Naturally occurring biochar?

I've read several posts by Redhawk and others about how many indigenous people made biochar.  Not just in North America, but in many parts of the world.  I am wondering if a lot of biochar has occurred naturally.

I live in a temperate part of the world.  We have lots of rainfall and large beautiful forests.  In the summer, it is extremely dry and we get fires.  Perhaps you have read about them.  The Native Americans of the Willamette Valley in Oregon, where I live, burned the valley floor every year, intentionally.  Historians and anthropologists have surmised that they did this to favor plant species they like, like camas and wapato, to make it easier to see deer when hunting them, and to provide a natural source of nutrients for their plants.   They lived in longhouses made of western red cedar, with say, 60 people in one house.  

It appears to me that  most tribal societies didn't have a linear, historic sense of time,  and they saw history as a series of cycles.  There were parts of the year when certain foods were harvested, there was a reverence for the bounty of the Earth, and there were times of rebuilding the soil and nature for future abundance.  I believe that most indigenous people have seen and do see themselves as a part of nature.  It appears to me that most modern people see themselves as separated from nature.  We live in modern houses and apartments, etc., and we wouldn't allow large fires to go through our living areas, nor would we start them.  From what I've seen, I would guess that most Indigenous wouldn't interfere with the natural ways that abundance is created in the soil and among the life cycles of plants and animals.  

It occurs to me that many indigenous communities probably saw the fire as a natural cycle. They knew it would rebuild the soil in the long run, and their garbage wasn't plastic or toxic chemicals, so they would inoculate the char just by disposing of their natural garbage and their regular use of going to the bathroom.  

It seems to me that they saw biochar not as an activity that people need to do to replenish the soil, but as a natural cycle of replenishment that we need to do to invest in the abundance of nature.  Biochar was probably just a natural part of being part of the Earth, and the replenishing cycles that all people are subject to for their future abundance.

Does this make sense to you?

Thanks,
John S
PDX OR

Natural fires have been making biochar for as long as fire has been around. That would be 300-400 million years, give or take. In places where there is a well-established fire cycle, we can measure the amount of pyrogenic carbon in the soil and even figure out how long ago it was laid down. For example, the black chernozem soils of Ukraine, some of the most fertile in the world, have carbon deposits that are at least 14,000 years old. The prairie soil of Iowa is similar and dates of 7-8,000 years are recorded.

As people came into landscapes that were productive, they either brought fire with them or modified and amplified the existing fire regime. In most places this became a mutually beneficial situation, creating diversity and lots of edges and gradients that you don't get in a closed canopy, and preventing the infrequent but catastrophic stand replacement fires that we are seeing now in so many ecosystems where fire has been suppressed.

On a global basis, landscape fire converts 12% of the carbon involved into pyrogenic form...that's around 250 million tons annually. Fire is not our enemy, it's just what it burns and how.

[PS: John, I suspect you would really enjoy the book Fire: A Brief History by Stephen J Pyne]

Thanks Phil.  Great post and I'll look for the book.
John S
PDX OR

I would imagine there is naturally occurring biochar from fires and lava flows though the eons.

bruce Fine wrote:I would imagine there is naturally occurring biochar from fires and lava flows though the eons.

Most certainly.  I wonder if some of the fertility attributed to volcanic soils is due to the biochar.