Supporting women-owned business is super important in bridging the gender gap and allowing women to have a greater role in the international market economy. I have been for some time wanting to by these hemp reusable bags by the company handsonhemp for a while now and the Drawdown EcoChallenge is the perfect opportunity! This company is online but the manufacturers are located here in Boulder! It is a woman owned small business committed to deep sustainability. The hemp bags are for grocery use like buying in produce and bulk. It's a great way to integrate zero-waste smart shopping and support a wonderful, local, sustainable women owned business!

https://handsonhemp.com

I was confused on what biomass was before researching about it but it's actually a form of fuel that everyone already knows. It's the burning of organic materials to create heat or electricity. This was the first fuel method to be discovered--Burning logs of wood to make fire. Biomass can also be other materials such as certain crops, Hawkins mentions a certain type of grass, forest debris and manure. Hawkins in his description really emphasizes that this is not the solution, rather a means of bridging the gap to clean energy. It is a carbon neutral solution if done right. The use and replenish nature of it has to be in balance or else it will create more carbon in the atmosphere. How it works is that trees are grown by harnessing energy from the sun and Co2 in the atmosphere. When you take that tree and burn it, you are releasing the Co2 back into the atmosphere so it is a closed loop system. This can go bad when trees are being harvested from forests and used faster than we regrow them, concluding in more Co2 and deforestation. 

Temperate Forests are composed of coniferous, evergreen, deciduous and mixed associate trees. They are really important for the state of the Earth right now because they house a variety of biodiversity, protect watersheds and are considered carbon sinks. Carbon sinks means that they sequester carbon instead of emitting it into the air. Temperate forests are all over the U.S. They're usually categorized into two groups, deciduous and evergreen. Deciduous forests are largely found in the East where leaves will change colors and fall in autumn. Evergreen forests are mostly in the Pacific Northwest region. We are provided with a lot of goods from these forests including commercial goods like timber, food, fuel, bio-product and eco benefits like carbon storing, nutrient cycling, water, air purification and maintenance of wildlife habitats. There is a lot of restoration happening around these forests already which is good. It's a really low-cost strategy with big benefits. 

When I first read Drawdown by Paul Hawken I was stoked Climate change always seemed too large to be able to put in a book. Not only did Hawken do so in a comprehensive and organized why, but he also included hundreds of solutions to reverse its effects. Silvopasture is one of the ways I have been interested in approach a portion of my land. We try to approach our land in a regenerative way-- we utilize a large carbon sink, have dedicated plant/herb reserves, create intentional habitat for native bees, incorporate permaculture design, and use no-till cover crops to prevent top soil/moisture loss. Silvopasture is the next logical step for our timber. Incorporating rotational gracing and stacked planting through the alleys of fruit trees creates nutrient dense and biodiverse yields. My friend has a monocrop apple orchard that she will inherit in a few years. I think it'd be the perfect place to start a silvopasture. I reread Drawdown recently and I was juuuust as stoked as I was in the beginning. It's comprehensive and digestible. 

Yesterday was Boulder's first Farmer's Market of the year!