Project Dates: 01.12.23 to 01.12.24

DEF’s Flete Field Lab project is trialling Mycelium and Biochar recipes to address water pollution caused by sewage outlets and agricultural run-off, while mitigating the effects of climate change.

It is experimenting with biochar made from local waste wood to sequester carbon and enhance soil quality, and the use of native fungi to clean up river pollution via mycofiltration – with the overall aim of identifying replicable low-cost, low-tech solutions that empower landowners and communities to improve their local environment.

The project works closely with Plymouth University’s professional laboratories to test and prove efficacy, as well as researchers from around the world (due to the ground-breaking nature of this work).

In 2022, Flete Field Lab delivered the only known successful mycofiltration trial in the UK, using mycelium-infused sacks to create leaky dams to clean toxins downstream from a sewage treatment plant. The experiments saw a reduction in E. Coli of 47% as well as falls in levels of chemical pollutants.

Year 3 funding will enable Flete Field Lab to build on its success to date and:

• Trial an estuary-wide, year-long intervention to reduce E.Coli entering the Erme Estuary and nearby beaches
• Trial interventions for dairy farm slurry areas to help avoid run-off, pre-empting new regulations, and addressing a key environmental threat
• Produce and apply more biochar in practical field trials – working with Plymouth University to identify and share the best methods to use biochar as an agricultural soil improver and a means of carbon sequestration
• Support a young person to work with FFL to deliver all of the above whilst doing a complementary PhD

Biochar and Mycoremediation are under-researched and little understood in the UK. There is a gulf between scientific knowledge and practical implementation. Flete Field Lab bridges this gap, providing practical trials on local farms that are underpinned by rigorous academic research.

See our 1 min film about Flete Field Lab HERE.

See our March 2023 Mycelium mini impact update HERE.

See our May 2023 Biochar mini impact update HERE.

This grant was generously funded by John Swire 1989 Charitable Trust.

Thanks also to Olympus Power for supporting with the purchase of a biochar kiln and biochar crusher to increase the amount of carbon sequestered into local soil.

(Photo credits: Flete Field Lab)

IMPACT SUMMARY JULY 2024:

• The project being in its third successful year, giving Flete Field Lab the ability to expand projects, reach more people, and develop and test entirely new natural remediation techniques.
• The project has engaged with more farmers, academics, volunteers and community-members, discussing and sharing their findings and ideas around natural regeneration and remediation of water and soil habitats.
• Five new MSc. students joined the project in Q1 and Q2 of 2024, undertaking research into mycofiltration and on biochar; four from Plymouth School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences, and one from Schumacher College. With a further seven Msc. students having applied.
• The project installed two mycofiltration installations, which are active, establishing effectiveness and supporting science for entirely new methods of mycofiltration.
• The project continues to be the UK’s only organisation producing and deploying mycofiltration to remove water pollution.
• Produced over 2500kg of biochar so far equivalent to 7.5 tonnes of atmospheric CO2.
• The project had lots of help from volunteers and students, and have had a number of volunteer and education days in the first two quarters of 2024.
• Rhianna Trim, one of the project’s students, won an award from the Worshipful Company of Water Conservators for her work with the project in 2023.