Giant Carp Threaten Great Lakes

It is a pretty good bet that the carp will be in the Great Lakes, if not already, very soon.  My attitude is to get over it.  We eat catfish and I suspect carp is a lot better.  Besides it is a staple in China.  Obviously they have been unable to fish them out either.

If anything we need to investigate what else may be added to the mix to enhance production and perhaps also give other species a chance.

The Great Lakes can produce thousands of tons of carp, all of which will have a ready market.

I have recently observed that the lakes of the boreal forest are also natural pens for the fresh water production of Coho.  Escapement will end up in the Arctic or the Great Lakes.

In time, these will be the two greatest single commercial fisheries on earth likely employing millions.

Giant, leaping Asian carp threaten US Great Lakes

by Staff Writers

Chicago (AFP) Jan 19, 2010

http://www.terradaily.com/reports/Giant_leaping_Asian_carp_threaten_US_Great_Lakes_999.html

Asian carp were originally imported to the southern United States in the 1970s to help keep retention ponds clean at fish farms and waste water treatment plants. Heavy flooding helped them escape into the Mississippi in the 1990's and they have since migrated into the Missouri and Illinois rivers. Should they make it into Lake Michigan in large numbers it would be extremely difficult to stop their spread throughout the five interconnected Great Lakes and up into the St. Lawrence Seaway.

Huge Asian carp, which act like "aquatic vacuum cleaners" and leap into the air when spooked by motorboats, may have invaded the US Great Lakes despite a massive effort to block them, officials said Tuesday.

Researchers analyzing water samples have discovered fragments of Asian carp DNA in Lake Michigan, although there is still no evidence that that fast-breeding fish have breached electric barriers set up along Chicago-area waterways.

"Clearly this is not good news," said Major General John Peabody, commanding general of the US Army Corps of Engineers' Great Lakes and Ohio River division.

The Corps is one of a host of state and federal agencies working to stop the spread of the voracious carp which can grow up to seven feet long (2.1 meters) and weigh 150 pounds (68 kilos).

Federal officials have warned that Asian carp - which have no natural predators - could have a "devastating effect on the Great Lakes ecosystem and a significant economic impact" on the seven-billion-dollar sport and commercial fishing industry.

"From what we have seen in other parts of the country, Asian carp could out-compete our native, sport and commercial fish in southern Lake Michigan," Charlie Wooley, deputy regional director of the US Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), said in a statement.

"We call them an aquatic vacuum cleaner because they filter important food resources out of the water and turn it into carp biomass."

It's possible that the DNA discovered in two different samples could come from a decomposed carp which was carried through the electric barriers, officials said.

Or it could come from eggs that were transported on the belly of a bird. Another possibility is that flooding may have allowed the carp may to swim around the barriers.

"The short answer is we just don't know," said FWS spokeswoman Ashley Spratt.

"We have not actually seen live carp above the barrier," she told AFP. "The information we currently have does not suggest they're there in sustainable populations."

Teams will set out on boats as soon as weather allows to search the lake for signs of live carp, and the regional coordinating committee will accelerate its efforts to block their spread, she said.

Officials are considering a number of options including another mass kill through poisoning, sterilizing males to slow breeding, building new electrical barriers and researching other "biological controls."

The test results were released hours after the fight to block the carp was dealt a blow by the US Supreme Court, which refused to force the closure of the Chicago shipping canal system as an emergency measure to stop the invasion.

"The motion of Michigan for preliminary injunction is denied," the Supreme Court wrote in a single line ruling.

Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox called upon President Barack Obama to use his executive powers to close the locks and said he hoped the Supreme Court would consider the issue more carefully in another pending case.

"I am extremely disappointed the Supreme Court did not push the pause button on this crisis until an effective plan is in place," Cox said in a statement.

"While the injunction would have been an extraordinary step by the court, Michigan and the other Great Lakes states are facing an extraordinary crisis that could forever alter the lakes, permanently killing thousands of jobs at a time when families can least afford it.

Asian carp were originally imported to the southern United States in the 1970s to help keep retention ponds clean at fish farms and waste water treatment plants.

Heavy flooding helped them escape into the Mississippi in the 1990's and they have since migrated into the Missouri and Illinois rivers.

Should they make it into Lake Michigan in large numbers it would be extremely difficult to stop their spread throughout the five interconnected Great Lakes and up into the St. Lawrence Seaway.

