 Recently the University of Pikeville's biology department received a USDA approved agricultural grant. Upikes assistant professor of biology Byron Mead plans to use the grant money to further research relating to local fungi growing in abandoned coal mines. Mountaintop News spoke with Mead to hear his thoughts on the grant. So the grant spans three years. There's a couple different goals we have in the grant. The first is you know what species and mushrooms can we grow in the mines? Which ones grow best? Which ones don't grow at all? We really want to focus on Appalachian genetics. So we're looking at our own strains of mushrooms that we have growing wild here. Things like hen of the woods, chicken of the woods, lions, manes, stuff that some people may go out and forage on their own. And then what kind of waste streams, what kind of recycling streams can we use as fuel in these places to kind of grow our mushrooms? At Appalachian Wireless we have the best service and the best deals right now. Save up to $500 on iPhone 13th and 14th all models all gigabytes with trade-in. Maybe go for an iPhone 12 for a penny. A penny with a two-year contract. We're not leaving out Samsung. Save up to $350 on select Samsung devices including the S23. It's a win-win this month at Appalachian Wireless. The service, the savings. Y'all got to jump on this deal right now. At Appalachian Wireless we get you because we are you. We are Appalachian Wireless. Mead also intends to bring the research to the classroom giving his students a hands-on experience. Once the research is finished, Mead wishes to publish it for anyone to use for free. We want to take everything we learn from this research project, implement it back in the class, and we also just want to get the information out there to the public. This goes straight, I plan to take it straight to farmers markets, straight to farmers, and straight to the people who would know how to implement it. We don't want to put this behind paywalls and journals and those sorts of things. We want to get the information right out to the public here in the region and get their thoughts on it and go direct to them. Reporting for Mountain Top News, I'm Nick Colum.