are opportunistic; they are the “undertakers” of the woods, summoned by wounds from machinery, fire, and drought.
To be Watu Wa Miti today means:
- Preventing Wounds: Protect the bark of your trees as you would your own skin.
- Mitigating Stress: Water during droughts and mulch to preserve soil health.
- Observing with Humility: Recognize that a “hazard tree” to a homeowner is a “wildlife skyscraper” to the ecosystem.
The polypore teaches us that death is simply a restructuring of energy. As the lignin breaks down, the nutrients stored from decades of sunshine and soil are released back into the web. We plant the trees, and the fungi ensure that no atom is ever wasted. In this sacred cycle, we find our place—not as masters of the forest, but as humble members of the Mycelial Collective.
To keep our forest healthy and safe, the City of Saskatoon Parks Dept. (led by Urban Forestry Supervisor Scott Kindrat) will be conducting essential tree maintenance in the RSBBA from June 9–11. Arborists will focus on removing trees marked with a painted dot—specifically those that are diseased or pose a risk of falling or fire. We appreciate your cooperation as we care for this natural space! Thank you.
Part SE 23-36-6 – Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area – 241 Township Road 362-A
Part SE 23-36-6 – SW Off-Leash Recreation Area (Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area ) – 355 Township Road 362-A
S ½ 22-36-6 Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area (West of SW OLRA) – 467 Township Road 362-A
NE 21-36-6 “George Genereux” Afforestation Area – 133 Range Road 3063
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““Be like a tree in pursuit of your cause. Stand firm, grip hard, thrust upward. Bend to the winds of heaven..” Richard St. Barbe Baker
Forests of Memory. Forests of Learning. Forests for Life. 