US Biochar Initiative Newsletter
September 2020
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USBI UPDATE – TOM MILES, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
Welcome to our first monthly USBI 2020 Newsletter. After ten years of hosting conferences, presentations, workshops, and webinars we find that we need to communicate with producers, users and supporters on a monthly basis.
USBI is a volunteer-driven organization with limited resources. The USBI board of directors includes members from agriculture, industry, industry, academia, and policy sectors. Through strategic partnerships with other organizations we accomplish more together. USBI's collaboration and support comes from many partner organizations including the US Forest Service (USFS), the Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS), the Council of Western State Foresters, the University of California - Davis, the Soil and Water Conservation Society, National Association of Conservation Districts, and the USDA Agricultural Research Service and many state and local agencies. We continue to build the North American biochar community through networking, education, and demonstration.
The US Forest Service (USFS) – A Key Partner
The USFS has enabled USBI to provide technical support for biochar from wood processing and forest residues. Since 2017, USFS support has helped us assist companies with product development, processing, and markets. USFS has also enabled surveys where members of our biochar community have told us what you need such as product characterization, standards, and guidelines to support markets like landscaping, turf and trees, horticulture, and stormwater, and emerging markets for the strategic use of biochar in remediation and urban soil restoration, agriculture, building, construction and animal feed. We hope that biochar producers and users have benefited from interviews with Kelpie Wilson, Wilson Biochar Associates and Ron Alexander, RA Alexander Associates. The USBI-USFS partnership has also produced monthly biochar webinars covering topics like biochar markets, abandoned mine land reclamation, production, and combined heat and biochar. Next month, we will assist the USFS and Air Burners Inc. to demonstrate a prototype mobile carbonizer for making biochars from forest residues and invasive species.
Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS) - Best Practices Projects
We collaborate with NRCS Soil Health Program to promote their Soil Carbon Amendment Interim Conservation Practice 808 which will provide EQIP cost-share to farmers who use biochar and compost. So far the practice has been adopted by 10 states including CA, CO, DE, HI and Pacific Basin, MA, NJ, NY, VT and UT. With help from Cornell University Cooperative Extension and USDA Agricultural Research Service scientists, USBI has applied for an NRCS grant to demonstrate biochar on 100 farms using the new 808 practice and to help NRCS develop biochar use guidelines.
Biochar Education and Outreach Update
USBI has assisted NRCS, USFS, Council of Western State Foresters and many other agencies and organizations with biochar education this year. For example, we have delivered training and presentations to the Soil and Water Conservation Society, National Association of Conservation Districts, and industry associations like the Forest Products Society. We presented a workshop at the national meeting of the US Composting Council in January 2020 with the help of Dr. Jeff Novak and the USDA Agricultural Research Service team in Florence, SC, Jon Nilsson of Chargrow, Peter Hirst of Symsoil, and Jack Hoeck of Rexius Products. USBI board member Chuck Hegberg, Ecotone, and Mark Highland, Organic Mechanics, presented their experience on the use of Biochar in Soil Restoration, Landscaping and Green Infrastructure in a webinar hosted by the Pennsylvania Recycling Markets Center. Special thanks to these experts! In addition to this newsletter we are improving online resources and communication through the USBI website, LinkedIn, Facebook and the biochar@groups.io discussion list.
Developing Best Practices
Developing best practices and guidelines has been a special focus this year. A collaboration with the University of California, Davis resulted in two biochar management practices recommendations to the California Department of Agriculture Healthy Soils Program. USBI has also been working with state agencies to develop practices and guidelines for biochar use in stormwater filtration and green infrastructure.
Laboratories One of USBI’s many goals is to update our list of laboratories that are capable of analyzing biochars and collaborating with biochar producers and scientists to develop standard practices and guidelines for key biochar uses. Carbon credits for biochars which meet International Biochar Initiative standards now qualify for sale on the Carbon Future market platform.
We look forward to your suggestions, ideas, and expertise to help us develop strategies to increase biochar markets and to expand biochar education. Help grow the industry by advertising in the newsletter and on our website! B
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BOLDER USBI INITIATIVES NEED YOUR SUPPORT NOW!
Kim Chaffee, USBI Fundraising Committee Chair
At USBI, we’re planning big bold initiatives to grow the biochar industry, demonstrate biochar’s versatility, and build a vibrant customer base. In this month’s Update, Tom Miles details our emerging plans for education and outreach programs, best practices that will maximize results for biochar users, webinars and workshops, case studies, monthly newsletters, directories for the biochar industry and testing laboratories, and a website upgrade.
We’re also planning more cooperative arrangements with allied industries and government agencies. That’s not all. We also intend to create more standards (including for animal feeds), model state and federal policies, national and regional conferences, more grant writing capabilities, etc.
These ambitious goals have vastly outgrown the capacity of our volunteers. Since USBI does not require fees for membership, we need your financial support to hire professionals who will tackle our bold initiatives with a sense of urgency. We appreciate any amount you can give.
