Microbes

Again, we need to start with an object lesson. Imagine a cow and her calf, on an acre of healthy soil. Science has calculated that the microbes on this same acre of soil have about the same mass as Bessie and her calf. I have heard the claim that billions of organisms live in a tablespoon of healthy soil as well and I'm sure that the scientists are right, even though I can't see things that small and I will never be able to see a germ, flagellate or bacterium no matter how good my eyesight is! In my "initial contact" flyer, I have this to say about microbes, "The biochar ecosystem provides all that soil microbes need, security, moisture, air and healthy food. Microbes can be added by using compost, or healthy soil. Waste products of microbes that live in soil, often as many as billions per teaspoon, actually feed healthy plant roots." Microbes can be added by including some compost or compost tea in the mix. Some commercial mixtures are available that tout themselves as compost starter, etc. but the truth of the matter is that spores and bacteria are on the wind. It may be difficult to get a representative sample large enough to really get the char to transform into biochar, but in theory, time is really all that is necessary to get the microbes to take up residence there. I typically start to see insects hanging around my char after it gets minerals and nutrients added to it. Whether they are trying to eat some of the bits of rotted food, or harvesting smaller organisms that I cannot see will have to remain a mystery. I certainly don't shoo them away, because I see them as vectors for getting more beneficial microbes into the mix. To make compost tea, you just need an air pump, like you would find in an aquarium, some tubing you can weigh down with a rock , a five gallon (20L) bucket of water, and a quart or so of compost. Set the bubbler up so that there is a constant stream of bubbles in the bucket, then add the compost and let it go, bubbling away for 24-48 hours. The air is essential to getting a healthy representative sample of microbes. Adding some of the resulting water to the char after it has been made, micronized, moistened and mineralized will allow the microbes direct access to the territory that has been prepared for them. Of course, there are far more idiosyncrasies and special circumstances to deal with than a short post can include, but for the most part, in the vast majority of locations, you can utilize local resources to make highly effective biochar. Jumping back to the previous post, "Minerals", nitrogen, an important soil constituent, can be added to char through the use of many different ingredients. Some of the best char I have ever made began as 75% grass clippings by volume and 25% char. Another excellent batch started by moisturizing it first with pure, fresh fallen snow. Once material breaks down or concentrates, less is needed. Most of the nitrogen in the batch I mentioned got a lot of moisture and loads of nitrogen from moist grass clippings. Additionally, I added urine every time it dried out enough to soak it up. Nitrogen can come from blood meal, bat guano, fish emulsion, urine (urea) and virtually any manure or offal. As you can imagine, the bacteria which break down these materials are typically present, if not common in soil. When needed, they proliferate quickly and die out after their food supply disappears. Remember though, even dead microbes feed the next generation, it is the cycle of life. Whether you make biochar with manure or urine is not as important as the fact that microbes can grow on either, or both. If animals are fed anti-biotics, this is less so. The goal is not so much to culture a specific set of microbes, but a flourishing, diverse community that utilizes all wastes, from all the different microbes, their predators and competition as well. In diversity there is balance. I often think about how much better off we would be as a civilization, if we accepted this, or at least understood the need for diversity among our human population also. Char itself helps to moderate extremes as do the organisms who live on and in it. So does the water that it holds. Mitigating and ameliorating change is helpful for the whole soil biome. Instead of trying to give crops what they need for just one season, or rotating crops periodically to help the soil stay healthy, utilizing biochar requires us to take a much longer view of soil health and conservation. Once we put all the time and effort into healing the soil, building up the soil biome, we are loathe to abuse it or let it blow away. My county here in Wisconsin Brown County, holds the state record for the most soil lost to erosion each year in our entire state. Perhaps if people decided to value this finite resource, we would get true conservation started. Understanding that healthy food leads to healthy humans is perhaps a stretch for some who sit behind the wheel of a tractor, but we can't continue living as if it did not matter or we threaten our very existence. Just as we have become aware of the micro-biome in the human gut, we need to also become aware of the science behind the micro-biome as it relates to soil health. Estimates of the value of the gut bacteria in our health range up to claims that 80% of our immunity comes from the gut. In soils, there can be billions of microbes in a