(Daejeon=Yonhap News) Reporter Park Joo-young = The National Institute of Forest Science under the Korea Forest Service announced on the 5th that it will launch a pilot project to restore matsutake mushroom production areas in regions affected by large-scale forest fires.
The pilot project area is Ulju County in Gyeongbuk, which was affected by the 2022 East Sea forest fires and is a leading domestic matsutake production area.
As the matsutake harvesting areas have been damaged by the forest fires, the Forest Science Institute has decided to apply the research results of artificial cultivation of matsutake using infected seedlings and inoculated seedlings in areas where some matsutake mycelia remain.
This project is planned as a participatory model through collaboration between the public, private, and academic sectors.
The Forest Science Institute will support the artificial cultivation technology and develop the restoration model, while the Ulju National Forest Management Office will handle site management and provide national forests, and local residents will be responsible for selecting the target areas and learning the artificial cultivation technology of matsutake.
Park Eung-joon, head of the Forest Microbiology Utilization Research Division, said, "We plan to conduct long-term monitoring of the growth trends of infected seedlings and inoculated seedlings and continuously improve the restoration model to expand its application to the Yeongnam region."