Can Fungi Clean Up Pollution?
Mycology Innovation Project Leader
Description
The most powerful environmental solutions may be hiding beneath our feet.
The Green Crew is seeking 4–6 motivated youth leaders to join our Mycology Innovation Team, a year-long environmental leadership opportunity exploring how fungi can help restore ecosystems and address environmental contamination.
This is not a typical volunteer position.
As a Mycology Innovation Project Leader, you'll help lead one of the Green Crew's most unique and ambitious environmental research initiatives. Working alongside fellow youth leaders and conservation mentors, you'll cultivate native mushroom species, restore fungal communities in local forests, and conduct field experiments exploring whether fungi can help break down contaminants found in Minnesota River dredge material.
This project combines environmental science, ecology, biotechnology, restoration, leadership, and data collection into a single hands-on experience.
You'll help build and operate a living environmental laboratory while generating meaningful data that may help guide future restoration and remediation efforts.
Your Mission
As a Mycology Innovation Project Leader, you will:
- Lead volunteers during project workdays and field activities
- Cultivate and propagate native mushroom species
- Establish and maintain experimental test plots
- Compare different fungal species and their performance in field conditions
- Monitor restoration and remediation study sites
- Collect environmental and biological data
- Help organize and interpret project results
- Contribute to future project design and research efforts
- Present findings and recommendations to the Green Crew and community partners
Why You'll Love It
- Explore one of nature's most fascinating and least understood systems
- Learn how fungi interact with ecosystems and environmental contaminants
- Gain hands-on experience in environmental science, ecology, and biotechnology
- Build leadership skills by coordinating volunteers and project activities
- Participate in a project unlike anything offered by most schools or youth programs
- Develop research and data analysis skills that stand out on college applications and resumes
- Help answer real environmental questions with real-world implications
You'll Be a Great Fit If...
- You're curious about science and how the natural world works
- You enjoy asking questions and testing ideas
- You're interested in biology, ecology, environmental science, or biotechnology
- You like collecting data and looking for patterns
- You enjoy leading teams and working collaboratively
- You want to contribute to innovative environmental solutions
Commitment
Project Leaders serve for approximately 12 months and are expected to participate in one to two Sundays per month, along with occasional leadership meetings, training opportunities, and project events.
What Success Looks Like
By the end of your term, you'll be able to say:
"I helped build and lead a youth environmental research program exploring how fungi can restore ecosystems and break down environmental contaminants. Our team cultivated native fungi, operated field experiments, collected meaningful data, and helped advance innovative approaches to environmental restoration."
About the Green Crew
The Green Crew is an award-winning, youth-led conservation and environmental leadership program based in Bloomington, Minnesota. Youth leaders design and lead projects that restore habitats, improve water quality, conduct scientific research, test innovative environmental solutions, and inspire the next generation of environmental stewards.
Only 4–6 Mycology Innovation Project Leaders will be selected each year.