A Carp Recipe

Ingredients

2 pounds carp fillets

1 cup milk

1 cup biscuit mix or pancake mix

2 teaspoonss 

salt

lemon wedges

  paration

Remove the skin of the carp and take out all the brownish-redish-colored part of the meat, the "mud vein"; discard.

Chunk up the rest of the carp fillets. Place fillet pieces in a shallow dish. Pour the milk over them and let it stand for half an hour, turning the fillets over once during that time.  Stir the

salt into the biscuit mix. 

Take fillets out of the milk and pat them into the biscuit mix, covering both sides. Fry fillets in deep fryer or in medium hot oil in fry-pan for 5 - 10 minutes until cooked through and browned on both sides. Use tongs or slotted spoon to turn them. 

Drain on paper towels. Serve with lemon wedges if available. 

Serves 4-6

Peggy Korth on Celluose and Cattails

Some excellent commentary on the conversion of cellulose into glucose and thence onto ethanol.. I have not been overly optimistic on cellulose conversion, but recent work is progressing well enough to make one somewhat more positive.

Without question, every agricultural process produces a large amount of waste cellulose. Cheaply converting this into a viable feedstock for at least the production of ethanol must be a priority. If the farm gate price were only sufficient to cover the cost of the labor then the whole industry would be radically changed. input.

I have no doubt that cattail culture will emerge as a mainstay of the agro business world. Peggy’s work is going a long way toward making it practical and showing us how to construct production paddies.

I have also mentioned before that this is a natural crop for the boreal forest. It is also a likely fodder crop for cattle. Thus we have a viable agricultural protocol for the millions of acres of northern wetlands.

Some comment is also made regarding mosquitoes. In the boreal forest, the trick is to do spring fieldwork early and harvest after the first frost. Else where, it becomes appropriate to produce bat sheds at strategic locations around the fields and harvest the guano. Of course you keep up a water flow and encourage natural enemies, but after that you need airborne eating machines and little surpasses the bat.

Cattail Histhings
May 2009


Water Assurance Technology Energy Resources
40 Sun Valley Dr., Spring Branch TX 78070
FAX (830) 885-4827; Cell: (512) 757-4499
Email: rpk@gvtc.com


Cellulosic processing Question/ Answer from JC: Cattail Histhings often repeats excerpts from correspondence to build our newsletters. Thank you everyone for your input. Messages may be edited so that the intent helps others understand a lesson. “Many people are just like you--they want to know what to do and where to go for help”.



PK Explains: Any natural fiber can be used in cellulosic processing. The scraps from cotton milling may be cheaper and easier to break down. The ratio of lignin to higher potential starch construction within the cells impact cellulosic processing (and pulping when processing paper). Cellulosic processing is not difficult. It is simply expensive.



With enough acid, you can turn most any biomass into glucose. Depending on the lignin content, you will have varying degrees of success. At this time, cellulosic processing is not a part of our cattail conversion interests. Having lost a small fortune backing cellulosic processing technology and understanding the next generation of GMO’s confirms skepticism. At this time STS advisors and consultants serve community projects and farms. We are not currently addressing industrial markets. Cellulosic processing may become cost-effective when oil reaches $200 a barrel. Enzymes are an alternative to the expensive use of acids. Each feedstock requires a different mix. Cattail projects use natural sugars and starches.



An African Contact, SK, Discusses Facility Design and Cost: The context I'm focused on now is the Lake Chad basin, where there are somewhere above 25000 sq Km of cattails desiccating a continent. This is Typha Australis, with a much larger rhizome (perhaps for longer droughts) and hopefully larger yields. I see both large company and village scale use, both for ethanol and for biogas & charcoal.



PK Comments: Work-force costs will influence distillery design. The expense of automation may not be as important in an economy that wishes to employ a greater number of low-wage workforces. Strategically placing production units close to resources saves time and money.



Cattail as Food: SK states… I'm hoping that its food production capacity will also be exploited. Just clearing it will make irrigation work more effectively, and greatly reduce their flooding problems. Keeping the lake and its tributaries clear is what I hope to make profitable through ethanol. Right now, there are clearance efforts in several Nigerian states. As far as I can tell, none of the biomass is being collected and used, so the never-ending nature of its clearance will eventually bankrupt them.


