High Plains Biochar in the News
See what publications, researchers, and industry leaders are saying about High Plains Biochar and our work advancing practical, scalable biochar solutions.
Boulder County Announces 2024 Climate Innovation Fund Recipients
The county has awarded 2024 Climate Innovation Fund grants to five organizations: Boulder Mushroom, Eco-Cycle, High Plains Biochar, MASA Seed Foundation, and The Watershed Center. These recipients will use the funds to mitigate wildfire risks with mushrooms, establish a composting network that transforms local business food scraps into high-quality farm compost, expand biochar production for local farms, enhance biodiversity with a fruit forest, and measure carbon sequestration from a 10-acre stream restoration project. Established in 2022, the Climate Innovation Fund supports local projects focused on carbon dioxide removal, enhancing landscape resilience, and restoring ecosystems. This year, the county allocated $531,950 to these initiatives. A panel of eight national and local experts selected the winning projects through a competitive process, with funding requests exceeding $4 million—more than double the amount sought in the previous round.
Boulder County Announces Grants for Projects that Help Local Food System...
On National Agriculture Day, Boulder County announced recipients of 2023 Sustainable Food & Agriculture Funds: Boulder County Farmers Market, Boulder Valley Ranch, Community Fruit Rescue, Harvest of All First Nations, High Plains Biochar and Yellow Barn Farm, Nederland Victory Gardens, Rocky Mountain Pumpkin Ranch, Speedwell Farm & Gardens, St. Vrain Valley School District, Sustainable Alliances, Inc., and Sustainable Living Designs. Boulder County invited farmers, agricultural producers, the private sector, and non-profit organizations to apply for funding to accelerate and launch environmental sustainability projects that benefit food and agriculture in Boulder County.
One Stove at a Time: A Wyoming Startup’s Unlikely Path to Climate Action
In rural Wyoming, Rowdy Yeatts is building clean-burning biochar stoves that help trap carbon, reduce waste, and generate heat—all without electricity. We are in rural Wyoming, in winter, and it is bitterly cold and windy. Despite the weather, there are two young men outside working next to something that looks like a cross between a futuristic water heater and an old-fashioned stove. Heat comes off of it in wobbly visible waves. This is what I have come here to see.
High Plains Biochar: Cost-Share Biochar Stoves
High Plains Biochar has been awarded the prestigious CO-WY Climate Resilience Engine Grant! This grant will fuel the launch of the CO-WY Biochar Project, the newest iteration of our community-scale efforts based on the success of the Boulder Biochar Project. This NSF-funded initiative allows interested parties to access our biochar stoves at a 50% cost share, and participate in ongoing carbon removal research and data collection. We’re currently focused on engaging community partners to process wood waste, collect data, and generate carbon credits through The Biochar Co-op.
Chadron Couple Produces Biochar from Woody Waste
Rowdy Yeatts didn't grow up in Nebraska and he didn't come from an agriculture background. However, what Yeatts and his wife, Christi, are working on at their homestead south of Chadron could have wide impact on Nebraska farmers and ranchers. They are making a biochar product called High Plains Biochar. With their mobile unit, they process woody products and wood waste into a form of black carbon. He partnered recently with the Nebraska Forest Service and the University of Nebraska to study the potential health benefits of feeding small amounts of biochar to livestock. There is also some evidence that biochar treatments can help improve soil health properties when used as a soil amendment.
Timber Talk: Nebraska Forest Industry Spotlight: High Plains Biochar
It was while playing with his dog at Box Butte Reservoir, a simple piece of charred timber sparked an interest in Rowdy Yeatts of rural Chadron. In February 2012, Rowdy and his wife Christi moved to “the Table” south of Chadron and made the former Prairie Home School their new home. The Yeatts owned a marine construction business on Grand Lake in Northeast Oklahoma before relocating to Nebraska. Rowdy originally grew up in Casper, WY. and Christi in Chelsea, OK. “We met in college at Oklahoma State University in Stillwater. I graduated from OSU in 2000 with a Business Degree,” explained Yeatts.
Using Biochar in the High Plains to Reduce Carbon Emissions
Climate change may reduce the ability of some crops to absorb nutrients, and in many regions may make soil drier. Biochar is a plant-based substance that can be added to soil, increasing the amount of moisture and nutrients available to crops. In addition, biochar helps remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Thus far, production and adoption of biochar within the U.S. has been slow, but some initiatives underway are aiming to change that.
Wyoming and Colorado Team Up to Support Climate Resilience R&S
The Colorado-Wyoming Climate Resilience Engine has launched the first round of investments in their Research and Development and Translation/Startup projects. This included funding from the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) Regional Innovation Engines program. Governors Jared Polis of Colorado and Mark Gordon of Wyoming collaborated to announce the recipients of the inaugural grant program by the CO-WY Climate Resilience Engine. This partnership signifies a new phase in the joint efforts of the two states to create climate resilience solutions that safeguard communities, encourage innovation, and stimulate economic development. The Winners of the Climate Resilience Engine include:
Climate Changers | Episode 72:
High Plains Biochar with Rowdy Yeatts
High Plains Biochar in Laramie Wyoming provides “real carbon negative technology for the real world.” In this interview, founder Rowdy Yeatts explains how biochar is a type of charcoal made by exposing biomass such as wood or crop residue to high temperatures in the absence of oxygen. This effectively burns off everything except the carbon leaving behind a highly porous material high in carbon content, essentially creating a blank carbon sponge that can be used to improve agricultural yields, clean polluted water, reduce methane emissions from livestock, and permanently trap atmospheric carbon underground.
Got Biochar? Rowdy Yeatts, Founder and CEO of High Plains Biochar, discusses the company’s RocketChar 301 technology for farm-scale and community-scale biochar production. Dubbed the “Prius” of Biochar technologies, RocketChar is very simple and elegant in design, allowing for easy in-field operation by non-engineering users. From Indiana to India, the technology has world-wide applications and can even be used in off-grid situations, as it is capable of generating its own electricity for operation controls.
