Field journal

Biochar burn day at the ring kiln

San Domingo

  • Bright orange coals glow through a narrow seam in the dark steel wall of a ring kiln.

    Coals glowing through a seam in the kiln wall.

  • A tall column of flame rises from a steel ring kiln loaded with burning branches in a dirt clearing.

    The flame cap over a fresh load of slash.

Burn day in the steel ring kiln at San Domingo, the day after the crew staged the burn. Slash from thinning goes in load by load, and a tall cap of flame burns off the gases and uses up the air, so the wood below chars instead of burning to ash.

When a batch is done, the coals are quenched with water, leaving biochar that is mixed back into the meadows and forests to help restore their soils.

Project Biochar from fuel reduction

Themes Forest carbon sequestration with biochar Wildfire resilience

All field journal entries More from San Domingo More on Biochar from fuel reduction More on Forest carbon sequestration with biochar

More from San Domingo

  • Video

    · San Domingo

    Sunset flight over the creek canyon

    A slow drone pass at sunset over the canyon of San Domingo Creek, late in the dry season: the meadows in the valley have gone gold, while…

  • Bright green new grass grows through flattened, pale dry grass in a sloping meadow with leafless trees, below an oak and pine covered hill under heavy winter cloud.

    · San Domingo

    Green grass under last summer's thatch

    Late in the afternoon of December 23, 2025, new green grass was coming up through the flattened, bleached thatch of last summer's growth…

  • Low aerial view of a frost-whitened meadow beside a narrow, stony creek channel, with a large tree holding yellow leaves and dense green woodland behind under a pale morning sky. +1 photo

    · San Domingo

    Frost on the creek meadow

    Frost still lay on the meadow along San Domingo Creek on the morning of December 13, 2025, when we flew a drone low along the creek at San…

  • Tall orange flames rise from a load of brush in a new steel ring kiln with bright, bolted panels, standing on bare red earth below an oak-covered bank. +1 photo

    · San Domingo

    First burn in the new ring kiln

    On November 24, 2025, we ran the first burn in a new steel ring kiln at San Domingo Arbory, among DeepForest's first biochar burns. Its…

  • A creek runs between dark, wet, rounded boulders and moss-covered rocks under leafy trees, with raindrop rings on the pool in the foreground and yellow leaves in the shallows. +1 photo

    · San Domingo

    The creek running in a November rain

    Rain was falling on the creek at San Domingo Arbory around midday on November 16, 2025, ringing the pools with drops. Water ran fast…

  • A large, rounded paw print pressed into soft, gray-green mud, with an outspread hand beside it for scale. +1 photo

    · San Domingo

    A large paw print in the mud

    Late in the afternoon of October 22, 2025, we found a large paw print pressed into soft, algae-streaked mud at San Domingo Arbory. Beside…

  • Four deer stand and graze in dry golden grass beneath the spreading branches of an oak, beside its dark trunk.

    · San Domingo

    Deer at first light in the dry meadow

    Four deer were grazing at the edge of a meadow under the oaks at San Domingo Arbory just before 7:30 am on October 11, 2025. Two were…

  • Aerial view over dense green oak and pine forest toward a hillside of golden dry-grass meadows dotted with dark green oaks, under a clear blue sky.

    · San Domingo

    Gold meadows and green oaks in late July

    We flew a drone over San Domingo Arbory on July 26, 2025, in the middle of the dry season. The grass in the meadows on the far slope had…