Black Ripple

10/14/2025

Have you ever wanted to make biochar but didn't have a kiln?

Come to the kickoff for the Black Ripple Biochar Kiln Loan and Training Program!

Saturday, Nov. 1 at Benbow KOA
Saturday, Nov. 15 at Southern Humboldt Community Park, Garberville

The Kiln Loan Program provides free training and loans kilns for southern Humboldt land owners and contractors to make biochar from woody material. Trainings include a hands-on workshop using a Ring of Fire™ kiln—the best available biochar kiln for this purpose. Attendees are then eligible for borrowing one of these kilns to make biochar for themselves or as contractors.

Branches and other brush are ideal materials for this purpose. The result is biochar, a valuable form of charcoal for amending soil that retains water and nutrients, enhances microbial habitat, and diverts carbon from re-entering the atmosphere. Making biochar substitutes for chipping and incineration.

The Black Ripple Kiln Loan Program was created to overcome several obstacles at once. By including public training, this program allows local residents and contractors to discover biochar, learn what it is, learn how to use it, learn how to make it, and get access to a kiln for making it. Biochar can be made faster and more efficiently with a kiln, but the training also describes how to make it without one.

Two trainings have been scheduled, and additional trainings have been planned. www.blackripple.com/kilnloanprogram

03/21/2024

Explaining biochar at the Arcata Seed and Scion Exchange with Susan Nolan, March 9. We started our biochar road show four years ago this month for the Institute for Sustainable Forestry.

01/16/2024

Offering an all-day workshop called Cruising for Poles, the first step in building with small trunks of Douglas-fir, which grows everywhere up here. Led by natural builder Colin Gillespie and myself.

Saturday, February 24, 2024
9:00 AM 4:30 PM

Round poles and locally milled wood from sustainably managed forests provide the bones for a simple climate-resilient architecture. As part of a reciprocal relationship with forested landscapes, building with locally-harvested materials reduces GHG emissions in both manufacturing and transportation.

Spring is the time to select and harvest poles.

Feb 24 9:00 AM09:00 Cruising for Poles Saturday, February 24, 2024 9:00 AM 4:30 PM 09:00 16:30 Google Calendar ICS Round poles and locally milled wood from sustainably managed forests provide the bones for a simple climate-resilient architecture. As part of a reciprocal relationship with forested la...

01/11/2024

Cruising for Poles—All-Day Workshop

Round poles and locally milled wood from sustainably managed forests provide the bones for a simple climate-resilient architecture. As part of a reciprocal relationship with forested landscapes, building with locally-harvested materials reduces GHG emissions in both manufacturing and transportation.

Spring is the time to select and harvest poles.

At this workshop you will learn:
• how to identify useable poles in the forest, based on intended uses
• selection of poles based on additional criteria, such as oak woodland restoration and habitat improvement
• how to harvest and cure poles
• basic principles of design and building with poles

WORKSHOP LEADERS

Colin Gillespie

Colin has worked in the construction trades for over 20 years. He has training and experience in eco-forestry, permaculture design and natural building, as well as a degree in sociology. He has pioneered combining the benefits of modern and ancient techniques in elegant round-pole timber frames with straw-bale infill, adding to his extensive experience in clay and lime plasters, sculpted cob, and waxed earthen floors. His highly efficient, healthy homes are designed for living in harmony with nature.

Gray Shaw

Gray is an arborist with over 40 years of experience in the Bay Area, along with training in permaculture and ecology. He is a board member of the Institute for Sustainable Forestry in Redway and gives public workshops on making biochar from forest waste. He has been restoring the forest where he lives for 14 years from the impacts of logging and fire suppression.

Where: 4681 Seely Creek Rd (5 miles from Briceland Rd)
Date: February 24, 2024
Time: 9am-4:30 Vegetarian Lunch provided, please RSVP

RSVP & Cost: $75 www.blackripple.com/payment Camping is free and available the night before and after event. Questions? gray AT blackripple DOT com

01/09/2024

After eight years, the forest around the cabin looks more like the oak savannah it once was. Now I'm reaching out with workshops, kilns, and biochar made from dead and thinned material. Stay tuned!