This is an excerpt from Kelpie Wilson, who writes a blog called the
Biochar Prepper. I like how she is measuring some points and gathering some data to back up some of her ideas. It's not a double blind, placebo controlled laboratory experiment, but it is interesting data:
John S
PDX OR
Biochar is an outstanding way to add
carbon to soil and the highly porous biochar carbon is especially good at holding on to
water.
Part of vegetation management for fire in Los Angeles and elsewhere
should be converting those fuels to biochar in conservation burn piles or in simple kilns like the Ring of Fire Kiln. The impact of biochar goes beyond the fuel removal and the soil benefits. It also contributes to long term fire resilience by increasing soil moisture.
I have been monitoring a site near me where we turned about 50 burn piles into biochar two years ago. The site is an oak savannah that is now scattered with biochar patches of different sizes.
We had lots of rain here in December and very little rain so far in January and the ground is drying out quickly. I went out with my soil moisture meter a couple of days ago to see if there was any difference between the soil under the biochar patches and soil with no biochar. Here are some pictures that show the places where I measured, followed by the meter reading at that spot. I tried to measure patches with biochar next to some adjacent spots with no biochar and either bare soil or soil with vegetation. This was not a super accurate sampling method, but the results are consistent.
Moisture measurements in soil with biochar, soil with vegetation but no biochar, and bare soil.
Here is a table of all of the measurements. They consistently show that soil with biochar has more moisture.
These results are encouraging me to do more measurements to see if the biochar soil patches continue to hold more moisture throughout the seasons. The biochar research literature shows that biochar generally holds moisture in soil, and I have noticed that potted plants with biochar don’t dry out as fast (this is an experiment that anyone can try).
We humans have messed up nature’s infrastructure that has provided us with water and vegetation for livable climate. We broke it and we need to put it back. But we have allies to help. We can bring back the beavers and we can bring back good fire and put it to work across the landscape to make biochar on site and leave it there to hold water in the soil. We can learn and do better. Let’s do this.
Please, if you want to learn more about practical biochar tips and tricks for growing your own food, or you are interested in stewardship biochar for restoring natural ecosystems and biodiversity, check out some of my links below:
The Biochar Handbook by Kelpie Wilson
My Practical Biochar
Course on Regenerative Living
Order your Ring of Fire Biochar Kiln: RingofFire.earth
Check out my YouTube channel: www.youtube.com/@KelpieWilson
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© 2025 Kelpie Wilson
PO Box 1444, Cave Junction, OR 97523
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