tablespoon and millions of types and strains can live in close proximity to or atop one another. Like the unbroken forest that we hear, used to cover the Eastern United States, in which a squirrel could travel branch to branch, without touching the ground from the Atlantic Seaboard to the Mississippi River, microbes inhabit healthy soil, cheek to jowl upon each and every soil particle. Biochar exponentially expands the amount of surface area upon which they can thrive. Microbe habitat waiting to happen. Atmosphere is automatic, moisture allows life to flourish, organic material, minerals and nutrients are needed by all life, even microbes. Meeting their needs is paramount to growing healthy soil. Remove just one necessary resource and life gets stunted or fails to thrive. Boutique biochar, such as I teach people to make, transforms soils immediately and lasts for geologic time. Valuing a technique that more than doubles crop production, forever, has an infinite value. What is this knowledge worth to you? Please remunerate me for my efforts and sharing with capital. You can send money through Paypal at account number: tnsaladino42@hotmail.com which also happens to be my e-mail. If you would like to contact me that way, I have brochures that you can use to spread the word about this ancient miracle in your local community. I can even Skype in on fire pit parties where you would teach others the same sort of class that I do. Humans must emulate natural processes and seek a state of peak evolution by mimicking nature's way of stacking function, producing nothing considered waste, just recyclable materials anxiously awaiting their chance to face the crucible of change. In soil, every trophic level can serve as top predator. This layers multiple levels of living carbon, inhabiting these surfaces, covering them with a micro climate that is warmer, because of metabolism. That warmth is held because soil air has a bit more carbon dioxide than the air we breathe a result of microbe metabolism. All good things for the rest of the community. Just as we have 75% water in our bodies as newborns and it slowly dwindles as we age, down to fifty percent water when we are elderly, microbes have a high percentage of water within them as well; like us, over time, they begin to desiccate, even though the cell walls try to hold on to moisture, it inevitably reduces with time. Up to 75% of the water in soils can be bound within the cells of microbes. This moisture allows metabolism within the cell, but also makes the exchange of gasses possible, helps stabilize soil moisture and moderates temperature. Building the base of the soil food web invites heterotrophs and macro-invertebrates. Microbes that can not be seen with the naked eye are difficult to explain or understand, but the most important thing to remember is that less desirable ones tend to make dank, musty or off smells. The less desirable microbes also are more tolerant of conditions that have limited amounts of oxygen. 85% of bacteria are either innocuous or helpful to humans, many lend their aroma to healthy soil. You probably know what good, healthy soil is supposed to smell like, so too our body is able to sense bad organisms by smell too. With the pathogenic ones, typically you can overcome them with creating conditions favorable to beneficial organisms. Being careful to not let stagnant water develop, aerate more, stir the biochar more often and be careful to balance the amount of nutrients available and the amount of minerals and detritus as well. some less composted material is not bad either. Typically, I have found that in making good char about ten times more nutrients, especially nitrogen are needed by weight when compared to the amount of other minerals. If there is too much moisture, dry powdered minerals can help absorb it. Worm castings can also help absorb excess moisture. Balancing the moisture level so that the biochar never dries out, but never gets too wet is something that you will develop a feel for. The typical make up of soil, as stated in previous posts, is 25% Air (soil atmosphere has more CO2 in it, from microbe respiration) 25% water, 40-45% minerals, 5-10% organic matter. Subdivided, this last 5 to 10% is 80% humus and ten percent each of roots, (both dead and alive), and organisms. Adding biochar, even at 1%, would provide habitat for more organic matter, most of which would be living creatures. These organisms are only 10% of that tiny 5% sliver of soil that is referred to as "organic matter" typically. The carbon matrix upon which biochar is designed and the pyrolysis process rendering it vitreous makes it both mineral, but immune to break down and able to foster microbial life indefinitely, growing habitat for these beneficial microbes, perhaps exponentially. This burgeoning microbial habitat helps stabilize soil moisture, holds minerals and nutrients and creates micro-biomes of better drainage, stucture and retention of moisture when it is available. It also raises soil temperature slightly as a result of microbial metabolism. All these benefits and carbon sequestration! This is where all of the water that passes through and by me, into the Great Lakes wants to flow. The microbes life, health and well-being depend on moisture. Just like we humans how much water they have inside their cells will determine how well they can function.

