Cheetah Tchudi
Farmer, Rancher, Consultant, Citizen Scientist

Cheetah Tchudi, Butte Remediation, Butte County, Calif.

Cheetah Tchudi has been working in the fields of agriculture and mycology for over 15 years.

While working on farms and ranches, Cheetah completed his BS in agro-ecology and mycology from the Evergreen State College in Washington State. While working on his undergraduate degree, Cheetah completed his first grant from Western Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (WSARE), in which he tested mushrooms as a method of generating on-farm fertility from woody agricultural byproducts.

Starting in 2008, Cheetah began TurkeyTail Farm in the foothills of Butte County, California, raising lamb, pork, chicken, duck eggs, gourmet mushrooms and value added herb products. In 2018 the Camp Fire devastated many communities in Butte County, including the destruction of Paradise. In this fire Cheetah’s home, the farm infrastructure and outbuildings, and water system burned to the ground.

Struck by concerns about the toxic debris created by the massive fire, Cheetah launched a non-profit organization called Butte Remediation. Butte Remediation’s mission is twofold: 1) to research and to provide baseline information on fire borne contamination; and 2) to provide no-cost fungal bioremediation services to underserved Camp Fire survivors. Butte Remediation’s ultimate goal is to create open source methods of remediation for future use.

“Cheetah’s work is the most valuable resource I’ve found for our efforts to do post-fire mycoremediation. When CoRenewal began doing our post-fire research, he was the best and only experienced person that we could look to for support. After losing so much in the Camp fire, he was able to lead the way in this new, and very promising field. The fires aren’t going away anytime soon, the need for this research is vast and he has responded to the urgency with a fine balance of rigorous science, and creative experimentation.”

– Maya Elson, Executive Director of CoRenewal and Post-fire Biofiltration Initiative Coordinator