We are a nonprofit organization (501c3) wanting to help people ask better questions, and engage more people in asking and answering. We want to advance a different kind of science--based on shared evidence, open participation, specific locations and situations, and on learning to manage wholes consisting of people, land, the work of all species, and money. Our principal project to date has been the Soil Carbon Challenge, a measurement effort on soil carbon change and its contexts--but not carbon "credits" or "offsets." Peter toured the continent from 2011 to 2021 in a converted school bus, doing soil sampling and monitoring on land managed by interested and committed people. What he learned.
Building on the Challenge, we are facilitating community involvement in measuring and monitoring with soilhealth.app--a platform or framework for facilitating shared, local intelligences on soil health and landscape function, based on shared evidence. We're interested in collaboration with land-based organizations and districts.
We think the opportunity for increasing carbon and water in the soil is huge, and will help drive improvement in social and economic conditions as well as enhance biodiversity and ecological resiliency. We also offer a participatory workshop as well as a residency for communities interested in organizing their own assets and resources toward this kind of shared intelligence.
Board members:
Abe Collins has milked cows and grazed cattle in Vermont, and is currently working as a grazing consultant.
Peter Donovan has herded sheep and cattle, and worked in the woods and on farms. A longtime resident of northeast Oregon, since 1996 he has reported on innovative natural resource stewards, and most of his articles can be found on https://ManagingWholes.com. In the 1990s he studied holistic management with Allan Savory, low-stress livestock handling with Bud Williams, and consensus building with Jeff Goebel and Bob Chadwick. In 2007 he founded the Soil Carbon Coalition and shortly afterwards embarked on the Soil Carbon Challenge. when he lived and traveled in a school bus from 2011 to 2021. He now lives in La Grande, Oregon.
Christina Allday-Bondy is an Associate Accredited Consultant and Educator with the Savory Institute. She lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Jim Laurie has worked with John Todd building Living Machines (biological systems to purify wastewater). He lives in Woburn, Massachusetts.
Joe Morris is a rancher in San Juan Bautista, California and was a founder of the Rancher-to-Rancher network.
Patrick O'Neill is an agronomist in Alamosa, Colorado active in soil health, community development, and local food networks.
Didi Pershouse of Thetford Center, Vermont is a cross-pollinator, helping to connect the dots between soil health and human health. She is the author of The Ecology of Care: Medicine, Agriculture, Money, and the Quiet Power of Human and Microbial Communities and the founder of the Center for Sustainable Medicine. After 22 years of clinical work with patients, she is now working with the Soil Carbon Coalition on a large-scale citizen-science program that engages schools, conservation districts, farmers, and the public in understanding the intersections between soil, water, public health, and climate resiliency. She develops curriculum on soil health principles and whole systems landscape function, and facilitates workshops that empower communities through mutual listening.
Cat Buxton of Sharon, Vermont is a consultant and teacher working to connect communities and empower individuals to affect positive food system change. Cat is an effective and enthusiastic presenter, community organizer, project manager, and an advocate for regenerative food systems and a healthy environment. She founded the Vermont Healthy Soils Coalition. Grow more, waste less.
Most of us are available to address groups as well as facilitate participatory dialogues on the soil carbon opportunity.
Contact:
Peter Donovan managingwholes.com at gmail.com 541-263-1888, 2809 North Maple Street, Unit A, La Grande, Oregon, USA
https://www.guidestar.org/profile/26-1692060
Our 2021 IRS form 990 filing can be viewed here.
Our 2020 IRS form 990 EZ filing can be viewed here; our 2020 IRS form 990 EZ-b filing can be viewed here.
Our 2019 IRS form 990 filing can be viewed here.
Our 2018 IRS form 990 filing can be viewed here.
Our 2017 IRS form 990 filing can be viewed here.
Our 2016 IRS form 990 filing can be viewed here.
Our 2015 IRS form 990 filing can be viewed here.
Soil Carbon Coalition is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization