There was a thread on reddit about it and from preliminary studies, they couldn’t find evidence it was as bad as made out to be.
Yeah, looks like shit, has risks and obviously no risk is better, but I find interesting that sometimes a short study reveals results opposite to what you can imagine.
Here is summary:
The document discusses the characteristics and effects of fungi on woody plants and trees, including cankers, root rots, wood staining, and seedling blights.
The majority of the fungi isolates are likely to be saprophytes, which are not extensively studied as pathogenic fungi.
The document mentions the identification of 83 isolates using DNA extraction and sequencing.
The study found no aggressive pathogens on the trees in urban landscapes that were tested.
The document also discusses the potential role of volcano mulching in promoting disease on tree trunks, but notes that this has not been confirmed by research.