Using wood waste to build soil, compost, and heat structures

In land clearing, trees and brush are usually put into slash piles and burned, releasing carbon into the atmosphere. Instead, we chip as much as possible and use the chips as weed-suppressing mulch, and also as important soil and compost builders. Our wood chipper runs for much of the growing season, and trainees learn how to safely operate the chipper and use the chips for soil building and different food production such as bedding. We also process trees by hand for heating fuel, as most of our structures in the north are wood heated in the winter and shoulder seasons - and we can go through a lot of fuel heating structures during training.

Some Ideas

• Support the purchase of another wood chipper, to be lent out to communities for their own foodland development
• Support a firewood processor, to process slash piles
• Fund the creation of an on-site small scale compost facility (structure with at least 6 bays), which would ideally also feature heat capture
• Support a local Indigenous entrepreneur with startup costs for a firewood/ wood chipping business