Trailer for Good Fire Sequesters Carbon

Two passionate local carbon drawdown champions, fire ecologist Dr Andy Baker and Bundjalung cultural fire practitioner Oliver Costello, encourage us to befriend fire and use it as a regenerative force rather than allow it to be an uncontrolled destructive one.  They share their knowledge of the multiple benefits of reinstating cool mosaic burning in open forest ecosystems and while it may seem counterintuitive, good fire actually plays a crucial role in the global carbon cycle. The CO2 drawn down by a forests vigorous regrowth after a fire is equivalent to the smoke emissions created during the fire. The charcoal created by good fire, which is almost pure carbon, is additional and is then locked away long-term in our soils, rivers, wetlands and oceanic sinks. 

Watch and share this one minute, social media friendly version of the film and head to the website to watch the full version.

CO2 Drawdown Stories

Zero Emissions Byron’s ‘C02 Drawdown Stories’ is a quest to find and share Byron Shire’s most effective carbon sequestration projects and the dedicated, determined champions who are driving them. 

Episode 2: Good Fire Sequesters Carbon

Two passionate local carbon drawdown champions, fire ecologist Dr Andy Baker and Bundjalung cultural fire practitioner Oliver Costello, encourage us to befriend fire and use it as a regenerative force rather than allow it to be an uncontrolled destructive one.  They share their knowledge of the multiple benefits of reinstating cool mosaic burning in open forest ecosystems and while it may seem counterintuitive, good fire actually plays a crucial role in the global carbon cycle. The CO2 drawn down by a forests vigorous regrowth after a fire is equivalent to the smoke emissions created during the fire. The charcoal created by good fire, which is almost pure carbon, is additional and is then locked away long-term in our soils, rivers, wetlands and oceanic sinks. 

Watch and share the film below and if you are a resident of Broken Head or the Koonyum Range region ZEB and the landcare groups of Wilsons Creek, Huonbrook and Broken Head invite you to attend your local live Good Fire event to network with your neighbours and begin planning cool fire burns.  The tickets are free but numbers limited so please only book if you are a resident of the appropriate area and can definitely attend.  See details below and please advise via the Eventbrite contact function if you book but later discover you wont be able to attend so if there is a waiting list this can be managed to ensure maximum benefit from the events.

Among Byron Shire Council’s Australia Day Awards, the Library of Stuff was awarded ‘Community Initiative of the Year’. (Pictured above: Sasha Mainsbridge at left, with Library of Stuff co-founder, Celine Massa, with their Community Initiative Award.)

As Council describes it: “The Library of Stuff is a community operation that shares infrequently needed items with its members who are mainly households and local not-for-profit groups. Its aim is to reduce consumption and waste and help create a sharing culture in the community. It does this by encouraging people to ‘borrow’ not ‘buy’ and advocates for good maintenance and repair of items rather than throwing them out. This is a keystone of lower carbon living.

Since 1 January, Byron Shire Council is sourcing 60% of its total electricity needs from one wind farm in the NSW Southern Tablelands (pictured above).  The remaining 40% is being sourced from certified GreenPower projects.  This means Council has now achieved its 100% renewable energy target five years ahead of its 2027 goal.

“Achieving 100 percent of our energy needs from renewable sources also means we are making good progress towards our objectives in the Net Zero Emissions Action Plan for Council Operations 2025,” said Byron Shire Mayor, Michael Lyon.  “It certainly gives me hope that when we put our minds to it, we can make real changes to address climate change and reduce our carbon footprint.

“Demand-management is very important too, and to that end, we are reducing our energy usage across Council this year by implementing new energy efficiency measures at the Mullumbimby Administration Building, continuing our innovative pump station renewal program and progressing the bulk lighting upgrade for Byron’s street lights,” he added.

We're not fans of Christmas promotion starting in October but that's what's already happening in the shopping world so we thought we'd better divert your attention from buying more 'stuff' that often people don't need to supporting local services, particularly tourism businesses as they continue to be severely impacted by Covid-19 travel restrictions.  It's always been a great way to reduce your emissions but this year it's more important than ever to spend your Christmas money locally to help your friends and neighbours.

