Biochar As a Nexus for Soil, Climate, Water and Forest Management in the Rocky Mountains: Three Case Studies in Mine Reclamation.

Aggressive fire suppression has changed the vegetative structure and composition of many western US fire-adapted ecosystems, increasing the likelihood of high severity, catastrophic wildfires. Additionally, the mountain pine beetle epidemic has caused forest mortality across 4 million acres of Colorado alone, further exacerbating the problem of accumulated energy loading and increasing the risk for more frequent and larger catastrophic fires. Reclamation of disturbed lands, especially those associated with resource development, both current and historic, is a value-added market for reclamation products produced from low-value woody biomass feedstock. The proximity of mining impacted sites with highly degraded and low SOM soils to sources of low-value biomass feedstock provides an interesting nexus between multiple public and industry environmental issues.

For the last 5 years, our group has been researching the efficacy of converting low-value biomass into engineered biochar for degraded land reclamation in the west.  Biochar is a generic term given to any carbon-rich end product of pyrolysis, the combustion of biomass under essentially anoxic conditions. The soil application of biochar can achieve increased soil moisture holding capacity, increased vegetative performance, and carbon sequestration.  Herein, we present three research projects that are currently underway to test the performance of biochar on abandoned mine sites (silver, coal, and uranium).  We will show how biochar engineered for moisture holding capacity has been successfully deployed on USFS public lands to address erosion and sedimentation of abandoned mine waste rock piles threatening surface drinking water supply, and share preliminary data on soil moisture, vegetative cover, and metals transport.