FIRE FOR WATER Field Day

Acequia Limpia and Biochar Making

Every year across New Mexico, communities come together for acequias limpias, or cleanings. This tradition of cooperative acequia maintenance is as old as the acequias themselves, which date back more than 400 years. Cleaning the brush and winter vegetation out of the ditches is essential so they can flow in the Spring, irrigating fields and replenishing the shallow aquifer. Limpias are an important communal activity for both ecological and cultural vitality.

Field Day hosts Casey Williams and Navona Gallegos are experimenting with an innovation of this ancient tradition: while the dry brush cleaned from acequias is often burned, we will be making biochar instead.

Biochar is the charcoal-like product of pyrolysis (anaerobic combustion) of organic matter. While the breakdown of organic matter will always release some carbon into the atmosphere, high-temperature, low oxygen pyrolysis keeps much more of the carbon sequestered in the biochar than an open pile burn does. In addition, biochar can improve soil by providing excellent water and nutrient-holding capacity and creating pores that are good habitat for beneficial soil organisms.

At this field day, volunteers will participate in the tradition and help clean a stretch of the Acequia de la Mesa Prieta in Ojo Caliente while learning about different methods of making biochar, its benefits and uses. We’ll be filling and burning three different kinds of small-scale biochar kilns.

Casey Williams is an agriculture expert with extensive experience, both in theory and practical application, in the areas of permaculture, soil health, and regenerative farming. Over the years, Casey has worked in many capacities in agriculture, including managing farms, doing permaculture design, cultivating gourmet mushrooms and microgreens, building and running aquaponics systems, and producing biochar and compost. He continues to promote regenerative land management through direct application, education, and hands-on mentorship. By constantly experimenting with different composting methods and biochar production at various scales, as well as learning diverse approaches to land stewardship, Casey continuously builds on his knowledge base in this complex field. Visit the Growing Soil Health Collective for more information or to see what Casey and his colleagues are up to.

Navona Gallegos has worked professionally in the space of soil and ecology for 11 years. Her work is informed by deep multi-generational farming roots in New Mexico as well as education from the University of Virginia in Ecology, Permaculture Design, and Dr. Elaine Ingham’s Soil Food Web School. Navona incorporates western science and permaculture training with lived experience as a farmer and teachings from mentors from across Turtle Island, the Caribbean, and Central Africa.