PK Applauds: Yes, yes, yes! The food aspect needs to be re-discovered. It is the harvesting that makes it so very difficult to use natural stands of cattails. Cutting the stalks below water level is the best way to ‘clear’ an area. It may take several cuttings to control/ obliterate a stand.


My unique methodology for growing and harvesting cattails changes the dynamics of using the crop for food, fuel, and fiber/ pulp. Perhaps I will even be recognized for this some day. Since I am not (nor have I previously) made money for my fourteen years of effort, then perhaps, I should be awarded a world peace recognition. Please read the past copies of the newsletters. They are full of practical information to jump start the new enthusiasts.


Beyond Wastewater Remediation to Desiccation: SK Continues… Similar problems are occurring in India, and probably China. Recent contacts in Punjab and Kashmir confirm the role of Typha in their desertification process. My beloved cattails are a desiccation machine.


PK Comments: There are many botanicals filters that remove chemicals or break complex chemical chains. Cattails are one of those miracle workers as are certain mushrooms (fungi). Our work with healthy forests and watershed restoration includes chemical reduction.


RK Likes our Field Pictures: Thank you - that is a good looking field. I believe that one place this will work very well is in the boreal forest. That begs the next question. Have you caught wind of any Russian efforts from past years? This is just the sort of thing they would have been doing and it would be worthwhile to read any of their literature. Regards, Bob


Comment: Please share your stories and knowledge of cattail application. What is happening in Russia?


Rob Asks: I would like to hear from someone who is already producing ethanol from cattails. My question is, how do you control the mosquitoes? I mean, won't acres of stagnant water attract droves of the little disease-ridden pests?

PK Replies: With or without cattail there are pesky insects; A balance with flowing water helps.


The Eternal Student: Cattails are a weed that can grow in many different environs. The study done by my mentor as a DOE ethanol project is given in the book Cattails to Ethanol. During the past season I have been analyzing a cattail environmental literary review at the University of Texas Coastal Studies Labs on various cattail issues including salinity selecting from thousands of academic papers. To access studies, most state-owned university libraries allow citizens to use their reference resources as well as hiring an IT person to assist in search and operating the systems. The lab manager recommended Google Scholar as another good resource. Most studies are from three to thirty pages long. I filled several notebooks and thumb drives with information to site in grant writing and funding documentation.


There are many misconceptions about cattails. Cattails grow best in a swale or gently moving small flow. They are highly invasive and support their entire life cycle/ food chain in a natural habitat. We plant ours as a farm crop and recommend using wastewater from a municipal flow or animal feed lot if possible or diverting a contaminated waterway (possible mining small flow) through beds that are designed to make harvesting easier. Fish and amphibians eat mosquitoes.


I do my best to answer questions. However, it would be better to find references through your academic resources. Recently I found thousands of references from the pier reviewed journals in university library Internet reference guides and saved dozens as academic references. Extremely detailed information can be found in Typha (cattail) studies done over the past thirty plus years. Although some funding sources expect recent references, older ones may offer in-depth analysis. Some of the newer ones simply quote the older study.

Proposal on control and exploitation of aquatic weeds by VS, Project Scientist, State Council for Science & Technology in India… This inquiry is with reference to an article on http://www.ethanolproducer.com regarding the subject cited above. VS states…You had mentioned production of ethanol from Typha (cattail). This is mentioned that we are having two species of Typha (Typha angustifolia and Typha elephantine) in huge amounts in our Punjab wetlands. I hadvecertain queries:

1. Is the extraction of ethanol possible from the species I had mentioned earlier (available here).


Ethanol can be made from any sugar or starch.


Answer: Yes, the four species of cattails tested in the pilot project all have significant ethanol production potential. However, it sometimes takes a plant several generations to acclimate when moved to a different climate zone. Some species acclimate by the second season.
2. Is this weed a threat to biodiversity (as it inhibits growth of other plantations).


Answer: One of our wetlands experts does not include cattails in their riparian habitats because it can be difficult to control. Because we intend to plant the cattail as a farm crop in flooded fields and harvested with standardized farming equipment, we are not planting marsh land in which the plant would overtake other species. Blown seeds can take hold in most any wet soil.


3. Is it advisable to root out all the Typha available in our wetlands despite that birds use this as a hiding and roosting place.


