Mycorrhizal fungi form a symbiotic relationship with the roots of most native plants, providing improved mineral nutrition, drought tolerance, and resistance to root disease. The fungi form a dense network in the soil if associated with the right native plants. The network helps form soil structure, which increases resistance to erosion. Team Stream members, including Jeanie Gulley, spread mycorrhizal inoculum. Dragging a straw bale over the inoculum buries it an inch or so in the ground, where the roots of new seedlings can find it.
Volunteers mix and divide the native plant seed for distribution on the slope.
Dividing the seed into several equal portions helps assure that the seed will be spread evenly across the project. Team Stream seed specialist George Smithson distributes seed by cross sowing a section of the hillside Some of the heaviest work of the day was moving rice straw into place and spreading it on top of the inoculum and seed. The straw will provide shade and protection, and perhaps most importantly, will temporarily absorb nitrogen from the soil to keep weeds from gaining a head start over the natives. In later months the straw will decompose and release the nitrogen slowly for use by the native plants. Livestock provide a time-honored method of pressing seed and straw into the soil.