DIY Fungi
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info, workshops and spawn so you can cultivate fungi for landscape and soil health and remediation of land and water pollution and waste
My name is Danielle, and I have been growing mushrooms for 9+ years. This little business- D.I.Y. Fungi and its related projects- offers mushroom spawn and teaches people to grow their own fungal food and medicine and engage in community science. I also work on integrating fungi on larger scales into food systems, farms, waste management and ecological remediation of contaminated sites (with fungi and people, plants, microbes) through research, education and action. In this work I am really standing on the shoulders of inspiring teachers Peter McCoy and Willoughby Arevalo of Radical Mycology, Ja Schindler of Fungi for the People, and Leila Darwish of Earth Repair ; and drawing on the works of Paul Stamets, Tradd Cotter and others, as well as from my own experience of mistakes, failures, and things that have really worked. So hopefully you will have a starting point where you can avoid total failure, but I also hope you make mistakes and fail some because that’s where I know I learned the most. I’m engaging in this work on the traditional territories of the Cahuilla peoples in Southern California, currently, after living many years on unceded Coast Salish territories of the Lekwungen and WESANEC peoples. It is always important for me to hold in my awareness and act from a place of knowing I am a visitor here (well, an unwelcome guest). My family taught me that guests always bring gifts, respect the home and customs of the hosts (ask if you don’t know), and clean up after yourself. Instead, settler culture has brought destruction and pollution here. Fungi are a great model for how to be a good guest and host. In Radical Mycology’s words, “Fungi are adaptive, creative, and aware and interacts with its environment as though keeping the health of the greater system in mind. It is great model for co-existence and interconnectedness and interdependence based on mutual aid, decentralization, and living in a way that benefits all.”
11/17/2025
09/07/2025
New paper just dropped! We identified California native plants that act as metal accumulators and fungal bioremediation candidates adapted to hot, dry contaminated environments. This expands the toolkit for remediating and restoring contaminated soils in Southern California and similar climates. Thanks to my brilliant coauthors at University of California Riverside.
10/25/2024
Some pictures from this years highschool bioremediation certificate program in partnership with . It started with just the highschool next to the largest and most contaminated field site as part of my phyto-mycoremediation studies in LA and now is open to any LA high school student. It’s a mix of theory and hands on learning at a bioremediation pilot site. These pics from this year’s field sampling day, we returned to sample one of the field sites more than one year after finishing the study. It makes me feel so much to return to these sites and see them thriving and blooming with the native flowers and fungi we put in long after harvesting everything for sampling. It’s so rewarding offering the kind of environmental education opportunities I wish I had had in public school. Third year running this program and still going!
06/30/2024
Thanks for the interview! Read the full story here: https://e360.yale.edu/features/danielle-stevenson-interview
04/15/2024
Honored that my PhD research into fungi and plant remediation of brownfields in California was picked up by the Guardian!
‘Solar powered vacuum cleaners’: the native plants that could clean toxic soil Indigenous groups see hope in the environmentally friendly process of bioremediation. But will cities pay attention?
04/15/2024
My research with fungi and plants cleaning up contaminated sites was featured in the Guardian! Honored. Read the whole article here: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/apr/14/native-plants-fungi-soil-bioremediation
12/19/2023
So I graduated and finished the PhD in environmental toxicology! Shown here on some of the bioremediation study sites in LA with seeds I planted all grown up, and at UCR at graduation. Wanted to add that Chumbawumba song “I get knocked down but I get up again “ and “can’t do without you” by caribou to acknowledge how challenging this has been and the near constant obstacles as well as the many humans and beings and forces without whose love and support these projects and PhD never would have been possible. Thank you, thank you, thank you. ❤️
07/10/2023
Meet Danielle Stevenson - Voyage LA Magazine | LA City Guide Today we’d like to introduce you to Danielle Stevenson. Danielle Stevenson As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do? I work with fungi (and plants and microbes and people) to clean up pollution in […...
05/06/2023
Been while since I posted an update about the phyto-mycoremediation study. Can’t wait to share what we’ve been learning! Overall the plants and fungi have grown well and the transformation of these sites has been a profound honor to witness. Our results so far seem promising for soil remediation of lead and other metals as well as petrochemical contamination. To finish this study I’ll need a lot of help! Sign up here for volunteer shifts this May: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1p2lL7xhaRGZKB5fHao7gIVsan1Yq8oAqzWiAHiwmsQA/edit.
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900 University Avenue
Riverside, CA
92521
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