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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"></span><br><div class="Section1">
<p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">A
Biochar Field Day,</span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Biochar,
or charcoal, or black carbon. What is it anyway? And why is
it a</span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">potentially
critical part of any solution to reduce the build-up of heat</span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">trapping
gasses in our atmosphere?</span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Over
the past couple of decades scientists have established that biomass</span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">derived
charcoal (biochar) is extremely resistant to decomposition. And</span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">when
wood (or any biomass) is turned into charcoal and added to soils it</span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">stays
there, for hundreds to thousands of years.</span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">On
top of that - people are also discovering that Biochar possesses a</span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">variety
of interesting properties that enhance the properties of soils to</span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">retain
moisture, and hold nutrients in place, making them more available to</span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">agricultural
crops. As a result, food crops produce more, with less</span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">fertilizer,
and with fewer nutrients leaching out of the soil and creating</span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">pollution
downstream. Many of these effects are related to Biochars</span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">tendency
to enhance the soils biological fitness and diversity. </span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">This
Saturday March 20 an informal Biochar event will held at the Alchemy</span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Farm
cohousing community in Falmouth, MA. The impetus for this gathering is</span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">that
Bob Wells of Eastham, MA will be on-site with his mobile Biochar retort</span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">and
we will cook us up a batch of Biochar (about 3 cubic yards worth).</span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">The
retort that Bob has designed and constructed (in collaboration with</span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Peter
Hirst of Wellfleet) is a serious piece of clean burning pyrolytic</span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">combustion
equipment. Bob will be making a tour of several farms throughout</span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">New
England over the next months to demonstrate how woody biomass can be</span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">pyrolyzed
to create biochar.</span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">The
biochar produced on Saturday will be used in an agricultural field trial</span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">this
season to test how effective biochar is at enhancing crop growth and</span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">production
in our particular soils. Over the longer term we hope to</span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">evaluate
the persistence of the carbon sequestered in the soil, as well as</span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">the
longer term effects on the soils capacity for nutrient and water</span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">retention,
and agricultural productivity. </span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">While
biochar will certainly not - in and of itself - save the planet from</span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">all
the abuses that humans subject it to; It is pretty amazing stuff, and</span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">has
a potentially significant role to play in maintaining agricultural</span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">productivity,
while sequestering atmospheric carbon in soils, as we</span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">necessarily
scale back on the amount of fossil fuel based fertilizers and</span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">chemicals
that underpin our industrial agricultural system.</span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Please
join us for this informal session on the making of biochar and its</span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">potential
agricultural benefits.</span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">This
event will likely interest those folks who have interest in local food</span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">production
and those interested in climate change mitigation.</span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">We
will likely have a couple of other smaller scale retorts set up for</span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">inspection
and discussion as well.</span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Date
and time: Saturday, March 20th , We'll fire
the retort up in the</span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">morning,
but when it "goes off" is anyone's guess as it has takes hours to</span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">heat
up to the point of reaching the exothermic combustion state, Mid</span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">afternoon?
We'll be around all day.</span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Where:</span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Alchemy
Farm,</span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">237
Hatchville Rd. </span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Hatchville
MA</span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">The
closest parking is at Coonemessett Farm 277 Hatchville Rd.</span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Google
" Coonemessett Farm" for the best directions and a map. Once
you've</span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">parked
there follow the signs next door for the action.</span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Cost:
none. </span></p>
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