[Terrapreta] Welcome New Members

[John G. Flottvik]

Lloyd.

Have you ever had a chance to talk to Donald Hilborne from OMAFRA about Charcoal in Soil? Met him at a Bioenergy conference in British Columbia a few years back but before the Terra Preta discussion List came on line.
I think he might be very interested in our list and discussions as this would be right up his farm ally so to speak.

Regards and welcome to the list.
John Flottvik 
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Lloyd Helferty 
  To: 'Tom Miles' ; 'Terra Preta' 
  Sent: Saturday, April 05, 2008 7:59 PM
  Subject: Re: [Terrapreta] Welcome New Members


  Tom,

   

    Thank you for organizing this list.  I have not been following along too closely recently, but have had quite an interest in Terra Preta since first hearing about it late last year.  In fact, I have been discussing potential trials here in Ontario with a colleague of mine who has also been discussing the issue with individuals at the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Farming and Rural Affairs (OMAFRA), as well as a local organic farm family who seems open to the possibility of conducting some field trials on a portion of their land.  My colleague and I recently attended an Ontario conference called "Growing the Margins", where we discussed Terra Preta trials with many people there, including researchers at the Ontario Federation of Agriculture (OFA), and there seems to be some interest in the subject of performing field trials.  One notable name I see listed below is Duane Pendergast, whom I met at the EIC Climate Change Technology Conference in 2006.  I believe that Duane, although based in Alberta, may be interested in knowing that there have been discussions with regard to potential organized scientific field trials in Canada and may with to contact me in order to discuss further, where appropriate.

   

              Lloyd Helferty, Engineering Technologist

              Thornhill, ON, Canada

              905-707-8754

              647-886-8754

   


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  From: terrapreta-bounces at bioenergylists.org [mailto:terrapreta-bounces at bioenergylists.org] On Behalf Of Tom Miles
  Sent: April 5, 2008 4:57 PM
  To: 'Terra Preta'
  Subject: [Terrapreta] Welcome New Members

   

  Welcome to several new members. 

   

  A couple of days ago we invited 155 people who had visited the terra preta website (http://terrapreta.bioenergylists.org/ ) to join the discussion list.  The TP website gets about 300 visitors per day.  We've had about 100,000 unique visitors from 187 countries since January 2007. There are currently 279 members of this discussion list which has also been running since January 2007. The discussion has had 200-500 messages per month. 

   

  As you can see from the archives the discussion runs from the simple and practical to the fantastic and philosophical. The common thread is the intentional use of charcoal in soil.

  Archives: /

   

  On the charcoal production side we've looked at charcoal making cook stoves, earth and barrel kiln types, fixed kilns of both small and large capacity.  Greg, Gerrit and others have spent their lives mining the web for new techniques. (Others just start fires around barrels.) We've probably spent less time discussing industrial capital intensive systems like BEST, U of Hawaii, Terra Humana or EPRIDA.

   http://terrapreta.bioenergylists.org/taxonomy/term/602

  http://terrapreta.bioenergylists.org/makingcharcoal

  http://terrapreta.bioenergylists.org/company

   

  At the individual application level we have potting trials, like the Charocoalab project  created by Naomi, Rob and Christelle, and individual experiences with pots and small plots from China, India, Georgia and Australia to the Gambia. Many of us have failed on our small scale tests but we have learned in the process.  

  http://bionecho.org/charcoalab/index.php

  http://terrapreta.bioenergylists.org/taxonomy/term/586/9

   

  At the research level we've heard from Christoph Steiner (U of Beyreuth and U Georgia), Mike Antal (U Hawaii), some of the Cornell group (Janice Thies) and US Department of Agriculture/Agricultural Research Service.  We've heard of TP workshops on campus (Cornell, U West Virginia) and in the field (Julie Major, Honduras). Thanks to Adriana Downie, Steven Joseph, Ron Larson, Kelpie Wilson and others we have benefitted from, supported and participated in the International Biochar Initiative (formerly International Agrichar Initiative). We look forward to the IBI conference in September. 

  http://www.biochar-international.org/ibi2008conference.html

  http://terrapreta.bioenergylists.org/ibiaboutbiochar

   

  Christelle Braun recently created Terracarbona to keep track of field trials.

  http://terracarbona.com/

  Richard Haard (4th Corner Nurseries, US)), John Flottvik, Dr. Sai Bhakhar Reddy (India) have kept us informed of their trials (and tribulations). Jim Joyner has been trying to keep us practical for farm applications. Frank Teuton, David Yarrow, Larry Williams, Allan Baillet and others maintain our links to organic, vermiculture, permaculture and hydroponics. 

  http://terrapreta.bioenergylists.org/taxonomy/term/229

  http://e-terrapretarooftopexp.blogspot.com/

   

  Field applications discussions recently have considered the merits of combination of charcoal with compost, cover crops, or other nutrient sources.  We haven't seen many field tests on the scale of the Oil Mallee charcoal tests in Australia. As we approach Spring planting in the Northern Hemisphere we hope to see more organized attempts at field trials.  

   

  We've had both science and speculation about how it all began in Terra Preta de Indio in the Amazons and how it can be recreated. And we've tried to maintain a modest reading list/bibliography on the website.

  http://terrapreta.bioenergylists.org/biblio

   

  Sean Barry, Folke Gunther and Duane Pendergast have tried to keep our carbon fixated (if that is possible) or at least sequestered. We're grateful to Christoph for sharing his presentations at Bali. 

  http://terrapreta.bioenergylists.org/gunthercarbondecide

  http://www.biochar.org/joomla/

   

  That's just a sampling. (I'm sure there are some whom I have not properly offended.) New members are welcome to dive in at will. 

   

  Many thanks to everyone for sharing their ideas and experience, and to Ron Larson, Erich  Knight and Michael Bailes for creating and moderating this discussion list. 

   

  Kind regards,

   

  Tom Miles

   

   

   

   

   

   

   



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