Ben Zumeta

I think the main thing most misunderstand about how this works is the way above ground pruning causes roots to die back proportionally and decompose, enriching the soil from above and below. In the past, large herbivores and ecosystem engineers like elephants, elk, bears and beavers would be common enough and their movement unrestricted to find early succession forests and do this work of their own accord. Now we must do their work and help them return.

Our local Wild Rivers Permaculture Guild went in together on a Ring of Fire Kiln from Kelpie Wilson in 2022. This past winter-spring of 2025-26, we had our Fire Safe Council crew on my property help create 3-4acres of shaded fuel breaks, and in doing so made over 2000gal of biochar over 5 burns. The last burn was part of a workshop series I led called “Salvaging Abundance”, with around 30 attendees. We then had a subsequent workshop on using the larger woody debris for watershed restoration in repairing incised gullies. Where we did this work both protected our house and anchors a strategic fire protection line for our little off grid community as well as the private timberland, old growth redwoods and towns that are downwind of us in fire weather (NE winds).

The Fire Safe Council leadership was skeptical of the viability of making biochar while they have an immense amount of land to treat with shaded fuel breaks and limited resources to do so. They did not want to be slowed down dragging to a kiln. So we had some of their standard smoky brush pile burns where it was impractical to get the kiln close to the fuel on steep slopes. Where we had less distance (under 50yds) to haul brush to a flattish point for the kiln, we used it. I did a lot of the hauling to keep the crew on their saws cutting to keep on schedule. The kiln ripped through the brush so much faster and exposed the crews to far less smoke than their standard diesel soaked piles that it seemed to win over both the laborers and leadership. By the end of a few burns, they were talking about how many kilns they would need to maximize their crews’ efficiency and seemed serious about scaling up with the immense job they have been tasked with.

As for markets, I have yet to test that but workshop participants were happy to take home a few buckets of previously made and inoculated char. I also donated enough biochar for the compost being applied to thousands of acres of toxically contaminated former Easter lily bulb fields. These have until recently been polluting the largest undammed river in the lower 48, which is also amongst the cleanest until it reaches that agriculture coastal plain.

Our goal is to inoculate these fields with a Soil Food Web consultant’s compost (Declan Malone of BioBlends) that contains this locally produced biochar. I have also recommended using biochar in swales and drainages to filter out the accumulated toxins from lily bulb farming that have turned what was once and could be the best farmland and salmon habitat in California into a deathtrap for fish and the highest cancer and child developmental disorder hotspot in the state. I do not see biochar as a panacea, and no experts on it do in my understanding, but it clearly a very useful tool with benefits on both ends of production and application.

Arabic and Moorish cultures brought to Spain the method of growing on the berm in the wet season and the trough in the dry season. This can be done with terraces or swales. My strawberries have decided to use this method on their own as they spread from my hugels to paths that catch eroded soil.

Arrabbiata sauce is my favorite, which I discovered while in Rome with my Dad when he had me tag along for an academic conference the summer after my freshman year of college. It is a spicy tomato based sauce usually served with penne, and maybe a bit of romano cheese if desired. It was excellent on hot afternoons, and we were getting then record high temperature's on that trip over 20yrs ago. I also became acutely aware of the cooling value of evapotranspiration and provisioning for fresh mountain water even in urban areas at places like the Trevi fountain, where the aquaducts sheet water over marble and noticably cool the piazza around it. This was likely an adaptation from ancient Persian designs.

https://www.savoringitaly.com/easy-penne-all-arrabbiata-spicy-tomato-sauce-recipe/

This winter, we worked with our county FireSafe Council to create about 2000gal of biochar while creating 3 acres of shaded fuel breaks and doing 2 permaculture design workshops tying into this work. The largest, oldest trees and shrubs (our manzanitas can be 200yrs+) were prioritized to protect while trying to leave a mosaic with as much biodiversity as possible wherever it would not be ladder fuel for an old, fire resistant tree. Doing so we hope to keep the beneficial effects of a diverse understory. These include catching dew and fog, shading soil, and stirring gentle breezes with the temperature differentials shade and vegetation induced orographic uplift creates.

During the shaded fuel break clearing, I set up our Wild Permaculture Guild’s Ring of Fire biochar kiln to char anything thinner than 3”, or about wrist sized. Our last day with the wonderful crew was a May workshop with over 30 participants. Participants learned how to make biochar, hot to do and get help with wildfire prep, and use larger woody debris for hugelkulture and watershed restoration structures. It went as well as I could have hoped.

The next week, we had a watershed restoration workshop using the larger wood. We left snags over 10” standing for habitat wherever it was not too risky for live older trees or structures. We used the largest wood for incised gully restoration structures that induce sedimentation to slow, spread and sink water.

We were able to stack many functions into the shaded fuel breaks that I think will help others do likewise for all our benefit.

Jay Colli wrote:Thanks for all the great replies folks! The 2” rubber couplings are surprisingly costly at $18 each, but the local availability and ease of use makes them pretty attractive. I do wonder how well they’d hold up under pressure when the tanker truck hooks up to fill the totes…

Do you plan to hook them up to roof catchment? This would require an overflow but would probably be worth it given the cost of a water truck delivery. I used flexible couplings when I built an auxiliary water storage with two IBCs on a gravel pad next to my main tanks. We use this for fire protection of the main tanks, watering trees, and supplying an flush toilet outhouse, and it overflows into a small pond at the highest point I could build one.

Depends on context, but if it was deforested or otherwise degraded land around here I would plant a mix of:

- Red Alder, with one to accompany every other tree for nitrogen fixation and quick growth of wood that is pretty good for heating and excellent for cooking.
- Madrone for heating fuel, as it is the best PNW native for btu’s per cord.
- Doug fir for prolific growth of one of the better softwoods for heating, especially if measured by years of growth. It is one of the fastest growing trees.
- Fruit (pome and stone) and nut (chestnut, walnut, white oak) trees for food for people and nutrient cycling wildlife while they produced biomass.

I am trying to get my wife on board with having only succulents up near the house and on the deck. We have no gutters for fore safety, but where rain runs off the roof I dug a swale with an excavator into the bedrock the house is on. That is filled with gravel and sloped towards garden terraces or our pond. Succulents grow well in this gravel and are quite  fire resistant.