Olympic Carbon Fund
The Super Sack Agreement
What Olympic Carbon Fund Can Do for You...
If you are eligible, Olympic Carbon Fund will grant you a free cubic yard of biochar from Olympic Biochar, packaged in a "super sack". It will also pay for roughly half of any additional super sacks you request within a one-year period, so that your cost is just $75 per yard. Picking up these super sacks will be your responsibility. A pickup truck or a trailer serves nicely.
Eligibility Guidelines
current Fund status is:
The Olympic Carbon Fund priorities are: Food security first, restoration of degraded soil on acreage second, forest floors third, then all soil. Eligibility will be a tiered system based on the balance in the Fund. . .
When the Fund is low, Super Sack grants will be limited to farms, market gardens, large shared food gardens and Bucket Share hosts.
When the Fund is middling, people working to restore degraded soil will also be eligible to receive a free super sack of biochar. Forest stewards may also be eligible, depending on the request.
When the Fund is flush, anyone willing to work the biochar into the soil will be encouraged to apply.
What You Can Do for the Earth...
Incorporate this biochar into soil growing plants and trees. Recommended application rates vary, but a reasonable rule of thumb is to think in terms of 5-10% biochar, by volume, in the soil. One cubic yard of biochar, then, would be enough cover 500 square feet of land at 10% in the top 6 inches of soil or 2000 square feet at 5% in the top 3 inches. Biochar does the most good when incorporated into the root zone of the plant.
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Unless you are spreading this on top of the ground in fall, in fields that will not be planted anytime soon, you will want to charge the biochar before adding it to your soil so that it does not compete with the plantings for nutrients (especially nitrogen) in the first year. This can be accomplished by steeping the biochar in a dilute mixture of organic fertilizer(s) and water. The Biochar page on this website describes several ways of charging your biochar.
What You Can Do for The Olympic Carbon Fund...
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There are things you can do for the Fund that would really help us out...
1) We hope that you will send us a photo or two that captures your biochar process: picking it up, using it in the barn, adding it to compost, charging it, adding it to your soil... This would help us to document that the Fund is being used for its charitable purpose, and also helps us to promote the Fund to donors and grantors (ocf@jcfgives.org).
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2) If you are doing any before-and-after experiments, we would love to hear your story (ocf@jcfgives.org).
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3) When you have emptied your super sack, and if it is still in good condition, we would appreciate it if you could return it to Olympic Biochar. This will give OCF a $10 credit on its next order as well as being one less thing heading for the landfill.
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4) We hope that you will spread the word. Tell others about the Fund. Encourage biochar use.
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5) If you can, donate to the Fund and/or encourage other folk to donate. Promote the idea of tithing for climate. Our hope is that this becomes a self-sustaining Fund that will continue to sequester carbon and increase local food security well into the future.