Answer: You could never root out all the plant. Re-growth will come from an eyed rhizome, a basic unit of vegetative reproduction and blown seeds. However, you could significantly decrease habitat and that may not be wise. Clearing a path in alternating rows every other year should allow wildlife cover and re-growth if you have equipment to harvest the roots in the natural habitat. Uneven stands of plants have greatest biological diversity
4. What kind of machinery is required for ethanol extraction?


Answer: I would recommend a grinder for the rhizomes and a specialized juicing press for the stems. What equipment is available for YOUR scale of production at this time?

5. Do we need some special training for extraction of ethanol from Typha.


Answer: Most likely not if you are already familiar with distilling. You may need special equipment to harvest the rhizomes and pre-process the biomass prior to making your mash. We intend to convert existing technology from the sugar cane industry for the juicing and heavy duty grinding for the rhizomes possibly similar to sugar beet pulping.
Thank you TS for Checking In with Our Cattail Histhing Group. Dug up some rhizomes and found they have a fibrous shell around the starch. I made a couple attempts at processing them for a mash, but the stringy stuff clogs the system. It’s rudimentary right now, and the disposal (an improvised garbage disposal set up for grinding) worked good for potatoes and small chunks of rhizomes, larger chunks were a problem. It was super fun digging them up, really enjoyable on my knees, I need a better way. I have better ways and other options, just need to get to them.PK and the rest of us thank you and look forward to your ideas.


JM and Others Get ready to Produce Ethanol: I'm looking for 6-10 gallons per hour. What part of the cattail does your machinery take?



Answer: A distillery can easily process the beer from a mash at 6-10 g/h. For most of our people mashing the cattail rhizomes is a toughest job. If you are using mature rhizomes, they are very tough and require stages of shedding or grinding. This summer we will be experimenting with new-growth rhizomes anticipating a much easier mashing process. We will most likely first break the rhizomes in a mulching machine. The small mulching machines sold for home mulching are not strong enough for tough old rhizomes--or so I'm told. One of our team members ran a saw mill for many years. I look forward to his practical suggestions. A tub grinder would be great for larger loads. Cutting the rhizomes into small chunks should allow a person to use commercial kitchen equipment.



Concerning the stalks, the only juicing process that I anticipate finding excellent results is thorough my associates that invented the system for pulping sugar cane. They are setting up three systems for the State of California this summer to run various feedstocks. We will send them a few cattail totes when they are set up so we do not have to cross the border into Canada with questionable biomass. I previously reported on the great pulping results from ratting cattails--a primitive way to process paper pulp. Our associate’s method will render a better pulp AND appropriately "juice" the stalks. And then I will report on the sugars in the stalks. We know they are abundant, but bind to the pulped cellulose through primitive juicing methods.



AirCore Progress: The AirCore small scale distillery series are intended to be scaled to meet the needs of the producer: On a small scale that can be multi staged anywhere between 2 and 24 L/h as can the larger units be scaled and operated in tandem. A single 25 g/h unit can be multi-set to produce in multiples of 25 g/h up to 500 g/h very economically, without expensive buildings or real estate. No matter the scale, if it is approached with common sense the cost savings are practical and purposeful. Various feedstocks can be processed.

Depending on the feedstock, availability, pilot project testing, etc. the units may be set up in tandem to produce optimum output and may be operated separately when small volumes are present. With a continuous feed system, you can run various feedstocks in different fermentation batches and COMBINE beer in the distillation process. One of the best parts of the modular concept; no matter the number of units, no matter the front end process, and the feedstocks, the different stages of production can be interchanged and the final product remains the same. Do you need engineering assistance? We look forward to your reply


CD in Canada Understands Sustainability: I just saw an article on the web about a proposal you made about working on cattails for ethanol production. I am very interested in this subject too, but I am having trouble finding good information on work that has already been done in this area. Would you happen to have a list of references or old proposals that could lead me to other information on the subject? I live on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada, and even though I think there may be a good market here for ethanol as a transportation fuel, we don't have any producers within an economical shipping distance. If technology for ethanol production from things like cattails can be made economical, I would like to know more.


