“If you could continually turn a lot of organic material into biochar, you could, over time, reverse the history of the last two hundred years...”

Bill McKibben, author, climate activist and founder of 350.org
“A nagging thought kept haunting my unconscious that this biochar stuff was just too good to be true. But I kept getting great results wherever and however I applied it.”

Bob Wells of Redberry Farm
“This transformation can be pursued on a small or large scale, individually and industrially. Each person, each community, and each enterprise can contribute, and the aggregated contributions of millions will generate genuine, enduring change.”

Christoph Steiner & Paul Taylor in The Biochar Revolution
“Carbon sequestration in soil also has significant potential. Biochar, produced in pyrolysis of residues from crops, forestry, and animal wastes, can be used to restore soil fertility while storing carbon for centuries to millennia. Biochar helps soil retain nutrients and fertilizers, reducing emissions of GHG’s such as N2O.”

Dr. James Hansen, director of NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies
“Biochar applied to farm, garden and container grown soil mixes brings with it the potential for significantly better water quality outcomes for agriculture and horticulture.”

Dale Hendricks, president of Biochar Northeast , owner of Green Light Plants, LLC

Why Biochar?

Biochar is the modern attempt at recreating Terra Preta, the remarkable self sustaining and incredibly fertile man made soil that the Amerindians and other ancient cultures perfected thousands of years ago. All over the world ancient cultures practiced making their recipe for biochar because it enhanced crop production and filtered water.

The multiple synergistic uses of biochar hold enormous promise for earth and humankind's future.

The Biochar Northeast logo represents 5 critical areas to address. The interwoven knot represents the “ecosystem” and the intertwined networks – one cannot survive without the others intact. (Hover over image for interaction).
Growing/Agriculture - Biochar helps farmers get a better yield from their investments in fertility while building soil structure, robust fungal and microbial communities and water holding capacity.
Community - Biochar used and created ethically strengthens communities by providing meaningful work, relocalization, renewable energy and small business opportunities.
Environment - One of the best strategies we can employ to productively sequester “extra” atmospheric CO2 is by creating biochar or recalcitrant carbon applied to soils, building long term value in biologically based low input fertility.
Water - Biochar has well-known filtration (activated carbon) capacities; studies have shown that dramatically cleaner water quality outcomes (reduced nutrient leaching) from gardening, agriculture and horticulture are expected.
Energy - Biochar is produced as a byproduct of cookstoves, energy generation, sustainable waste disposal and invasive plant control efforts among many opportunities.
The multiple synergistic uses of biochar hold enormous promise for earth and humankind's future. Biochar can be made from woody or herbaceous invasive species, orchard and forestry prunings, agricultural residues, and other clean biomass waste streams. The char-making process releases about half the biomass energy, producing useful heat for greenhouses, home heating or cooking. Char is a carbon sponge and can be nutrient-charged with compost or by filtering over-nutrified water sources. Biochar is nutrient enriched char used as a soil amendment to help anchor nutrients, hold moisture, and rebuild soil biology. Applying biochar’s easily scalable methodologies holds promise to provide new local jobs, carbon-negative cooking and heating, revitalize our soils, filter and reduces nutrient run-off, and reduce GHG by sequestering carbon for thousands of years.