A fungal expert and UW School of Environmental and Forest Sciences Ph.D. graduate is one of the subjects of a recent PBS Terra piece on saving an ancient forest.

Korena Mafune, Ph.D., who completed her Ph.D. at SEFS in 2020, spoke to PBS about how trees in Pacific Northwest forests use a network of fungi underground to share nutrients and communicate about pests. The segment for PBS Terra focused on ancient forests within the Pacific Northwest and how a small band of forest defenders are risking their lives to protect some of the last remaining ancient forests.

In the video story, Mafune scales a large tree in the Hoh Rainforest and studies the canopy soil found on its branches.

“We don’t only lose those trees,” Mafune says in the story about the loss of trees due to disturbances and harvests. “We lose an ecosystem that provides habitat to endangered species, to species that have never even been discovered. These forests, they just hold such a special place in my heart.”

Watch the segment here.