Biochar Immersion: Red Dot Ranch, Pescadero

For Trellis Impact 2026, Red Dot Ranch, Illumine.Earth and ProgramEarth invite you to experience a land restoration project deeply rooted in relationships: with the living Earth, with Indigenous Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK), and with the local community working to restore a diverse landscape on Ramaytush territory to its full splendor. Experience a walk around the lands, a biochar walkthrough, and conversations about the native flora and fauna returning through the community’s care, and how you can get involved.

What you can look forward to

🌱 A firsthand encounter with TEK in practice guided by Sara Moncada, M.A., Association of Ramaytush Ohlone Director of Native Ecology

🔥 A walkthrough of community biochar production and its role in coastal soil restoration

💧 An exploration of seep (the ecological and cultural heart of the site) and a grounded conversation about what water replenishment means

🤝 Meaningful connection with the land and stewards, who are doing this work every day

🌾 A look at the funding models that make long-term land stewardship possible

This is an invitation to witness restoration as an ongoing practice, and to consider what your resources, relationships, and leadership could make possible here.

Schedule

8:00 am – Charter shuttle departs from Moscone West, San Francisco (approx. 1 hour and 15 min to Pescadero)

9:15 am – Welcome. Land acknowledgment. Introductions

9:30 am – A gentle hike to the seep while we learn about the health of the forest and the power of TEK

10:00 am – Biochar and sensor demonstration: from biomass to soil amendment, alongside ecological monitoring methods that track biodiversity, water replenishment, and carbon outcomes

10:15 am – Find a space to sit or roam around the land to get in-depth information at different stations from the garden to the seep

11:00 am – Charter shuttle leaves Red Dot Ranch

12:15 pm – Arrive at Moscone West, San Francisco

About the Land

Eighteen acres of nested rolling hills with an ocean view offer the space for climate innovation pilots, where companies and researchers can test materials in real conditions, prototype new systems, and connect sustainability goals to physical landscapes. This land sits within the ancestral territory of the Ramaytush people. The land carries both depletion and the memory of a thriving ecosystem, with a portion intensively grazed in the 1950s, topsoil compacted and hollowed out, and alongside it an intact native grassland seedbank and a natural seep that still knows how to hold water. In spring, that potential is visible in the wildflowers: poppies, iris, paintbrush, baby-blue-eyes, blue-eyed grass, and the coastal blooms that remind us this is the most biodiverse region in Pescadero.

What are we up to?

Biomass -> Biochar -> Soil -> Water -> Crops -> Materials -> Housing

Biochar

Red Dot Ranch is converting excess biomass into biochar using community-scale systems, turning fire risk into a soil-building resource informed by TEK with advisors such as the Ramaytush. They will field-test single-source and blended biochar feedstocks from typical on-site biomass to build missing data for region-specific, replicable soil recipes using eucalyptus, Douglas fir, and coyote bush.

Land OS

ProgramEarth, alongside the Ranch and Minnesota College of Art & Design, is building a real-time environmental intelligence system that turns working land into a continuous feedback loop. Using edge sensors, geospatial modeling, and digital twins, it tracks ecosystem responses to restoration in real time, keeping data sovereign at each site while enabling agentic AI to learn from ground-truthed outcomes and to scale predictive climate models.

About Red Dot Ranch

The Red Dot Ranch Foundation 501(c)(3) was founded to help establish a living blueprint for regeneration. They are a working farm growing food, water systems, and building materials. Red Dot Ranch is developing a new model of working lands that produces not only food, but carbon-storing materials and climate-resilient infrastructure: a working landscape as a climate innovation platform.

About ProgramEarth

Program Earth 501(c)(3) supports the next generation of developers by building talent, fostering networks, and expanding industry commitment to holistic climate solutions, advancing environmental stewardship and corporate sustainability. They do this by supporting the tech behind climate projects that empower local communities while making a global impact.

Sponsored by Illumine.Earth

Illumine.Earth exists to help leaders flourish as they do Big Good Fast – so the way we lead, live, build, and transform systems can move toward a flourishing future, where all people and nature thrive in equilibrium.

Our Advisors

We are grateful to be guided by the Association of Ramaytush Ohlone (ARO). Sara Moncada is the Director of Native Ecology of ARO and also serves on the Red Dot Ranch advisory board.

What to Wear/Bring

• Dress to get a little dirty. Wear closed-toe shoes and pants.
• Depending on the weather, it might be good to bring a light windbreaker, sunglasses, and a hat.
• There will be refill stations; please bring water bottles.
• Poison oak does exist, although not on the cleared paths we’ll be walking through. There will be a station to wash up in case you make contact.

Accessibility

You are visiting a working farm with a great view. While the tour is open to all and we have an ADA toilet, portions of the trail may not be accessible. Let us know if you have any mobility concerns so we can work with you to accommodate them.

Participants will be sent a waiver after registration.