In this episode, I interview Paul Lynn, a Walla Walla, Washington-based mycology educator, business owner and public-lands advocate, about fungal ecology, mycelium networks, and how logging disrupts soils’ “sponge” function that stores and releases water. Paul links fungi to forest hydrology, climate processes, and a precautionary approach given how little is known about fungal communities. Our conversation focuses on the 38,000-acre Tiger Mill Project, a quote, unquote, “wildfire-risk-reduction timber sale” in and around Walla Walla’s heavily protected municipal watershed within a roadless area adjacent to the Wenaha-Tucannon Wilderness. Paul argues the project is a subsidized extraction effort using black-box models and flawed assumptions, risking worsening forest drying, fire behavior, sedimentation, and flood impacts in a rain-on-snow zone, and is positioned as a pilot for watershed logging elsewhere like in Bend and Portland Oregon, and Seattle, Washington.
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Confluence Series
Walla Walla Watersheds
Fungaia
02:18 Meet Paul Lynn
03:41 Mycology to Ecology
06:36 Mycelium and Precaution
08:43 Logging Impacts Soil Sponge
10:47 Foraging and Drought
12:33 Disturbance Morels and Spores
15:01 Responsible Mushroom Picking
18:04 Roots and Walla Walla
20:55 Blue Mountains Microclimates
24:48 Into Forest Activism
29:15 Tiger Mill Pilot Project
32:55 Wildfire Risk Narrative
34:48 Water Stakes Floods and Fire
36:59 Why Logging Worsens Hydrology
40:21 Fire History and Recovery
41:39 Endless Management Loop
42:59 Trout After Wildfire
44:41 Local Politics And Players
48:36 Fire Risk Logging Debate
51:05 Grassroots Education Strategy
54:58 Money Grants And Liability
59:13 Tiger Mill Project Details
01:02:36 Modeling And NEPA Loopholes
01:08:12 Flood Risk And Sediment
01:12:07 Water Scarcity Big Picture
01:16:18 Confluence Series And Links
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