Chase is a myco-permaculturist who is passionate about facilitating the diversification of backyard, community and school gardens by adding mushrooms and other fungi to the landscape. He has been growing mushrooms and deep researching fungi since 2004.

Chase has studied and successfully implemented the mushroom growing techniques of Terence and Dennis McKenna, Marc R Keith, Peter McCoy and Tradd Cotter and has completed two Cornell University courses on mushroom cultivation including the Specialty Mushroom Production Course as well as the Woodland Mushroom Cultivation: Growing Mushrooms on Logs, Stumps, and Woodchips course lead by Steve Gabriel of Wellspring Forest Farm and Cornell Small Farms. He is certified in Wild Mushroom Food Safety by Mushroom Mountain.

He has completed five Permaculture Design Courses, has been permaculture gardening and organic farming since 2012 and is interested in how mycelium can inform the design of our gardens, farms, and communities.

Chase is passionate about growing local varietals of fungi and enjoys culturing mushrooms foraged in the wild. He and his friends get the resulting local master spawn out into his community so that mushrooms can be grown in gardens using traditional and low-tech methods. Chase facilitates the closing of waste streams in his community by growing local mushrooms on the wood of invasive trees cut by tree trimmers, as well as on spent coffee grounds and old banana leaves.

As a field mycologist, Chase is currently building the foundations for a local fungarium for his community that is dedicated to surveying, documenting, and studying our local fungal diversity in collaboration with the Hawaiʻi Fungi Project.

Since its inception, Chase has been a regular featured presenter at the Hawaiʻi Mushroom Festival where he gives talks on mushroom cultivation and identification and leads wild mushroom identification walks.

Chase and his partner Dave hold regular online and outdoor fungi education classes, workshops, and courses as the Tropical Fungi Academy.