Conservation burning is a way of dramatically reducing greenhouse gasses and particulate releases from burning woody material like old grapevines. Biochar is a soil amendment that can hold water and nutrients in the soil for slow release to the plants. Raymond Baltar, Director of the Sonoma Biochar Initiative; Director of the California Biochar Association and Biochar Project Manager at Sonoma Ecology Center explains how to execute a conservation burn and make biochar to reduce smoke and capture carbon.

References:

“Biochar increases vineyard productivity without affecting grape quality: Results from a four years ﬁeld experiment in Tuscany” | Scholarly article
California Biochar Association
Conservation Ag Burning | UCCE Sonoma flyer
“The Conservation Burn Technique” | Vineyard Team Technical Article
Sign Up | Irrigation Efficiency Project
Sonoma Biochar Initiative
Sonoma Ecology Center
Randall Graham’s thoughts on biochar (Video)
Raymond Baltar’s LinkedIn page
Workshop: Conservation Burning & Biochar Production Workshop

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56: Conservation Burning and Biochar

Sustainable Winegrowing