I realize that the discussion is currently about microbes, but the amount of habitable surface area the char provides depends on making the char a fine powder (see "Micronize") with the largest pieces being smaller than 2mm. About the width of Eisenhower's ear on a dime. The structure inherent in char unleashes massive amounts of surface area, the smaller you crush it, the more available surface area, the smallest powders we are typically able to produce are still cavernous for a microbe. Sorry for the repetition. There is much for us to learn when we build soil this way. One of the most important things to understand is that all soil microbes are interdependent. When any overpopulation occurs and death of one group of organisms occurs, it is not a horrible loss, because others pick up the slack and pitch in to return the soil food web to balance. This interdependence and alliance of all in the community to work for the betterment of conditions for all other organisms is something human creatures need to take to heart as well. The complex interdependent relationships that occur naturally in soil need to be emulated and used as templates for layering functions withing our own lives and the human community as well. I wish you all a future of security and abundance and when we realize that it is unnecessary to deprive some "other" to take care of ourselves, many problems, many traumas and untold destruction will be avoided.

Twenty-five Years Ago Today

Twenty-five years ago today, I turned an important corner, not only in my life, but into a geographic realm beyond my imagination. My physical body crossed from Wisconsin, where I had spent many years of my life, into Minnesota along the shore of Lake Superior. It was a moment that stands apart from time. This change of course, from heading pretty much due West, swinging North, by Northeast along the North Shore of The Greatest Lake, made me aware of my anonymity as well as my infinite spirit. Leading off into the distant future was a path that was both undeniably my own and intimately entwined with each and every other organism that lives, has lived and will ever live around these inland seas. I was barely a week into my Great Lakes Bicycle Tour, but my young body had already turned from a tentative young man into a stoic and experienced traveler. I was shedding pounds and lightening my panniers with each meal. As I entered the North, the scars of extraction were all around me. Heavily silted waterways, deforested areas that stretched for miles, heaps of acid mine waste and open pits that might never again support life were all around me. The mining and milling industries that built the great fortunes of city dwellers far far away had left scars so deep that after one hundred years, the ugliness of them remained, spread out across the landscape. Plainly visible for anyone to see, but understood by few, if any, of those who were speeding by on the highways at breakneck speed.

I had rested up for an extra day in Superior, Wisconsin enjoying some down time after pushing though the pain of hundred mile days. In that first week, I had experienced snow, sleet, rain and one crisp night that froze my tires to the ground so thoroughly that leaves, dirt and pine needles stuck to them and created a funny sound as they swished past the frame on each revolution. I was happy and sad, tired and energized, but the overarching goal of making my way around all five Great Lakes just got that much closer. I was as far away from home as I had ever been, yet I felt as one with the earth as ever as well. I could feel the Living Earth, cheering me on, the wind, finally, at my back and the freshening breeze bringing the warmth of spring to the region. As I passed the Viking ship in Duluth, I felt the presence of my ancestors, buoying my energy reserves and keeping me aware of the deeper meanings behind any pilgrimage. Losing one relationship between who we thought we were and who we may find ourselves to be is part and parcel of any voyage. Rather than crossing the great water as my viking ancestors had, I was circumnavigating them, finding my way with a series of maps that were more or less handed down to me from wizened old travelers and mapmakers of high repute. rather than seeing images of maps and having to infer what must be there, i was seeing what was actually out there and condensing that knowledge into the lines and color fields that I had in my pocket.

The ultimate shift in my course was to switch from thinking that I had power to change the course of history to wanting to change myself. the only thing I have absolute responsibility for and dominion over is, in fact, my own self. how that shakes out amongst my fellow humans is for them to determine and amongst their own lives they must take responsibility for their own part in making the world better as they see fit. My own ego had been trying to stay in charge, but as I was finding, powers beyond my comprehension were at work in my days, my nights and even those beautiful moments in-between the two. I began to feel a deep connection to the waters, the rock and the thin soils of the area, working my own special magic wherever I stopped to honor and respect what I would find there, what I took away from them and what I left behind. At this point, making my way up the shore toward the border with Canada, any demons that had led me to question my ability were vanquished, any doubts about my convictions evaporated and the truth of my own message, which I shared with others each and every time I stopped , stopped being just words, but a reflection of the voices of the trees, the water and the very wind which I was becoming one with. I seriously questioned whether I would be able to be clear about my mission, adept at bringing salient information to communities that I had not lived amongst for very long and if it would be possible to capture the imagination of those I would meet along the way. What I was beginning to find is that more often than not, my message was not only received, but shared and welcomed by both individuals and the news outlets that I provided with interviews. As I skirted the shoulder of the Canadian Shield, riding near the border between land and the lake, every turn revealed a more beautiful sight. Except for the areas that had been poisoned by mining, each cascade was more wonderful than the previous one, each tiny hamlet and locality was more picturesque. Each settlement was more focused on the values and approaches that we would one day call sustainable.

What I was seeing reflected in both the people and their passions was an undying commitment to one another that is exemplified in nature. Just as the tree falling in the woods feeds the soils that will provide a footing for another generation of trees, the falling of the great extractive economies of the past has given rise to a new way of life that respects the Earth, cares about water, and has learned some of the lessons of taking without giving back, grabbing the money and running and the responsibility we all have to one another. I was turning onto a new road, into a new culture and finding my true self, free of the limitations that I had placed upon myself.