We saw Francesca Hart's "Good News Story" that she posted on Facebook yesterday and thought we'd amplify her recommendation of Byron Bay Eco Cruises:

Following purchase in 1998, months were spent clearing the rampant exotic weeds of Camphor Laurel, Privet, and Lantana  before proceeding to establish 16,500 Tree Macadamia Orchard and then planted approx. 60,000 rainforest and sedge species  along Riparian zones and gullies. 

The Orchard was managed under conventional practices until 2011 when it became obvious something was wrong. The orchard was showing signs of tree dieback and production was well below similar farms. 

About that same time, it was discovered that corn and potatoes had been grown on the property for many years during the  early 1980’s. Standard practices for growing those crops included heavy tillage practices on undulating land. The topsoil loss  during the normal rain events let alone “East Coast lows” would have been substantial. 

It was obvious that soil health needed to become the number one focus.  

In Nov 2011 Ray O’Grady became consultant agronomist and under his guidance a natural approach to nutrition began  particularly moving away from chemical fertilisers and using animal manures and compost. Aluminium toxicity was a major  problem and a program to balance all soil elements began. As time passed sourcing animal manure became difficult and it was  decided to make our own compost. Three full length rows of Macadamia trees were removed to make way for a compost  making pad. New compost making equipment was purchased and compost applications became a core practice for tree health instead of applications of chemical fertiliser. Following harvest each year 100 kg of compost is applied per tree. Sweet  smother-grass had been established throughout the orchard as a ground cover to help protect the precious topsoil that was  being re-formed. 

Gradually tree health and production improved but the 7-metre-wide rows of Macadamia trees began to canopy over the inter row space thus blocking sunlight to the orchard floor. This caused smother grass to rapidly disappear and provide little  protection to the precious topsoil that we had spent vast expense and time rebuilding.

In Aug 2017 an 8-year program commenced to remove 1,000 trees per annum. Tree removal was full row, every second row.  All the removed tree biomass was double ground and used as a component of our compost. Nothing was wasted. 

Full row tree removal left 14 metres between tree rows and large areas of uncovered and unprotected soil. Daniel had recently completed a Regen Ag course  and started hand sewing Sunflowers, Millet, Sorghum, Clovers, and other species to help stop the erosion. 

Hand seeding worked well but soon became impracticable. We purchased a small spreader to broadcast seed and later as we learnt and observed the benefits of the  cover crops (CC) a no-till seed drill and roller crimper were purchased to better plant and manage those crops

Transitioning from bare unprotected soil took approx.  2 months for the cover crops to provide soil protection and 9 months for grass & clovers to protect the area from the inter-row CC to the trunk line of the trees. This also started our journey into researching, learning, and implementing Regenerative Agricultural practices.  Plenty of mistakes were made but from those mistakes, other ideas and methods evolved.  

Learning by observation is important as is getting out with a spade. We discovered between 20 to 25 worms  per Sunflower root ball. The rough math was 110,00  Sunflower seeds per Ha = 2.5 million worms per ha working 24/7 and that’s just on Sunflower, let alone the  other 8 to 10 species in the planting mix. Deposits of  worm castings were abundant providing the perfect  natural package of highly active biological mixture of  bacteria, enzymes, rich in water-soluble plant nutrients, 50% more humus than topsoil – all provided  freely by nature. 

Vast amounts of Regenerative Ag information are  freely available on-line in audio, video, journals,  papers, and podcasts plus learning by doing. Once the tree removal program is complete half the Orchard area will be Macadamia Trees and the other half will grow diverse species of seasonal cover crops.  This will convert the Orchard from a monoculture to a polyculture plus the natural Rainforest plantings

I have got my household electricity use down low, installed solar, practice load shifting and am waiting for prices of home battery and EVs to come down, so what next to save the planet?
Firstly I live off my super and am now researching where to move some of it - away from ‘sustainable’ investments and into renewable project investments. Any ideas appreciated. Secondly being mindful the emissions generated by agriculture & meat production in particular, I am adding more meatless dishes into my repertoire and diet. Hopefully, the eggplant parmi photo is attached.

Anne