Why I swapped making hula hoops to try to save Yorkshire's rare funghi

“We knew that the areas around Hardcastle Crags, which is owned by the National Trust, was where these fungi thrived but my job is to work with farmers and landowners to let me onto their land to survey the fields for fungi – and that is a job in itself.”

Steve ended up getting the job almost be accident. He had had a very varied and colourful career before working for the National Trust. “I was studying chemistry and French at university but decided it wasn’t for me. I did a bit of modelling but that wasn’t for me either. I was unemployed and then I became interested in juggling and made my own juggling balls. I came across this little juggling shop and I ended up getting a job a couple of days a week.”

He ended up buying the store in Manchester but it was destroyed in the IRA attack on the city in 1996. “I also did do some circus skill workshops and after the shop had gone I continued doing that for a bit as well as making and selling stuff.”

Steve decided to move out to Indonesia where he could live quite cheaply and taught himself the language.

“I do become quite obsessed with things and learning Indonesian was one of those things.” His Indonesian became so good he ended up working as a translator in a university in Jakarta where he stayed for three years before returning home to Yorkshire where he started a business making fire juggling equipment and hula hoops. “Hula hoops were becoming big in the fitness world and so I was making hoops for them and also for circus performers,” he adds.

Steve did this for 20 years from his home in Calderdale, but during this time he started to get interested in fungi. “It was a bit random really,” he says. “I’d got a dog and started to go for walks in the woods and I became fascinated by all the mushrooms I was seeing and started to research them.”

He went on some fungi walks organised by the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust and saw so many species that he had never come across before. “I was hooked,” he says. What started as a hobby turned into something of an obsession and then a new career.

“I knew the National Trust were looking for someone to survey the fields around Hardcasle Crags but it said you needed an ecology degree and experience and I had none of that. I was also self-employed and didn’t want to work for someone else.”

But he was approached by the National Trust and was offered the job. “They knew I knew a lot about the area. It was my dream job but it was a risk as it was only a one-year contract and I had my own business and a mortgage to pay. But I mulled it over and decided to go for it.”

Steve’s first task was to try to get local farmers and landowners on board to allow him to survey their land. “It’s all about communication and building up relationships and also explaining the importance of what we are trying to do here.”

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The meadows and grasslands that surround Hardcastle Crags are very important for biodiversity. Many have been farmed by traditional methods for years, using few modern fertilisers and with a focus on grazing and hay making.

“The ancient grasslands here are perfect for rare fungi, especially those with moist but well-draining soil. With its steep valley sides and frequent Pennine rainfall, Calderdale is a haven for some of the most threatened species of fungi,” adds Steve.

Since the 1940s, 97 per cent of ancient grasslands in the UK have been lost due to changing farming practices, most of them surviving in the uplands but still prone to loss due to climate change and atmospheric pollution. Although Steve knew that the area was perfect for fungi to thrive, he was surprised by what he actually discovered.

“We’ve found 94 species of the particular fungi that help identify ancient grassland – land which has been left to develop over centuries without consistent management. Many sites met criteria for potentially becoming a Site of Special Scientific Interest.”

One of the species recorded, Black Magic, a vulnerable IUCN Red List species, was previously recorded at only 30 sites worldwide and six in the UK. It has now been found in four fields around Hardcastle Crags.

Another rare species, the Jubilee Waxcap, was discovered in a pasture where 60 fruitbodies – the part of the fungi which breaks through the ground – were counted, making that site the most globally important one for the species. Two other species – Glutinoglossum triseptatum and Camarophyllopsis atrovelutina, or Dark Velvet Fanvault – were spotted for the first time in the country.

But why are these tiny fungi so important? “These ecosystems can take hundreds of years to form, but once established, the fungi can then live for hundreds of years,” says Steve. “If you see fungi growing in a field, it indicates the soil is in very good health and less compacted. This also plays a part in reducing flood risk.

“Ancient grasslands are also important stores of carbon owing to the complex nutrient trading process that takes place between fungi and plants or trees. Fungi are able to move nutrients through soil, improving the habitat’s resilience, while also locking carbon underground which would otherwise be vulnerable to release into the environment.”

But many of the fungi Steve discovered are on the UK and EU Red Lists for threatened species which means they are at high risk of becoming extinct. “Many traditional, unimproved grasslands have changed dramatically over the last century. New farming technologies and chemicals mean many fields have been changed to make them more productive, but this has had a knock-on effect on biodiversity and species like fungi.”

Thanks to Steve’s findings, the Grassland Fungi Project was extended to three years but funding is due to finish next month and its future, and Steve’s job, is in doubt.

However, he is hopeful that his message about the importance of these grasslands is getting through to the local community. Ancient Underlands, an exhibition inspired by his work, opened at Gibson Mill and today moves to Luddendenfoot Community Centre. Organised by Hebden Bridge ceramicist Katie Bates, it includes work by more than 40 artists.

“I was overwhelmed when I heard about all the work the artists have done inspired by what I am doing. It really shows that people are starting to understand the importance of the ancient grasslands and fungi in this area,” adds Steve.