There's a lot nature can do to help you recover from a wildfire. From the quiet solace of a beautiful plant, animal or tree to the garden-friendly plants that are adapted to break down and destroy toxic chemicals in the soil. Many government organizations around the world are also trialing mushrooms for cleaning up toxins and chemical spills. Because their soft bodies break down toxins without ever ingesting them. 

If you're suffering through the unthinkable right now, and have lost everything in a devastating wildfire - or are in the midst of a disaster zone - I am so sorry for what you're going through. There are no words. All of us here at California Wild Gardens are looking for ways to design plant products and tools that can help. First off, here's some basics for soil detoxification and remediation for outdoor spaces impacted by the remnants of structure fire. 

2 Simple & Natural Ways to Detoxify Soil after Structure Fire 

There's a few simple, natural methods that can help remove things like arsenic from your building site. Plant and mushroom soil remediation have been used for toxic site cleanup around the world. The scientific terms are phytoremediation or phytomanagement and mycoremediation. Both techniques can help with the numerous concerning chemicals left behind by house fires like: 

• • Led
  • Chromium
  • Benzene
  • Sulphur

Exposure to such compounds has been linked to many health complications. Magnetite, for example, which can form when fire burns iron, has been linked to Alzheimer’s disease (source). So it's no wonder you're concerned about soil detoxification. Take care of yourself and follow safety precautions when entering areas with structure fire remains (More info about L.A. wildfire debris removal offered by L.A. County). 

1. Plant Remediation

Plants have a big role in helping to re-establish landscapes. Many have adapted over thousands of years to quickly regenerate wildfire stripped areas. But more importantly, there's a number of plants that're specialized in absorbing toxic chemicals from soils. In some places even polluted sewage treatment is done solely with plants.

If you own land that has been devastated by a wildfire there may be a few obstacles towards establishing plants to help clean up Potentially Toxic Elements (PTE's) from the soil. For example, you may not have any irrigation systems in place. 

Here's some proven plants that can can remove heavy metals and toxins from soil: 

• • Mugwort - Artemesia vulgaris proven to have the highest accumulation powers of soil toxins, specifically cadmium (source)
  • Juncus Grasses effective at removing heavy metals from soil like lead, chromium & arsenic (as demonstrated in these mining contaminated groundwater studies source: phytomanagment of polluted sites)
  • Common Sunflower (Helianthus annuus) effective at removing excess levels of copper from the soil (source). Here's a great shop that sells a mix of California native wildflowers and common sunflower seeds order here. 
  • *Clover - effective at reducing concentrations of heavy metals
  • Lupin - shown to be effective at eliminating numerous toxins according to the University of Kansas Agronomy phytoremediation initiatives.

Why Clover is the best plant Option for removing heavy metals in soils

*White Clover is the fastest and easiest plant to establish in a garden for both green manuring, stabillization and for helping with reduction of heavy metals like cadmium, zince and lead in your landscape (source). You can order seeds online from one of our favorite seed companies by clicking here. Sprinkle it thickly across your landscape after debris removal. It's also effective at helping to regenerate vital soil nutrients lost when the top 6" of soil is scalped. Seeding clover in your lawn or garden is also a great option for people living near wildfire devastated areas who are concerned about remnants deposited environmentally in the landscape. 

Other plants with promise: Chickweed (Stellaria) has shown some effectiveness at absorbing excess zinc, annual nettles are shown to absorb some excess zinc. Chinese Bracken Fern Pteris vittata is exceptional at removing arsenic (Purdue  University) disposing of the bracken fern once it's absorbed the arsenic has proved problematic at extreme waste sites. Ferns in general are used in a variety of ways to clean up toxins around the world and can be helpful in the home landscape. 

Additional Roles of plants in helping heal land after wildfire... 

Plants serve in important role in erosion Control - specifically where land sliding is a problem. And they play a CRUCIAL role in helping rebuild topsoil structure so new plants can grow. L.A. county's debris removal program will be removing the top 6" of soil. Which is great for the removal of toxic remnants but will cause a significant  loss of soil nutrients in your landscape.

Seeding with a fast growing mix as soon as possible can help, here's some suggestions of different seed blends to try: 

• • Lawn Clover Xeriscape Mix - a blend of plants that naturally occur at low-nutrient and polluted sites. This is a great option for landowners who may not be living on the site for some time. 
  • California Native Grass Erosion Control Mix - a blend of California native grasses (including some perennial rye grasses that are relatives of plants currently being studied for heavy metal uptake)

2. Mushroom Remediation

Cleaning up Toxic Chemical Residue with Mushroom Mycellium

Myco-remediation is the process of inoculating soils with mushroom mycelium to process and remove toxic wastes. Adding a healthy amount of a favored growing media (like logs or woodchip) is required for most mushroom mycellium to grow properly and do the clean up work. There's a lot of benefits in using mushroom spores and fungi to remediate soil. In many studies they are proving to be faster and more effective at it than plants. 

With toxic clean-up with plants, there can be safety issues because the plant's bodies store some of the toxins in them as they remove them from soil. But because mushrooms do their digestion outside of their bodies - thru the release of enzymes -  they break down toxic compounds before they ever enter their bodies (source). So, for example, in Chernobyl they found mushrooms had zero radiation or toxic compound content in surrounding sites even just months after the disaster.

Here's some of the easiest to grow mushroom mycellium for toxic site and pollutant clean-up:   

• • Oyster Mushroom - Oyster mushroom wattles are thought to be very effecting at catching and filtering toxic ash debris and were extensivley trialed in the Santa Rosa Wildfires (read an in-depth article about it by clicking here). 
  • King Stropharia (or Winecap Mushroom) can reduce up to 100% e. Coli - source and are by far the easiest and largest mycellial friend to introduce into the garden. If you have a shaded site and a good amount of woodchip you can establish this mushroom with ease and feel good knowing that it's adding significant nutrients to your soil and - while the studies on it are still underway - likely helping to reduce heavy metals and toxins. 
  • Microbially Dynamic Compost - shown to bind up excess lead in soil. 

Check out this free signup tool for a non-profit myco-remediation acency for California Wildfire Affected Zones

California Wild Gardens looks forward to developing it's own line of King Stropharia mushroom mycellium in 2025. Interested in getting our notification list for when it's ready to order? Send us an email that says "Mushroom List" by Clicking here.