Survival Foods—Cattail Shoots and Bamboo: The following article may be of interest. However, the cattail rhizome does not require complicated processing as needed in cellulosically processing bamboo shoots. A reader Responds: I think we will be seeing many more suggestions such as this as per the recommendation of David Blume in his brix analysis of various natural vegetation. Bamboo shoots are a food and therefore have nutritive value as a natural sugar or starch. Any vegetation that supplies nutrients i.e. glucose will also be an energy producer


New method of producing bioethanol from bamboo developed in Shizuoka HAMAMATSU, Shizuoka -- A research team at Shizuoka University has succeeded in developing a new technology to efficiently produce bioethanol from bamboo.


The woody grass grows faster than trees, and doesn't cut into food sources like sugar cane or corn, making bamboo an attractive alternative for producing the fuel.


The team, led by biochemical engineering professor Kiyohiko Nakasaki, has developed a method of rendering bamboo into an ultra-fine powder; which, at 50 micrometers, is 10 times finer than that produced by previous methods.


To produce ethanol from bamboo, its plant cell's major fiber component, cellulose, needs to be broken down into glucose, a simple sugar, before fermentation. However, cellulose is hard to break down, and previous efficiency rates only reached 2 percent. With the new method, cellulose can be converted into glucose at an efficiency of 75 percent. The team is aiming to raise that figure to 80 percent.



The method is a combination of various techniques, including removing lignin -- the second-largest component of plant cells -- using lasers, and a more efficient biodegrading process. The Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries and others hopes to boost annual bioethanol consumption to 2.2 million kiloliters by 2030. Japan currently depends on imported bioethanol. Nakasaki's research team estimates that there is about 93 million tons of bamboo in Japan. According to the team, cutting bamboo at a rate of 3.3 million tons or less per year will not harm the ecosystem, and will produce enough bioethanol to cover about 10 percent of the ministry's target figure.


Grow it UP/ Talk it UP--What is holding back any new feedstock? The government primarily supports cellulosic ethanol. And previously due to the efforts of BBI and the RFA the government spent excessive money supporting corn. Why? Perhaps it is because fuel and farm industry leaders are lobbying for what suits the 'big boys' needs more than the needs of the farmer or the public and assuming that bigger is better. Dominance by focus groups that want to industrialize and control energy markets is one thing holding all of us back. However, they did succeed in expanding fuel ethanol markets and availability. Also, not enough farmers are willing to take a chance. The industrial application cost of equipment and the lack of cost effective small and mid-sized processing equipment availability will soon be solved. New designs and systems are now being marketed. Sustainable Technology Systems intends to join the marketing offering systems at about 33% less than competitors.


How Sweet It Is: AC writes--Thanks for forwarding information on sweet sorghum. I have a login to their web site, but am not an official member, so am not getting the presentations. The information is very good. It appears that most everything could soon be in place to add sorghum as an energy crop. What do you think is holding up the actualization of this technology?

PK Suggests: Without subsidies the margin-of-profit is not quite high enough for investor funding of large projects. Co-product support can tip the scales in behalf of production. Hopefully we will witness a new influx of small and mid-sized production facilities and a new paradigm in pulp and fiber application. Unfortunately, we need new innovation in the pulp and paper industries to support small-scale production of products as well. Industrialization is good up to a point—and then we need to scale systems back down to cottage industries. (My opinion)


Ideas for Starter Beds and Proof-of-Concept: Seeding a saturated growing beds can be effective. Try building an elevated growing bed with about twelve inches of soil--only half of which needs to be above ground if it makes it easier. Control the moisture with a breathable plastic cover (remay). Transplant the shoots in a hospitable spring-time area. Cattails like a slight flow of nutrient rich water once they sprout.


Below Grade: To facilitate easy flow through, we will lower our beds below grade and simply cut off the water supply to harvest the rhizomes.


Roots, Rhizomes, and Seeds: Our propagation specialist uses a sterilization technique to assure crop success when planting seeds. In our summer project we intend to experiment with seeds, cut up rhizomes, and various nutrients including cattail mulch. Please know that what works in one region may differ in another. Please share your trials.



