Too much fire…
Methow Valley residents Tom & Gina McCoy were horrified but not surprised by the 256k acre Carlton Complex fire in 2014. The husband-and-wife team had long professional experience in landscape ecology, including the interactions between forest health and wildfire. The real surprise came in 2019 when the local newspaper reported 3 of 10 most at-risk wildfire communities in the state where in the Methow valley.
Root cause…
Tom and Gina knew the combination of climate change and severely overstocked forests were creating the perfect conditions for unnatural mega-fires. They knew that increased thinning of small diameter, non-merchantable trees was critical to reducing the risk but a lack of demand for these trees was a blocker. So, what to do?
Solution…
Seeking uses that could pay the cost of removing these non-merchantable trees, Gina turned to textbook on biomass combustion. That was when she became aware of biochar and it’s potential to reduce wildfire risk, address climate change and improve soil health. Tom was quick to get onboard and they founded C6, a 501c3 nonprofit, in December 2019.