April Fool's Day Twenty-five Years Ago

I was away from the keyboard on the first of April. My unfolding life had taken me into the heart of Superior Country. Twenty-five years earlier I had embarked on my bicycle ride around all five Great Lakes, it just felt right to be back along the shore of the greatest of lakes to celebrate the occasion. Even though I have helped to keep the ideas of conservation alive, the changes we have seen over the past quarter century have been quite a bit less than I had hoped for when I started out on my voyage intended to educate and increase awareness of issues that threaten the health of this ecosystem. Back in 1987, I was nearly two years into a course of study focused on The Great Lakes Ecosystem. My preparation for the trip began with physical geography, cultural geography and combined my own extensive knowledge of local pollution issues as well as those documented throughout the region by both the USEPA and Canadian Ministry of the Environment. Armed with insight into sustainability, conservation and the possibility of restoring balance to this troubled region, I felt confident that sharing my insight would ignite the passion of local residents around the lakes to usher in changes that are only now starting to be seen.
When I spoke to the issues associated with transportation twenty-five years ago, I would encourage folks to walk or ride bikes, use mass transit and demand more train availability. Oddly enough, the doubling of fuel costs since then has done more to reduce our driving than my encouragement seems to have done. The insights that I had about reducing energy use by retrofitting old housing stock and designing homes from the ground up to be more energy efficient is still just beginning to take hold. Another generation of vacuous multi-thousand square foot residences has been built, much of it sitting empty because of the housing crash, but forever in need of massive energy inputs if they ever do get used. The agricultural issues that confronted the region back in the late eighties have mushroomed and are in even more urgent need, although tiny steps in the right direction are taking place in pockets across two nations. Even the alternatives to household hazardous waste that I urged folks to adopt have languished, out-advertized by multi-national corporate interests.
On the bright side, the recent crash of the world economy has slowed the pace of destruction in some areas and a growing number of people world wide are beginning to re think the bigger is always better mantra that has led us down the halcyon path of technocracy. It is funny to see the yawning chasms of un-built homes, empty foundations dotting the suburban landscape, the "neighborhoods", some completer with unattended gate houses, ghost towns before their time. People are finally beginning to realize that to have their little house in the country, on five acres, would require several hundred dollars per month for commuting in addition to several thousand more in depreciation and insurance, tax, title and license on another car. Cities are regaining a bit of their former luster, if only for being affordable. You may have to throw in with "those people" but when you can eliminate a car or two from your budget, making ends meet gets infinitely easier.
The recent decline in carbon emissions from some of the more developed countries seems to be more a result of economic depression rather than any ecological awareness. My hope, and I am still extremely hopeful for the future is that as we learn to reevaluate the extreme costs of agricultural, industrial and real estate policy decisions, we will begin to make the changes that I had encouraged two and a half decades ago. It is never too late to change. The Learning Curve may seem steep at times, but the understanding of what has gone wrong is spreading like wildfire. Sure there are people who want things to return to pre-recession conditions, but larger and larger numbers of people are starting to understand that there is really no going back. Our future depends on rewarding smart decisions rather than stupid ones, true conservatism, not unbridled exploitation of resources. Corporate welfare and environmental callousness have come to an ungainly end. Sadly, too many of the rich and powerful just want one more fix of big money before they try to wean their desire for everything. The most heinous traits that the media projects onto addicts can be found in the wealthiest among us. Oddly, in them, we are led to want to make those traits our own. The ever-more popular legalized gambling houses are proof enough that we all want to dream of cash induced "happiness".
On my trip to the water's edge, I was able to carpool up and most of the way back. Technology now allows carpools to form faster than ever, reducing fuel use and wear and tear on our fleet of vehicles. spending time with others who share our commitment to saving Mother Earth any more disfigurement and trauma is leading to better decision-making, lower carbon footprints and increasing the possibility of charting a course to a more sustainable way of life. The local food movement has begun to make headway across the region with untold benefits from soil conservation to more efficient resource use. These decisions are not only helping the environment to heal, but is influencing our health positively as well. It has been a long time coming, but the principles and ethics that my trip sought to popularize are finally coming to pass. Sadly, the pain that has led us to tighten our belts, and the melt down of Fukushima are terrible results of the old way of doing business. Those who made beneficial changes twenty-five years ago are old hands at doing these things, but now, the majority are taking a second look at what tree huggers were doing to make ends meet a generation ago. The same things can work today, but we have to be willing to question the conventional wisdom that has been handed to us by those who would profit from our belief in them.