TS Says Thanks for the Info: I agree entirely with a free transfer of ideas and information. The focus on getting wealthy needs to be tempered with an eye towards survival, and not just making the world into haves and have-nots. I’m not saying that everyone gets everything for free; people need to earn some things in life through sweat and mental exercise. If a person works at it he should be allowed to succeed, not like crabs in a bucket where the others will pull the one climbing out back in, but not a handout either. It’s got to be both ways, and improving for everyone you improve things for yourself.
PK: Great comment… Thanks


AH Looks to Technology: Thanks for information! The same day (25.02.2009) Novozyme A/S released news that they have cost effective enzyme complex for biomass hydrolyze which will be available commercially 2010. Let’s wait and see. If you have any "backdoor" to this new product I would be interested.
PK Encourages Novelty: Yes, this is the same presentation that was given at the RFA annual conference I attended in San Antonio TX. Please contact me to share your potential for receiving the product through your local approved channels. The company is most interested in novel applications. Wheat straw is being both tested and applied in a number of locations. Do you have another steady supply of a feasibly good biomass? However, natural yeasts can do a great job on starch–rich and sugary feedstock without the expense of cellulosic processing.


As I mentioned previously, the American Cultures catalog represents about three dozen cultures tested to produce significant cellulase. As stated by the Novozome people, combinations of cultures can produce various effects. Also, the sources of the cellulase producing microbes are quite common.


A good lab tech can isolate a strong culture and come up with a new variety of enzymes right in your neighborhood. Readg Lynn Margulis’s work on Five Phyla. There are an infinite number of microbes and combinations of microbes. The labs that pay big bucks to researchers do not need to be the only players. Their organization allows them to play political games and garner government funds. However, people like you and me can also come up with workable systems and they do not need to be genetically modified. Hazards are not limited to GMO’s either. It is wise to have enough background to be cautious and apply good technique.


AH Understands Economics: When you buy enzymes you are buying activity units and not the weight (powder) or volume (liquid). It means that enzyme with activity 1 mln/g at price 10 USD/kg is cheaper than same enzyme with activity 0,5 mln at price 7 USD/kg. The raw material I am working with is local wheat straw. The pretreatment is lime pretreatment because lime is cheap chemical and easily recoverable by blowing fermentation byproduct CO2 through limewater. The very important step we have found is biomass "wash" after pretreatment. It greatly improves following enzymatic hydrolyze and brings down acid quantity for alkaline neutralization.

PK Discusses RFA Presentations: The Genecore people stressed this alkaline neutralization and it was also mentioned by the Novosomes people. The new 1500 series is more tolerant to pH swings. Different feedstocks respond to pH differently as well. And so you create a biological soup that is unique for each feedstock and each enzyme producing microbe or combination thereof. A voracious person carefully guards his formulae and intends to become a billionaire—or is that careful people greedily guard their findings depending on investments, investors, time and wit. (Inventors want to skip the millionaire stage now days.) Open source is good, yet the investigator also has to make a living. Propagation of pure strains requires good lab technique with appropriate back-up cultures AND the ability to create the same results consistently. My mentor required FIVE consistent tests to approve a technique. Three times repeated is also acceptable in proposal writing.


Even when training people to build cultures ‘in house’ a natural decline in potency is not unusual. Back when I was working with building a business model for production facilities, the primary concern was in keeping the cultures both clean and secure. A number of pirates came to visit and offered money pending our going to their property and setting up a demonstration in their lab. Ha!


What I see happening with the two lead cellulosic processing companies is that they do not have the staff or money or time to go through a multitude of test regimes. Because they want to branch out, they are willing to enter into contracts with qualified investigators to forward their basic foundation. Now, I do not know what will happen if you (me) the investigator take the product to a new plateau. But I can guess.


If you really want to set up a test regime and have appropriate facilities, let’s talk. If you read the archives, I have given enough information in the past to pique the imagination for personal investigation. And I believe that a number of readers have begun their independent studies. However, no one has shared back with me or the forum. This is human nature. And the ego will say, “I am the creator,” even if someone else sent the recipe and the culture.


Cellulase is a very common enzyme. I read cellular biology texts; industrial microbiology texts, biochemistry works, and anything that I think will trigger an idea or inspiration. And I share my inspirations with our team—you have to trust someone. Most of the people within our circle of trust weathered the storm from the previous fall-out. Yet, time and money are tight for everyone, and so we move very slowly. First I recommend that in inquirer studies a glossary of terms--definitions beyond the first line. Then seek to apply that definition to another process. Ah ha! Ahhhhhha, Ha, Ha…We got it!


It is important to keep the channels open even when sharing back in an open source relationship. Like Gilles said, he needs to patent the simple AirCore process not because he intends to keep it under his control, but so that someone else does not attempt to control his technology. His advanced systems will be marketed by STS.

