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<p class=MsoPlainText><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>A
Biochar Field Day,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Biochar,
or charcoal, or black carbon. What is it anyway? And why is
it a<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>potentially
critical part of any solution to reduce the build-up of heat<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>trapping
gasses in our atmosphere?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Over
the past couple of decades scientists have established that biomass<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>derived
charcoal (biochar) is extremely resistant to decomposition. And<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>when
wood (or any biomass) is turned into charcoal and added to soils it<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>stays
there, for hundreds to thousands of years.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>On
top of that - people are also discovering that Biochar possesses a<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>variety
of interesting properties that enhance the properties of soils to<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>retain
moisture, and hold nutrients in place, making them more available to<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>agricultural
crops. As a result, food crops produce more, with less<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>fertilizer,
and with fewer nutrients leaching out of the soil and creating<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>pollution
downstream. Many of these effects are related to Biochars<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>tendency
to enhance the soils biological fitness and diversity. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>This
Saturday March 20 an informal Biochar event will held at the Alchemy<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Farm
cohousing community in Falmouth, MA. The impetus for this gathering is<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>that
Bob Wells of Eastham, MA will be on-site with his mobile Biochar retort<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>and
we will cook us up a batch of Biochar (about 3 cubic yards worth).<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>The
retort that Bob has designed and constructed (in collaboration with<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Peter
Hirst of Wellfleet) is a serious piece of clean burning pyrolytic<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>combustion
equipment. Bob will be making a tour of several farms throughout<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>New
England over the next months to demonstrate how woody biomass can be<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>pyrolyzed
to create biochar.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>The
biochar produced on Saturday will be used in an agricultural field trial<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>this
season to test how effective biochar is at enhancing crop growth and<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>production
in our particular soils. Over the longer term we hope to<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>evaluate
the persistence of the carbon sequestered in the soil, as well as<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>the
longer term effects on the soils capacity for nutrient and water<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>retention,
and agricultural productivity. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>While
biochar will certainly not - in and of itself - save the planet from<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>all
the abuses that humans subject it to; It is pretty amazing stuff, and<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>has
a potentially significant role to play in maintaining agricultural<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>productivity,
while sequestering atmospheric carbon in soils, as we<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>necessarily
scale back on the amount of fossil fuel based fertilizers and<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>chemicals
that underpin our industrial agricultural system.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Please
join us for this informal session on the making of biochar and its<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>potential
agricultural benefits.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>This
event will likely interest those folks who have interest in local food<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>production
and those interested in climate change mitigation.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>We
will likely have a couple of other smaller scale retorts set up for<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>inspection
and discussion as well.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Date
and time: Saturday, March 20th , We'll fire
the retort up in the<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>morning,
but when it "goes off" is anyone's guess as it has takes hours to<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>heat
up to the point of reaching the exothermic combustion state, Mid<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>afternoon?
We'll be around all day.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Where:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Alchemy
Farm,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>237
Hatchville Rd. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Hatchville
MA<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>The
closest parking is at Coonemessett Farm 277 Hatchville Rd.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Google
" Coonemessett Farm" for the best directions and a map. Once
you've<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>parked
there follow the signs next door for the action.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Cost:
none. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText><o:p> </o:p></p>
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