Project Dates: 01.04.2025 to 01.07.2025

DEF’s Flete Field Lab project, now in its fourth year, remains committed to pioneering and testing nature-based solutions for environmental remediation.

With a proven track record in this innovative field, FFL brings together a multidisciplinary team of experts, supported by scientists, academics, farmers, and local communities. This collaborative approach enables them to design practical interventions that restore degraded water and soil ecosystems, while generating credible evidence of their effectiveness.

This grant will provide FFL with 3 months of crucial gap funding while current students continue to conduct experiments, providing lab results to prove findings and demonstrate impact. The goal is to attract further funding during this period, that will launch the project into it’s next phase (see below).

Project Objectives: Flete Field Lab aims to restore degraded soil and water ecosystems; promoting biodiversity, improving water/soil quality, increasing carbon sequestration.

Project Methodology: Flete Field Lab’s approach includes using native fungi to remove pollution from water and producing biochar from local materials to enhance soil quality and sequester carbon.

• Mycoremediation: Using native fungi like Oyster Mushroom and Turkey Tail to remove pollutants from water. FFL has found Oyster Mushrooms can remove 45% of E. coli, and the team is also testing Turkey Tail fungi for removing nitrates and phosphates. FFL is conducting pioneering trials to remediate Biological Oxygen Demand in dairy wastewater.
• Biochar: Researching the impact of biochar on soil health, nutrient and water retention, and agricultural yields. FFL plans to produce 2.5 tonnes of biochar to apply to local farmland, and will conduct tests to measure the impact on soil and crop health.
• Regulatory Engagement: FFL is working with Natural England and the Environment Agency to establish standardised methods for their solutions.

Images courtesy of Flete Field Lab.