DOWN TO EARTH
A Soil Regeneration Project of RFFI & the Sonoma Ecology Center


WHAT
3-year project that supports research and the production, purchase and placement of 4500 tons of biochar in California farms, vineyards and forests
COST
$11,000,000
The Redwood Forest Foundation will expand its forest-based North Coast Biochar Project and partner with the Sonoma Ecology Center, Humboldt State University’s Schatz Energy Research Center and other biochar experts to launch a market-based approach for stimulating global biochar production. The movement to scale biochar production is still in its infancy. We need to, educate a much wider audience, further validate its water and nutrient capabilities in specific soil types and with specific crops, document carbon’s persistence in the soil, and engage innovative entrepreneurs to help fulfill biochar’s potential to incubate life and mitigate climate change. We will retool existing production plants, as needed, incentivize cutting edge machine development and produce, purchase and place biochar in the soil. This powerfully synergistic program thins choked forests, reduces catastrophic forest fire risk, and reclaims materials from fire-ravaged forests. It improves forest health and converts the forest waste to biochar, the “coral of the soil.” Once in the soil biochar reduces water and fertilizer use and stores carbon in the soil for hundreds of years. If we converted surplus waste materials from forests and agriculture into biochar and placed it in just 10% of the Earth’s cropland soil, we could sequester 29 billion tons of carbon for hundreds of years. Placing biochar in the soil is listed by the IPCC as Number Four among Natural Climate Solutions. It is specifically identified as one of the necessary improved agricultural practices. This project includes critically-needed scientific study of the ecological and economic costs and benefits associated with the entire process. SERIES ONE is a 3-year project that supports this research and biochar production, purchase and placement of 4500 tons of biochar in California farms, vineyards and forests at a cost of $11,000,000. Down to Earth will prevent 14,153 tons of C02 from entering the atmosphere. Together, we are launching a movement to restore and regenerate the Earth’s soil with carbon-rich biochar. We will study, evaluate and report on the process and develop funding to support this important carbon capture phenomenon.
DOWN TO EARTH LETTER OF VERIFICATION
