Northeast Biochar Symposium 2009

November 13, 8:30am - 5:15pm

University of Massachusetts Amherst, Campus Center Auditorium

Biochar is a carbon-rich soil amendment that enhances soil fertility, sequesters carbon to help reverse global warming, increases renewable energy production, and creates jobs.

The Northeast Biochar Symposium 2009 will highlight current biochar research and technological advances and provide vital information to public officials, researchers, farmers and landscape professionals, green industry businesses, and sustainable energy professionals. The symposium will provide a forum for the exchange of research findings, help to gain national media attention and stimulate discussion on biochar. It will also establish a Northeast Biochar Research Consortium.

Keynote speakers include:

David A. Laird, National Soil Tilth Laboratory, USDA Agricultural Research Service
Dr. Johannes Lehmann, Crop and Soil Sciences, Cornell University, Chair, International Biochar Initiative and Co-editor, Biochar for Environmental Management
Debbie Reed, Executive Director, International Biochar Initiative
Dr. Christoph Steiner, Biological and Agricultural Engineering, University of Georgia

This event is open to everyone. Free admission for UMass faculty, students and staff. Registration for individuals is $95 before October 30 and $130 afterward. Student registration is $55, $90 after October 30. There is an optional dinner with an additional fee of $35.

For more information and to register,
go to: www.nsm.umass.edu/biochar09.

Biochar Demonstration Day: November 14, 8am – 4pm

New England Small Farm Institute, 275 Jackson Street, Belchertown, MA

Practical hands-on applications and methods discussed the previous day. Knowledgeable presenters demonstrating and explaining their retorts and small stoves, with principal attention directed to the newly manufactured mobile Adam Retort, capable of producing up to 800 pounds of biochar per batch, plus discussions about application of biochar in soil and related aspects of heat and energy generation and use.

Demonstrations will include:

Premiere Introduction of the Mobile Adam Retort with Bob Wells and Peter Hirst, Founders of New England Biochar
Top Lift Updraft (TLUD) Gasifier Stove Demonstrations with Drs. Paul Anderson and Hugh McLaughlin
Top-down Brush Pile Demonstrations with Dr. Tom Reed and Ted Wysocki
Barrel Retort Demonstrations with Doug Clayton and Frank Jeffers
... and more!

Suggested donation: $25 per person (checks made out to NESFI), payable beforehand or on the day itself at NESFI. For more information and to register, go to www.smallfarm.org.