Local Farm Receives USDA Funding for Bio-char Project

Bangor, ME, August 29, 2011 – The USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) State Conservationist, Juan Hernandez, has announced that David McDaniel of Earth Dharma Farm, located in Jackson, Maine, will receive $12,000 to carry out a bio-char project. These funds will be awarded through Conservation Innovation Grants (CIG), a component of the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP). This is as a result of a statewide competitive grants process to address some of the state’s most pressing natural resource conservation needs.

The purpose of CIG is to stimulate the development and adoption of innovative conservation approaches and technologies while leveraging Federal investment in environmental enhancement and protection, in conjunction with agricultural production. CIG projects are expected to lead to the transfer of conservation technologies, management systems, and innovative approaches into NRCS technical manuals or guides, or to the private sector.

McDaniel’s project aims to demonstrate and present data for sustainable on-farm bio-char production. Bio-char is a component of the “terra preta” or “dark earth” discovered in the soils of the Amazon Jungle, and is thought to be a source of long-term soil nutrients as well as a way to sequester carbon.

The project will use simulated alder coppice wood as feedstock, use a solar kiln to lower the energy cost of pre-drying the wood, convert the wood to bio-char with low-cost and low-energy replicable, on-farm pyrolysis units, and incorporate bio-char into the farm composting operation prior to field use. Pyrolysis, the controlled heating of the biomass at high temperatures in the absence, or near absence, of oxygen, converts the wood (or other biomass) to bio-char, a mostly pure form of carbon. The bio-char can be used as an agricultural soil amendment to improve crop production and as a method of atmospheric carbon capture and storage. Coppicing the wood (i.e., harvesting young tree growth and leaving the living tree roots to regenerate) adds greater sustainability to the project. Composting the bio-char innoculates it with beneficial microorganisms and soil nutrients and provides a cost-effective method for field application.

Technical information and research data from the project will be disseminated through the internet, technical bulletins, and community and farmer outreach programs. Project results will provide data regarding the cost-effective production of bio-char, the maximization of carbon sequestration, and the effective use of bio-char to improve soil fertility.

McDaniel and his wife Heather Selin ventured into sustainable, small-scale agriculture on Earth Dharma Farm in 2007. Their property is 181 acres of sloping, mostly-wooded land, of which about 15 acres is for their farm and home. Their farm is operated on sustainable principles: USDA-certified organic, off grid, and with an experimental net-zero energy home in progress. They currently produce vegetables and grain for themselves and sell certified organic seed garlic. In the next few years, they will be expanding to sell fruit, berries, grain, and, ultimately, wine.

“These grants offer an opportunity to provide innovative approaches to environmental enhancement and protection on working agricultural lands,” said Hernandez. “I look forward to seeing the environmental and economic results of this project.”

“Bio-char has exciting possibilities to both improve agricultural soil fertility and also help offset greenhouse gas admissions through carbon sequestration,” said McDaniel. “But farmers are practical stewards. We hope this project will show that bio-char not only improves crop production and helps the environment, but that even small-scale farmers can produce bio-char cost effectively and sustainably.”

NRCS, in existence since 1935, is the lead conservation agency that helps farmers conserve, maintain and improve natural resources through science-based conservation efforts, technical assistance and incentive-based programs. For information on NRCS and its programs, visit www.me.nrcs.usda.gov.  For more information on the Earth Dharma Farm, visit www.earthdharmafarm.com. 

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