Representing the Institute for Sustainable Forestry, Gray Shaw and Susan Nolan rolled out their biochar dog and pony show for the crowd at Humboldt Permaculture Guild’s annual Seed and Scion Exchange on March 9 at the Arcata Community Center. About 20 folks attended and showed great interest in their questions and their conversations with us afterward.

At these events, Susan manages the fire in a small “educational” crucible that flies under the radar of the air quality board while Gray presents information and engages the crowd. Questions will range from best fuels to proper temperature to biochar’s use in the soil, often leading in unexpected directions; this time it was retorts. Almost all of them stood for the whole 45 minutes.

Our gratitude goes out to Levon Durr and company from the Guild for hosting this show within a splendid community sharing economy event.