Star Bright Community Stories

A Collaborative Resource for Non-Profits, Churches, Businesses, and Individuals Who Provide a Public Benefit.

and/or a Protector Against Wildfires

and/or Soil Nerd

Status Report
January 18, 2025

Wayne Angel
01/18/25
530 521 5006
wayne@complexs.com

Lunch, Discussion, and Expert Insights

The ParadiseLutheran Church is generously hosting a free lunch and providing a meeting space for the Cook Off.

These gatherings are informal—just an opportunity to talk about the Cook Off, share ideas, and address questions. Many participants have already shared fantastic ideas and raised insightful questions. This meeting will offer a chance to explore specific details and engage in a broader discussion. If there is a particular topic or detail you’d like to discuss, please let me know in advance, and I’ll do my best to arrange for experts in that area to attend. Weekly meetings will continue for as long as they remain helpful to anyone involved.

Scheduled Events and Activities

Scheduled Events and Activities

Event or Activity	Group	From	To	Location	Contact
Collect Competition Recipes for the 2025 Biochar Cook Off	The 2025 Biochar Cook Off	January 4	March 7		Wayne Angel
Solicit Biochar Recipe Testers	The 2025 Biochar Cook Off	January 4	March 7		Wayne Angel
Create and Fund Science Team	Science Team	January 4	March 7		Wayne Angel
Fruit Tree Workshop	Paradise an Magalia Community Gardens	January 19	January 19	5696 Brookview Way	Jennifer Peterson
Weekly Collaboration Lunch	The 2025 Biochar Cook Off	January 24	June 6	The Meeting Space 780 Luther Drive	Wayne Angel
Morgan Ridge Biochar Production Event	Butte County Fire Safe Council	February 2, 9:00 am	February 2, 4:00 pm	Morgan Ridge	Steve Feher
Garden Work Day	Paradise Community Gardens	February 23, 11:00 am	February 23, 3:00 pm	5424 Foster Rd.	Aaron Singer
Make A Difference Day	Paradise Community Gardens	April 25 9:00 am	April 25 12:00	5424 Foster Rd.	Aaron Singer

To Be Scheduled Events and Activities

The following are actively being worked on but the actual event date has not been selected

Cooperative Biochar Production Event with Magalia Community Gardens and the Magalia Golf Course

The golf course has tree debris that they would like removed. The garden club’s property has been cleared of all debris and they have little space for a biochar burn. The obvious collaboration is being considered.

Creation of the Biochar Cook Off Science Team

Nicole LaJuenesse and Ken Scherer have both pointed out the lack of quantitative measures (i.e. scientific) in the Cook Off plans. We may have a solution. If you have an interest in helping to a set of quantitative measures of plant growth for each of the biochar recipes, let me know.

Updated Biochar Cook Off Handbook

Attached with this status report is an updated Handbook. It has been updated with the beginnings of a set of science based measures to be conducted by the Science Team.

The Awards Banquet

We are still looking for someone or some group to take on the Awards Banquet.