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Kelpie Wilson, USBI Outreach and Education Committee Chair
Biochar stories and research are found online everywhere now. That’s great, but how can you determine which information is most current and credible? Providing you with reliable answers is the goal of USBI’s new Biochar Learning Center (BLC) on the USBI website. Over the next year, we will be building a repository of information for beginner, intermediate, and advanced biochar learners. Here are assets now available:
The Biochar Atlas - an online, interactive tool from the USDA-ARS. The tool provides guidance to farmers, gardeners, and other end-users on the potential benefits of biochar, including decision support tools to select biochar types and amendment rates. Learning level: Multiple
Green Roofs, Biochar, and You - This publication covers the benefits of biochar in green roofs and outlines a project completed at the University of Nebraska - Lincoln. Learning level: Intermediate
Combined Heat and Biochar Technology Assessment for a Composting Operation - This USBI White Paper by Kelpie Wilson and Tom Miles compares several different technologies currently available from vendors that can provide heat energy and biochar for a hypothetical vermicompost operation. Learning level: Intermediate
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The 3R Principles for Applying Biochar to Improve Soil Health This open source paper proposes the 3R principles for applying biochar to soils: right biochar source, right application rate, and right placement in soil. Learning level: Advanced
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MEET BIOCHAR PRACTITIONER
JACK HOECK, REXIUS
Each month we will be interviewing biochar practitioners from North America to hear about their challenges and successes with biochar. Jack Hoeck is the composting expert at Rexius – an organic waste recycling company based in Oregon’s Willamette Valley. Jack has been with the company for 45 years and also serves on the board of the US Composting Council, which presented him with a Lifetime Achievement Award this year.
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BIOCHAR EVENTS CALENDAR
October USFS/Air Burners Inc. Char Boss Demo. Videos TBA.
November 16-20, 2020 National Biochar Week: Register for virtual seminars on biochar production, markets, types, education, benefits, and current and past projects.
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A new publication highlights biochar and other innovative forest
product success stories.
In Ontario Canada, experiments with biochar are removing
phosphorus in tile drainage from a farm field. What worked
well in lab experiments seemed not so effective in the field
where other factors may come into play.
where the town of Cumberland has been struggling with wastewater
treatment compliance for some years now. Can biochar solve their
problems? Improvements to the lagoon and a reed bed with biochar
are in the works. At stake are major fines for non-compliance.
In Indiana, contractors are making biochar from forest slash to benefit
“This is an experimental project for the Hoosier and K&K Dirtworks
to see where the production pitfalls are and the quality of the product
that can be produced. We were fortunate to award this project to a
knowledgeable contractor who specializes in producing soil amend-
ment products such as compost. It was a perfect fit to ensure this
project was a success.”
You must check out what Jason Mauck is doing in Indiana! This
innovative young farmer is stacking functions sky high with
companion planting, relay cropping, animal grazing and biochar
all on one field. His goal is to “help a young farmer make a great
living off of 40 acres.” Plus, it keeps him from getting bored.
Low carbon, sandy, sloping soils prone to leaching, droughts, and
degradation will get help from biochar in a newly funded project.
In Florida, another region with sandy soils, researchers are applying
biochar to help citrus trees survive the deadly huanglongbing or
citrus greening disease.
A pair of clinicians share their opinion about “black snow” – the noxious
particulate pollution that harms the health of people living near burning
sugar cane fields. The good doctors point out that nearly every other
sugar cane growing region in the world has switched to collecting this
trash and using it to produce electricity, biochar, and other useful
products in clean, industrial processes.
independent researcher José M. Álvarez de la Puente on the use of
biochar and vermicompost as substitutes for peat in growing media.
The carbon sequestration impact of the substitution could be substantial.
In this Organic Farming Magazine article, USBI board member Kelpie Wilson
describes results of a NRCS Conservation Innovation grant that led to the
development of on-farm biochar production and composting techniques
now gaining wider adoption.
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If you are looking for the latest biochar basic research, check out the International Biochar Initiative. IBI Members have access to a monthly summary of biochar research papers. |
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WILSON BIOCHAR ANNOUNCES THE RING OF FIRE KILN
As forests go up in smoke, we are experiencing the loss of one of our most important natural carbon sinks. This is a tragic development that we must try to reverse by massively increasing fuel treatment programs, especially around our towns and cities.
The truth is that gathering, handling and transporting woody debris is labor and resource intensive. Often, the best solution is to treat it in place, especially if it can be converted to biochar and applied to forest soils to promote forest health and soil carbon sequestration. The Ring of Fire Kiln is an ideal technology for this purpose.
We have been affected by the current climate fire catastrophe on the west coast but our business is up and running and we are now taking orders for this innovative Flame Cap Kiln. Please visit WilsonBiochar.com for more information.
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