EcoTours

I never thought to offer this short video here. I will have a complete series of short videos about all six steps required to make and use biochar available soon. They are in the works as I write this and will be ready just before planting season begins.
When we formed ECO-Tours of Wisconsin, it was literally a dozen friends and we used annual tax returns to buy as many native trees as we could, planting them wherever we knew they would thrive. We even found out ways of getting free trees that I have pledged to keep to myself. After 60,000 our focus shifted. We got tired of hauling around soil and we were using so many plastic landscaping pots that I needed to have a lot of space for storage. At one point we had tree nurseries in five different people's back and side yards! The way we typically do our work now, at least for the trees is by seed harvesting and re-distribution which has reduced our carbon footprint per tree immensely and eliminates the stress on the seedlings of re-potting and planting. This simple step has freed up vast amounts of time and allowed us to do more with less, again saving orders of magnitue on time freeing us up to experiment with beneficial ground covers and more forbs, native perennial food and medicinal plants. We plant far more native pioneer species, because so many areas are so degraded that they have become too harsh for trees. In many areas that have lost virtually all of their organic matter, we have to first build soil, before we can ever hope to get trees to live. Instead of focusing one all the reasons this enjoyable process is needed, let me instead tell you about our results. There are, of course, intangibles, but in very real ways, there is plenty to document in the way of positive impacts. One of our first plant-ins, over three hundred trees were scattered across less than 2 acres. Now, they create a small block of fifty foot tall, extremely young mixed forest with conifers dominating. In addition to eliminating the cost of mowing twice each summer, which was the management scheme before our plant-in, it has both reduced summer cooling and winter heating costs, provided a buffer to road noise and made the area around the house more like an oasis. Although the tree block is well away from th ehouse, it still gives delicious afternoon shade and has eliminated a major drainage problem in the area. Another place that we had planted very in our history is a natural area that has since become a wildlife corridor. Baird's Creek Parkway is the current name. in our early days, we just guerilla gardened it with thousands of trees, not waiting for "official" protection that was to come years later. One day, at a plant in, as our group had settled down for a mid morning break, a bird landed on one of the trees that we had planted there, not a half-hour before, it perched there for fifteen or twenty seconds, long enough for everyone to see it, then it squirted some fertilizer near the bas eof the tree and flew off. Today, there is a mixed young forest there, again improving the lives of th epeople as well as th ewildlife of the area, the soil life has re-establise=hed itself and dozens of gallons of fuel are not burned to mow the area, again, the previous management of this area was heavy on th efossil energy use. We offer thorugh as many outlets as possible, opportunities to improve efficiency, save money and time, stack functions and maximize quality of life. for those who are specifically interested in biochar and the sequestration of carbon, please check out our gofundme page: https://gofund.me/52fa3b77 look down past the video, and scroll down to "older updates", click there and scroll down to the oldest, that is my slide share Powerpoint that I use for the classroom portion of our biochar classes. Anyone who gives at least fifty to the land purchase campaign can get up to two hours of consulting to go with the Powerpoint, or to help you accomplish the six steps in your, unique situation. I ask people to give what they can so that we can continue sharing our stories of success and inspiring others to be involved with rehabilitating our planet and her soils.