Glomalin and Conservation in Humboldt County The 1996 discovery of the soil glue glomalin is changing our understanding of the impact of elevated carbon dioxide, while giving important clues to forest health, watersheds, revegetation, wildfire and carbon sequestration. Here I share what I have found so others may read and draw their own conclusions, and relate it to my own experience, Humboldt County issues and stories from the news.

Thursday, December 14, 2006

216. Carbon Credits become Real in Humboldt County 

Muck and Mystery, the Gary Jones blog, ran a repeat search for "Glomalin Critics" on October 24, 2006. http://www.garyjones.org/mt/archives/000401.html. He found no critics again but was surprised by new to him info from Sara Wright, including the importance of mycorhizzia in sustainable and no-till crop rotations. What was surprising was a comment from a Cornell ecologist David W. Wolfe about "surface chauvinism", apparently in response to why subsoil activities are rarely mentioned in ag circles.
While forestry is a branch of agriculture, one can see the very issues studied so long here in the Redwood Sciences Lab in conjunction with degradation from logging. I have posited my ideas which are logical extensions of the fine work of Ms. Wright, Mattias Rillig and others who have brought glomalin and its properties to light. We point out even water retention in the landscape was reasoned out for Rilligs DOE grant but went unfunded for research money. As far as global warming, Jones at last grasps the huge emissions released by tillage and its implications, although he fails to go the next step to see glomalin as at least a partial solution for global warming, much more efficient than turning off light bulbs as Leo DiCaprio discusses on Yahoo's global warming answers column of December 13, 2006.
Meanwhile large restoration projects are coming online. Last week saw water flow in the Owens River for the first time since the 1913, an amazing accomplishment in view of the need for water in a booming western state. Sixty-two miles of dried river bed will have water and revegetation before the water is put back into the L.A. Aqueduct. http://www.latimes.com/news/science/environment/la-me-owens7dec07,1,7528913.story?page=2&cset=true&ctrack=1&coll=la-news-environment In the north Humboldt County supervisors joined a growing chorus seeking removal of four dams on the Klamath River, for which the State of California has bond money and which are up for relicensing. Salt River in Ferndale is being studied for restoration by the Corps of Engineers, funding being added to the State Water Resources Control Board and Prop 50 funds from the state, administered by locally organized Humboldt County Resource Conservation District.
Seattle area businesses have begun identifying local agriculture products as "salmon safe" in an effort to restore runs. The theme is farms, dairies and vineyards in the region complying withy Salmon safe land use rules are so marked in the stores and shops that carry those products. http://www.latimes.com/news/science/environment/la-na-salmon9dec09,1,4058966.story?coll=la-news-environment.
Carbon credit sales to forests are finally coming to at least one Humboldt forest, the The Fred M. van Eck Forest Foundation, through the Pacific Forest Trust. The forest has 2100 acres and is expected to handle 500,000 over 100 years, or about 5000 tons a year, 2.5 tons per acre, and retail the credits at 10 dollars a ton in 5 ton lots. The first purchaser was Californias Environmental Protection agency's chief, Linda Adams, to offset a trip to Nairobi to attend a conference. The trip was figured at 14 tons. This was in response to the state climate team decison in May. About 250,000 tons of credits are available at the van Eck forest.
http://www.times-standard.com/local/ci_4837797
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