Humans often overlook the most important things in life. Scientists are just starting to understand that we are only able to enjoy the shade and grandeur of a stand of Giant Sequoias or revel in the mélange of wildflowers in a meadow thanks to a complex, interconnected ecosystem of tiny organisms we never see in daily life. One start-up, headed by a world-renowned expert in forest soils and the organisms living there, took a moment to smell the flowers. He and his company have found an interesting way to pay landowners to increase biodiversity and slow the progress of climate change.
Funga is an Ag Tech start-up leveraging recent advances in mycology—the study of fungi—to increase the carbon sequestration capacity of commercial pine tree plantations. It was founded by Dr. Colin Averill, a world-renowned expert on mycorrhizal networks, a type of fungi that forms symbiotic relationships with trees that enables the trees to grow quicker and to adapt more easily to climactic changes.