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Submitted by Peter Donovan on Thu, 02/02/2012 - 9:40pm
The Texas Soil Carbon Challenge has been the biggest yet, fitting the state. So far I've done over two dozen baseline plots in this state, and I'm not quite done. The support of the Dixon Water Foundation has been wonderful.
The 2011 drought in Texas has been among the worst ever for a single year. In addition, fires have burned up huge acreages, including this ranch in West Texas (right).
From Vermont to here, it has been a wonderful trip, with many interesting places and wonderful people, many of whom are deeply interested and committed to improving biosphere function. It has been a pleasure to work with them.
There are several ways to support our work and partner with the Soil Carbon Coalition and the Soil Carbon Challenge.
Donations
We are a 501c3 nonprofit organization and donations are tax deductible. In donating to us, you have the option of supporting the Challenge generally, and/or supporting localized Challenges. Choose the link below to get to an online contribution page, where you also have the option of paying later by check.
Soil Carbon Challenge (general)
Vermont Soil Carbon Challenge
Texas Soil Carbon Challenge
If you would like to help initiate another local Soil Carbon Challenge, please contact us. Email and phone are on the bottom of every page.
Partnerships
A localized Soil Carbon Challenge is a great way to recognize and foster leadership based on performance and knowhow rather than on predictions and politics. We are ready to enter into working partnerships with local organizations who want to help do this. Our data is open, and our methods open-source. Contact us.
Participation
If you would like to participate in the Soil Carbon Challenge, contact us. Or if you are interested in learning our monitoring methods, hosting a workshop on the discovery of the carbon cycle in your community, or something else related, contact us. Our information is at the bottom of every page.
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Submitted by Peter Donovan on Sun, 11/06/2011 - 4:15pm
Submitted by Peter Donovan on Tue, 09/06/2011 - 8:01pm
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| ORTONVILLE, MINNESOTA--The past month I have been traveling through South Dakota and North Dakota doing baseline carbon monitoring. |
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| First stop in the Dakotas was outside of Newell, South Dakota, at the two ranches purchased in 2010 by Grasslands LLC in cooperation with the Savory Institute. Brandon Dalton manages the cattle and grass, and this year they are running about 3400 yearling cattle and several hundred cow-calf pairs on about 14,000 acres total. It was exciting to see such large herds moving across this splendid grassland. One day I observed large, ball-rolling dung beetles at work. Brandon helped me with a couple of plots. |
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Submitted by Peter Donovan on Mon, 08/08/2011 - 6:54pm
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| Top, the remains of Teton Dam near Newdale, Idaho. Middle, taking core samples in eastern Idaho. Bottom, drying core samples for processing along the Yellowstone River. (Solar hot water heater at right.) |
Recently I visited the site of the 1976 Teton Dam failure, a testimony to the failure of engineering and technology to control water. And driving down the Musselshell River in Montana, the evidence of this spring's catastrophic flood was everywhere. And the Montana grasslands are greener in August than many can remember.
With all the emphasis in the climate conversation on carbon, we sometimes forget that water vapor is the number one greenhouse gas. Without water vapor in the atmosphere, the earth would be a ball of ice even in summer, as Irish physicist John Tyndall recognized in 1859.
About a third of incoming solar energy is taken up by the evaporation of water, mostly from the oceans. Photosynthesis, which drives the carbon cycle, uses much less solar energy, much less than 1 percent of incoming solar. Yet this production of biomass, and the foodwebs and biodiversity it helps generate, is the primary factor for effective water cycles on land as these videos demonstrate. Without biomass to build and maintain them, and to slow water, our soils would wash into the sea even faster than some of them are now.
Submitted by Peter Donovan on Sat, 07/30/2011 - 6:22pm
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| The other day I did three transects for a ranch up Antelope Creek off Big Lost River: one in a flood-irrigated peat meadow, the next in an aerobic subirrigated meadow (pictured, with the bus in the background), and the last one in dry sagebrush. Within one mile, a tremendous contrast of soils.
I built a fire in the stove the next morning, as it was about a degree above freezing at daylight in this mountain valley at 6200 feet.
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| Today I bought a ratchet strap in Arco and succeeded in tying the bike onto the front of the bus. A big improvement! Now I don't have to step around and over the bike inside the bus, or constantly shift it in and out. |
Submitted by Peter Donovan on Sun, 07/24/2011 - 11:13pm
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| Relatively recent lava flows, Craters of the Moon, Idaho |
Near Arco, Idaho, I passed by the recent lava fields left by the passage of the North American plate over the hotspot that is now under Yellowstone National Park. The older flows have developed pockets of soil that support sagebrush, currant bushes, grasses, and forbs. Spider webs spread over pockets of apparently lifeless black lava, catching seeds, insects, and bits of organic material.
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| At night, I've been sleeping out of the bus under the thousands of stars, which like our sun are powered by nuclear fusion reactions that balance and counteract the forces of gravitational collapse. All life is ultimately powered by this energy. |
At midday today, a weather and other instrument panel at a roadside rest stop recorded 987 watts per square meter of incoming solar energy. I'm using some of this with a solar panel, but this energy capture is dwarfed by solar energy capture by plants. Though plants are much less "efficient" than even mediocre photovoltaic panels, they maintain and reproduce themselves and arise willy-nilly on soils that are able to absorb and retain some moisture.
Submitted by Peter Donovan on Fri, 07/22/2011 - 5:51pm
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| Doug McDaniel and Peter Donovan as Peter prepares to leave Lostine, Oregon on a cross-country soil carbon monitoring trip, July 21, 2011 |
The tour has begun, thanks to supporters and sponsors of the Soil Carbon Challenge! I've spent the last two months converting a used schoolbus into a mobile camper, and moving (and downsizing) into it. I will be on tour for the rest of 2011 in North America, doing baseline carbon plots and presentations/workshops about the carbon cycle, its importance to water, food security, and climate, and about the opportunity to turn atmospheric carbon into soil organic matter, which is fundamental to human civilization.
Southern Idaho, Montana, and the Dakotas are first. I plan to go as far east as Vermont and Boston (October), and then head south in November, crossing the southern states westward during the winter, reaching California in March or so. Watch this space for updates and itinerary details.
If you or anyone you know is interested in baseline carbon plots or presentations/workshops on the soil carbon opportunity, please contact me. My contact information is at the bottom of the page. To learn more about the Soil Carbon Challenge, go here.
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