[Terrapreta] Forestland management

[Sean K. Barry]

Hi Greg,

What if you put charcoal into that soil (lots of it, like a big investment worth) before you planted the coppice plantation?  Then, every time you coppice, you put in not just more sunlight, but more plant nutrients (just the ones Salix need) and more water, too.  You could even put grow flood lights on it at night during the summer (powered from solar cell renewable energy, of course).  This could boost those coppice plantation yields up in a big way, right?  Now, harvest the woody biomass (coppice), make charcoal, harvest some bio-energy, and sell all of that which you you can.  This is an energy crop, grown with high yields, boosted by the use of Terra Preta technology and designed to build more raw material for TP soils (a "carbon negative" activity) along with harvesting "carbon neutral" bio-energy.  At re-plantings (if these occur?) and/or new plantings, charcoal could further be invested into the soil ahead of the plantings, to insure higher yields over the "coppiced" life of that plantation.

If the "coppiced" crops have any annual leaf fall and it is onto TP-like soils, then perhaps these plantations, because of the large carbon investment in them, will soon be able to hold of the nutrients that you apply (by digesting it from the fallen leaves) and you will be able to apply less nutrients in the future.  You'd need to only apply the nutrients you took of in the coppiced product.

If you do what you propose, then you may not know how much you will benefit the fight against GW and GCC.  I would like to do something like this to also, someday, maybe in collaboration with someone else who is "hands-on" experienced with "coppiced" forest land management practices.

Regards,

SKB
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Greg and April<mailto:gregandapril at earthlink.net> 
  To: Terra Preta<mailto:terrapreta at bioenergylists.org> 
  Sent: Saturday, April 19, 2008 6:31 PM
  Subject: Re: [Terrapreta] Forestland management


  YES!

  Absolutely positively no doubt at all.

  To a degree it's already been done with the practice of coppice in the United Kingdom, only there it is more like a field of crops ( and some of the trees are more than 200 yrs old ).    When you down to it, an entire ecological base has established under the coppice system, with plants that require more light moving in right after the trees have been coppiced.

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coppice<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coppice> 

  I'm not saying that we should treat all our forests to coppice management - just that there is some evidence already that the a similar management system ( of cutting down and letting regrowth take it's place ) can work.    Indeed some areas it may work to put in permanent short term coppice with fast growing native species like aspen, cottonwood, and popular.

  While I do not have land YET, I promise you this, when I do, it's a system of coppice that I'm going to use, to develop it, and provide fuel for my farm ( and Terra Preta to improve it's soil ) becoming as self sustaining as possable!

  I really can not stress my belief in this any stronger.

  Greg H.

    ----- Original Message ----- 
    From: Sean K. Barry<mailto:sean.barry at juno.com> 
    To: Greg and April<mailto:gregandapril at earthlink.net> 
    Cc: terrapreta<mailto:terrapreta at bioenergylists.org> 
    Sent: Saturday, April 19, 2008 16:58
    Subject: Re: [Terrapreta] Forestland management


    Hi Greg,

    Do you think you could "cull" biomass from a forestland at the same rate that it grew and manage that in sustainable way?

    Regards,

    SKB
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