[SEMCO] This saturday : Biochar field day March 20th - in Falmouth

[Joe Hackler]

A Biochar Field Day,

 

Biochar, or charcoal, or black carbon.  What is it anyway?   And why is it a

potentially critical part of any solution to reduce the build-up of heat

trapping gasses in our atmosphere?

 

Over the past couple of decades scientists have established that biomass

derived charcoal (biochar) is extremely resistant to decomposition.  And

when wood (or any biomass) is turned into charcoal and added to soils it

stays there, for hundreds to thousands of years.

 

On top of that - people are also discovering that Biochar possesses a

variety of interesting properties that enhance the properties of soils to

retain moisture, and hold nutrients in place, making them more available to

agricultural crops.  As a result, food crops produce more, with less

fertilizer, and with fewer nutrients leaching out of the soil and creating

pollution downstream.  Many of these effects are related to Biochars

tendency to enhance the soils biological fitness and diversity.  

 

This Saturday March 20 an informal Biochar event will held at the Alchemy

Farm cohousing community in Falmouth, MA.  The impetus for this gathering is

that Bob Wells of Eastham, MA will be on-site with his mobile Biochar retort

and we will cook us up a batch of Biochar (about 3 cubic yards worth).

 

The retort that Bob has designed and constructed (in collaboration with

Peter Hirst of Wellfleet) is a serious piece of clean burning pyrolytic

combustion equipment.  Bob will be making a tour of several farms throughout

New England over the next months to demonstrate how woody biomass can be

pyrolyzed to create biochar.

 

The biochar produced on Saturday will be used in an agricultural field trial

this season to test how effective biochar is at enhancing crop growth and

production in our particular soils.  Over the longer term we hope to

evaluate the persistence of the carbon sequestered in the soil, as well as

the longer term effects on the soils capacity for nutrient and water

retention, and agricultural productivity.  

 

While biochar will certainly not - in and of itself - save the planet from

all the abuses that humans subject it to; It is pretty amazing stuff, and

has a potentially significant role to play in maintaining agricultural

productivity, while sequestering atmospheric carbon in soils, as we

necessarily scale back on the amount of fossil fuel based fertilizers and

chemicals that underpin our industrial agricultural system.

 

Please join us for this informal session on the making of biochar and its

potential agricultural benefits.

This event will likely interest those folks who have interest in local food

production and those interested in climate change mitigation.

 

We will likely have a couple of other smaller scale retorts set up for

inspection and discussion as well.

 

Date and time:     Saturday, March 20th  ,  We'll fire the retort up in the

morning, but when it "goes off" is anyone's guess as it has takes hours to

heat up to the point of reaching the exothermic combustion state, Mid

afternoon?  We'll be around all day.

 

Where:

Alchemy Farm,

237 Hatchville Rd. 

Hatchville MA

The closest parking is at Coonemessett Farm 277 Hatchville Rd.

Google " Coonemessett Farm" for the best directions and a map.  Once you've

parked there follow the signs next door for the action.

 

Cost:  none.   

 

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