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News, research, events, and field reports from the Sonoma Biochar Initiative — newest first.

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Bi-Weekly Biochar Review Initiative News
April 25, 2026
Bi-Weekly Biochar Review
Bi-Weekly Biochar Review April 25, 2026  ·  Sonoma Biochar Initiative Bi-Weekly Biochar Review — April 25, 2026 A major institutional milestone marked April in the North American biochar industry: the U.S. Biochar Initiative officially rebranded as the American Biochar Institute (ABI) on March 24, reflecting the maturation of the sector and signaling a new phase […]
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Webinar: Emissions & Sequestration Study Results, Now Available Online.  Initiative News
April 5, 2026
Webinar: Emissions & Sequestration Study Results, Now Available Online. 
We are making our recent Webinar: Emissions & Sequestration Study Results, available online. If you were unable to attend the live webinar, you can watch a recording on Sonoma Ecology Center’s YouTube channel here. The presenters have also kindly made their presentation slides available, which can be found here. If you have any questions about this study […]
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Biochar’s Amazing and Other Songs About this Black Gold and Sonoma Valley Initiative News
March 22, 2026
Biochar’s Amazing and Other Songs About this Black Gold and Sonoma Valley
Calling all Biochar, Music-Loving Nerds! I recently got the wild idea that maybe we could use music to help spread the word about biochar and environmental sustainability.  Experimenting with Anthropic’s Claude to help with lyrics and a music generator to help produce each song based on the genre and feel I wanted for each, the […]
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Conversation With AI on Biochar Initiative News
February 22, 2026
Conversation With AI on Biochar
Q & A with Anthropic’s Claude Sonnet 4.6 on Biochar 2/22/26 and 3/7/26 By Raymond Baltar I recently read what I consider to be an important essay on the current state of AI titled “Something Big is Happening” by an industry insider named Matt Schumer. While this is somewhat of an obvious statement to anyone who has […]
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Webinar to Present FInal Results: Emissions Testing for Flame-Cap Kilns & Conservation Burns Vs Standard Open Burn Piles Initiative News
February 20, 2026
Webinar to Present FInal Results: Emissions Testing for Flame-Cap Kilns & Conservation Burns Vs Standard Open Burn Piles
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January 2, 2020
Biochar Production Workshops Jan. 6 – 10, 2020
ON-SITE BIOCHAR/PRODUCTION WORKSHOP IN BUTTE COUNTY, CALIFORNIA WITH KELPIE WILSON Monday, January 6, 20209:00 AM–12:00 PM at Butte College, 3536 Butte College Drive, Oroville, CA 95965 inRoom LRC 145 Introductory Seminar: Presentation will be by Kelpie Wilson of Wilson Biochar Associates of Oregon (www.wilsonbiochar.com): “An Introduction to Biochar and its Applications in Forestry.” Stephen Feher […]
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September 13, 2019
Permaculture, Biochar and Soil
Permaculture, Biochar and SoilSonoma Garden Park19996 7th St E, Sonoma, CA 95476Wednesday Sept. 18th4 P.M.. to 6 P.M. Join us for an amazing educational event to learn more about permaculture techniques and how biochar and compost blends fit into commercial and/or backyard garden soil management and carbon sequestration strategies. Two amazing teachers, Matt Powers (The Permaculture Student) […]
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June 17, 2019
Biochar Meeting at Shone Farm 6/19/19
SBI, in collaboration with Sonoma Water and other partners, is holding a meeting to discuss its recent activities, form new collaborative relationships, and to hear about other synergistic efforts to build healthier forests and manage fire adaptive landscapes, build healthier soils, sequester carbon, and build local resiliency. Download the flyer here. Please register here. The event is free.
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June 4, 2019
New Ice on Fire Documentary
An important new climate change documentary, co-produced by Leonardo DiCaprio and his father George DiCaprio and financed by HBO Films, will be streamed on HBO beginning on June 11th. The filmmakers traveled the world to document how fast things are changing and to interview a number of experts on the unfolding climate crisis. The focus […]
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March 9, 2019
Announcing Upcoming Conservation Burn Workshops
In collaboration with The Vineyard Team and the air quality management districts in San Luis Obispo, Monterey, and Santa Barbara counties, we are happy to announce that we will be giving conservation burn workshops in each county on April 3rd, 4th, and 5th. Each workshop will be 4 hours in length and include a lecture […]
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