I first came across this way of thinking when I found the work of Darren Doherty. He is a world-class designer who has established the Regarians platform where they use a more in-depth understanding of the scale of permanence in setting up a farm. The basic concept is a movement from the most energy required to change to (#1) to less energy (#9). I have used the scale of permanence in setting up our farm as a tool to help inform how specific components may impact the design over time. In this video, I have tried to briefly introduce the Scale of Permanence as a logical way to approach a landscape so that it can be used as a tool to better understand the holistic potential. This way of thinking about a landscape can help guide decisions that need to be made by weighing up its relative permanence in the system and the costs of energy that it would take to alter. It will be a powerful tool in a new farmers' toolkit as it takes time and experience to gain the required abilities to read the landscape efficiently.
Biochar is a form of carbon produced through incomplete combustion of carbon-based feedstock. The idea is to produce carbon in various forms of purity through a process called pyrolysis. It can be as a soil amendment which can increase the surface area and water holding characteristics of the soil. The basic process of producing biochar is to induce combustion of carbon-based feedstock at temperatures ranging from between 400 °C to 900 °C under low oxygen environments. Under these conditions, the impurities found within the feedstock are released as wood gases whilst the carbon remains intact. The process has been called carbonization and results in a product of 70 - 90 % carbon if the correct procedures are followed. During the process, the wood gases are burnt to further provide the heat required to ‘purify’ the feedstock. The end result is a brittle black media which takes on the sound of clanging glass and tastes like nothing.