Tom and Gina McCoy

Founders, C6 Forest to Farm

Methow, WA

8/24/22

Gina McCoy stood on the raised roots of a tree, speaking to us in front of a rippling lake framed by deep green mountains. Explaining to us the planetary carbon cycle, she emphasized how human activities disrupt the natural process of plant photosynthesis and respiration. Industrial agricultural practices deplete the soil’s nutrients, sucking carbon out of the soil, and years of fire suppression have created an excess of plant material that places forests at risk of megafire. Gina and her husband Tom founded the nonprofit C6 Forest to Farm from a deep concern for the forests, hoping to reconnect the cycle of nutrients and carbon in soil.

Gina and Tom’s nonprofit produces biochar from the discarded biomass of Forest Service logging and thinning projects. They sought a way to enable the Forest Service to expand their forest restoration projects, which often require tree removal to manage underbrush thickness and fire risk. Biomass, or plant material, is heated under specific conditions to produce a form of charcoal called biochar. Biochar’s porous structure retains water, nutrients, and bacteria, creating fertile soils and sequestering carbon by preventing it from decomposing or burning, both of which release CO2 into the atmosphere. By turning biomass into biochar, Tom and Gina are working towards a more sustainable forest, farm, and planet.

By Ellen Haney