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| Paul Stamets standing at the base of a Noble Fir harboring Bridgeoporus (Oxyporus) nobilissimus, the first mushroom to be officially designated as an endangered species. Photo by Dusty Wu Yao. |
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Paul Stamets has been a dedicated mycologist for over thirty years. Over this time, he has discovered and coauthored four new species of mushrooms, and pioneered countless techniques in the field of edible and medicinal mushroom cultivation. He received the 1998 "Bioneers Award" from The Collective Heritage Institute, and the 1999 "Founder of a New Northwest Award" from the Pacific Rim Association of Resource Conservation and Development Councils. In 2008, Paul received the National Geographic Adventure Magazine's Green-Novator and the Argosy Foundation's E-chievement Awards. He was also named one of Utne Reader's "50 Visionaries Who Are Changing Your World" in their November–December 2008 issue.
He has written six books on mushroom cultivation, use and identification; his books Growing Gourmet and Medicinal Mushrooms and The Mushroom Cultivator (coauthor) have long been hailed as the definitive texts of mushroom cultivation. Other works by Paul Stamets include Psilocybe Mushrooms and Their Allies (out of print), Psilocybin Mushrooms of the World, MycoMedicinals®: an Informational Treatise on Mushrooms, and many articles and scholarly papers. His newest book is Mycelium Running: How Mushrooms Can Help Save The World.
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Paul sees the ancient Old Growth forests of the Pacific Northwest as a resource of incalculable value, especially in terms of its fungal genome. A dedicated hiker and explorer, his passion is to preserve, protect, and clone as many ancestral strains of mushrooms as possible from this pristine woodlands. Much of the financial resources generated from sales of goods from Fungi Perfecti are returned to sponsor such research.
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Paul crouched beside Bridgeoporus (Oxyporus) nobilissimus. This polypore mushroom can live for several hundred years, and grows exclusively in Old Growth forests of Washington and Oregon. Photo by Dusty Wu Yao.
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| "The time to act is now. Waiting for science and society to wake up to the importance of these ancient Old Growth fungi is perilously slow and narrow in vision. The meager attempts thus far may be too little, too late. Unless we collectively pool our resources, the mushroom genome will become increasingly threatened, and therefore, our very existence may be at stake. The loss of these keystone organisms should be an ecological call-to-arms for all concerned about our children's future and the future of this planet.
"The rainforests of the Pacific Northwest may harbor mushroom species with profound medicinal properties. At the current rates of extinctions, this last refuge of the mushroom genome should be at the top of the list of priorities for mycologists, environmentalists and government. If I can help advance this knowledge, I will have done my part to protect life on this planet. And yet, if it were not for our customer's contributions, with our limited finances, this goal could not be achieved."
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Links to online articles by Paul Stamets
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Kombucha: My Adventures
with "The Blob" |
Mushrooms, Civilization
and History |
Mushrooms, the Hwarang
and the Martial Arts |
Permaculture with
a Mycological Twist |
A Novel Approach to
Farm Waste Management |
Helping the Ecosystem
Through Mushroom Cultivation |
Mycorestoration of
Abandoned Logging Roads |
Novel Antivirals
From Mushrooms |
Novel Antimicrobials from Mushrooms,
originally published in HerbalGram
(requires Adobe's free Acrobat Reader)
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"The Ancient Noble Polypore ( Bridgeoporus
nobilissimus): A Mushroom of Many Mysteries",
Available for download for a fee from the Web site of
The International Journal of Medicinal Mushrooms |
"Potentiation of Cell-Mediated Host Defense
Using Fruitbodies and Mycelium of Medicinal Mushrooms",
Available for download for a fee from the Web site of
The International Journal of Medicinal Mushrooms |
"Notes on Nutritional Properties of Culinary-Medicinal Mushrooms",
Available for download for a fee from the Web site of
The International Journal of Medicinal Mushrooms |
| Links to online articles about Paul Stamets |
| An article about and interview with Paul Stamets on Planet Earth: Our Loving Home, a production of Supreme Master Television. |
| "Why We Need Mushrooms", an interview with Paul Stamets in Mother Earth News |
"How Mushrooms Can Save The World", an interview with Paul
Stamets on the program Living Green from Personal Life Media |
"Fungi to the Rescue", published in the Winter 2007
issue of Forest Magazine, published by
Forest Service Employees for Environmental Ethics |
"Another Magic of Mushrooms"
A January 2007 radio interview with Paul about mycopesticides
on Michael Olson's Food Chain Radio (MP3 format) |
Salon.com | Technology:
How Mushrooms will Save the World |
"The Wonders of Mushrooms"
An October 2004 radio interview with Paul
on KPFA's Steppin' Out of Babylon (MP3 format) |
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