Americorp Crew Learns about Biochar at Elkton

From Greg Flick:
Here are some photos of the Biochar workshop that we had April 28 at the ECEC, Elkton Community Education Center.  From the top:  OJ talking about his brick chimney retort kiln; brick chimney retort kiln without the chimney; flame cap kiln; and Scott McCain with a Weber kiln.  The audience was mainly Americorp volunteers working at the ECEC.  There were also about as many interested folks from the community that had heard about the workshop at the Glide Wildflower Show and the Roseburg News Review.  In total there were about 20 participants. ECEC has a big feedstock pile and is looking for an open burn or a demonstration of the Oregon Kiln in the future. Great workshop with a lot of interest generated and a lot of knowledge shared.  Posters of the May 28th compost workshop were available to the participants.

Making Biochar with an Air Burner in Ashland Watershed

We have talked and speculated a lot about whether air curtain incinerators can make biochar. Today I saw it in action on a Forest Service field trip in the Ashland Watershed. Air Burners are disposing of large landing piles of green slash mixed with plenty of dirt. Turns out the moisture and dirt prevent the powerful blower from getting to air to every part of the burner, creating perfect conditions for making biochar!

See pictures here:
https://goo.gl/photos/qCK1L56j8kACpfw16

Here are some pictures of one site that is finished. The biochar has been mixed into the soil and trees planted. It looks really nice.

Biochar Workshop at Frog Farm

On April 23 we held a biochar compost workshop at Frog Farm in Cave Junction. About 25 people attended and heard a lecture by Kelpie, toured the Frog Farm barns and compost piles and enjoyed a farm fresh lunch. After lunch we headed to Kelpie's biochar workshop down the street and saw various biochar compost experiments and biochar used in vermiculture.

Kelpie's presentation in the Frog Farm Gazebo

Tour of the Frog Farm goat barn

Frog Farm compost pile and screen setup

Worms love biochar!

UBET at Earth Day

We had a good day with a surprising interest in biochar from many gardeners. They all got brochures to get those wheels turning.

- Scott

PRESS RELEASE: Making Biochar in your backyard, small farm, forest, or vineyard

The Umpqua Biochar Educational Team (UBET) will demonstrate making Biochar using various types of kilns at the Elkton Community Education Center (ECEC) Thursday April 28 from 9am-2pm at 15850 Hwy 38, Elkton.

Turn your burn pile into a very valuable soil amendment by making Biochar.   The UBET members will demonstrate the proper method of creating Biochar with your backyard tree prunings, vineyard prunings, scotch broom, hawthorne, and other "trash" items.  What is so amazing about Biochar?  It nourishes soils, protects water quality, provides market value to biomass waste, creates energy, reduces Greenhouse Gas emissions and sequesters CO2 for thousands of years.  Don't let your burn pile burn to ash,  but turn it into cash.

For more information conact the ECEC:  541 584 2692

Biochar in Cave Junction on April 2, 2016

Excellent article about integrating biochar and livestock production

Download this article here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/wyrbc4tka55ja8k/WANTFA_NF_Summer2015_Biochar-002.pdf?dl=0