AH Asks: If somebody knows other commercial high activity enzyme producers please share your knowledge.


PK Replies: Sprouted seed has very potent enzymes—especially when applied to the same biomass from which it originates. Genius is said to be 10% inspiration and 90% perspiration. Thanks to everyone for experimenting and sharing. You do not need to distill to do bench testing of a mash. Please consider bench-testing a couple of nights a month instead of watching TV or going shopping or whatever time-consuming activity cuts into your creativity. Understanding the work space of great minds lets us know that it is not necessary to have an expensive set-up to investigate a process. Good technique, however, is necessary. Be careful and HAVE FUN!


Highlights from Terra Preta: Magic Soil of the Lost Amazon: STS propagation specialist, Dr. Haard is a member of a BioChar study group. This group includes a number of academic researchers that intend to build productive soil as is found in previously occupied areas of South America. February 2007 Acres USA published Terra Preta: Magic Soil of the Lost Amazon by Allan Balliett that gives a historical overview of a very advanced culture that did not survive the colonial period of Europeans. Hopefully many of you will find this article and apply the techniques to your growing beds when you choose to build new soil. Ben Bof teaches this ancient technology in Brazil. Additional information may be found by a search for BioChar.


My next challenge is to promote saturated soil. The addition of charcoal will help. We also seek to learn more about gasification of invasive species of woody biomass. However, using this same wood as a charcoal additive could be an alternative technique. There is always room for more than one application of a resource.

Making Charcoal: My rancher friend and I would rather sit and watch a sunset and chat about ranch life than watch television. Last month, we relived her childhood memories of the local charcoal maker. Back when cedar choppers axed the post for cattle ranchers, real sustainability was practiced in our hill country area of Texas. One family of Mexican heritage supplied the charcoal for the trade area. Abuelo’s charcoal was preferred because it was consistent in texture with large pieces and easy handling. Although she was only a young girl when she visited the charcoal ranch, my friend recalls the following:


Mr. Avila stacked the wood sequential teepee shapes, one on top of the other until he created a structure about three or four layers thick. Then he carefully patted a clay/ mud over the stacked wood and lit the fire through a small opening on the bottom. Charcoal making requires a high heat without a flame.


Sooo… what does this have to do with anything? In the article on Terra Preta, archeologist are finding shards of pottery mixed within the fertile charcoal laden soil. At first they thought it pottery was dumped as a garbage receptacle. However later revelations showed that the pottery helps to direct and hold moisture. Perhaps, they also made their charcoal by covering it with a clay mud that produces a type of pottery residue. In the present day charcoal production facilities in South America they use a pit and not pottery.


Foreign Fields: Friends from abroad have questions about shipping Cattails to Ethanol Books.


Shipping Answer: Estimating a standard postal service shipping box is the best economic deal when shipping to a foreign country. The costs of sending one book or a stack of books is often the same. More to come next month…. Best wishes, Peggy Write Me!

Buffalo Commons Revisit

This is a revisit of the Buffalo Commons that has helped shape discussion regarding the Great Plains for the past two decades and has generated restoration initiatives. We posted on the topic first around eighteen months ago and this is a fresh item on the subject. Do visit the site.

What the Poppers made clear was the rather unwelcome understanding that traditional agriculture was failing in this region. It had been failing from the beginning but this failure had been masked by human optimism.

The thesis today is better accepted and the response is now better directed for this insight. Most importantly, step by step, the buffalo is been reintroduced and properly managed. The herds are expanding steadily, but not as fast as natural expansion. Some form of the old prairie is also been established, even though that biome was driven even closer to extinction.

We can all accept that this will take decades and possibly centuries. On the other hand herd expansion can be fast if simply left alone. Biome expansion has to start with the establishment of refugia.

The other arrow in this quiver that is worth exploring is the reestablishment of the buffalo back in Asia and Europe. It was there and was simply hunted to extinction by our Ice Age ancestors. There is ample grassland and steppe that is suitable for little else.

We do not understand how vulnerable the buffalo and other wild bovines were to human hunting. The muskoxen have been hunted out of the taiga and the boreal forests and the buffalo out of Eurasia. Others such as the aurochs are extinct.

