Biochar production to reduce wildfire risk & bolster rural economies: A New Mexico case study

Dr. Tomasz Falkowski, from University of New Mexico, presents an investigation of opportunities for biochar production to reduce wildfire risk & bolster rural economies in New Mexico. Pyrolyzing biomass wastes, such as slash from thinning, into biochar can help sequester carbon to mitigate climate change and improve soil health. However, biochar has not been widely adopted throughout Intermountain West, so Falkowski and his colleagues investigated the often under-studied sociocultural, economic, and biophysical barriers to biochar production and identified important factors to inform future outreach efforts that will help to expand biochar production from thinning slash in northern New Mexico.