Establishing herd management districts throughout the northern taiga and boreal forest is a viable option. Expanding it into the more productive semi arid grasslands is a natural addition.

In the meantime, buffalo husbandry is now in full stride. There is a ready market for both carcasses and breeding stock and good breeding practices are been established. We now need to do the same thing with muskoxen. Caribou and the like tend to be migratory and more difficult to manage but still represent a husbandry opportunity.

As you may gather, I am a strong proponent of managed ownership of all plausible wild stocks to ensure their health and long term survival and so that we may manage the related environment properly.

Huge buffalo herds may be maintained by the simple practice of a large fall slaughter and the provision of supplemental feed for the wintering breeding stock. Beef husbandry is as simple. Minimal fencing can prevent migration.

And once a biological resource is owned, its survival becomes assured. The same needs to happen the fisheries.

Buffalo Commons
http://gprc.org/buffalocommons.html

The Buffalo Commons is a cultural and social movement for positive, restorative social and ecological change on the Great Plains.

As both model and metaphor, the Buffalo Commons includes various, sometimes seemingly disconnected components that all add up to a new healthier life for our region centered around sustainability and regained community. This restoration economy can include everything from GPRC’s Million Acre Projects and Plains Youth InterACTION program, to a small West Texas or Kansas farmer’s re-banking of the soil on his land, to a group of Lakota or Oklahoma or Colorado mothers working together to stage gang intervention or ward off a meth invasion, to a string of communities along two hundred miles of a creek or river working to establish clean, healthy water flows again, to environmental groups making ecologically-focused land purchases. It's problem solving through local, hands-on action.

The Buffalo Commons engages Prairie/Plains people to get invested in the healthful restoration of their communities and local environment wherever they live. Small businesses, housewives, big landholders, small landholders, inner-city children, Indian elders, cities, suburbs, towns and villages can all take pride in the unique identity of being and belonging to our Great Plains region, and working together in a shared sense of community, rather than the old way of every man (or woman) for him/herself.

History of the Buffalo Commons Movement

In 1987, Drs. Frank and Deborah Popper developed their bold new idea for a Buffalo Commons, (Popper and Popper, “The Great Plains: From Dust to Dust, PLANNING, 1987). Their continuing research showed that hundreds of counties in the American West still have less than a sparse 6 persons per square mile — the density standard Frederick Jackson Turner used to declare the American Frontier closed in 1893. Many have less than 2 persons per square mile.

The frontier never came close to disappearing, and in fact has expanded in the Plains in recent years. The 1980 Census showed 388 frontier counties west of the Mississippi. The 1990 Census shows 397 counties in frontier status, and the 2000 Census showed 402. Most of this frontier expansion is in the Great Plains. Kansas actually has more land in frontier status than it did in 1890.

Great Plains Restoration Council mounted a Plains-wide mapping project at the county level, using a series of economic and social indicators, to show exactly where the frontier is and how much further it has expanded. GPRC than did more sophisticated mapping that scrutinized these and other factors down to the Census Block level, allowing for a much more rigorous and exact understanding of ecological, biological, geographical, topographical, demographic and political conditions. Since then, we have specifically honed our focus onto a few, key target ecological areas while developing a new model of youth education.

There once were over 400 million acres of wild prairie grasslands in the central part of North America. The backbone of the Buffalo Commons movement is the work — over a period of decades — to re-establish and re-connect prairie wildland reserves and ecological corridors large enough for bison and all other native prairie wildlife to survive and roam freely, over great, connected distances, while simultaneously restoring the health and sustainability of our communities wherever possible so that both land and people may prosper for a very long time. Future generations may choose to expand these reserves and corridors, as the new culture of caring and belonging we have started today becomes an integral, ingrained part of life in the world of tomorrow, especially as extensive grasslands become needed to help absorb carbon from the atmosphere. (Highly biodiverse native prairies are excellent carbon sequesters.)

Below is the original short scholarly paper that started it all:

“The Great Plains: From Dust to Dust.”

http://www.planning.org/25anniversary/planning/1987dec.htm

Below is another, more recent, short scholarly paper by the Poppers.

THE BUFFALO COMMONS AS REGIONAL METAPHOR AND GEOGRAPHIC METHOD \

- by Drs. Deborah E. Popper and Frank J. Popper
The Great Plains and the Buffalo Commons
by Deborah E. Popper and Frank J. Popper