A compost experiment that began seven years ago on a Marin County ranch has uncovered a disarmingly simple and benign way to remove carbon dioxide from the air, holding the potential to turn the vast rangeland of California and the world into a weapon against climate change. The concept grew out of a unique Bay Area alignment of a biotech fortune, a world-class research institution and progressive-minded Marin ranchers. What began as a search for an artist’s studio turned into a seven-year, $8 million journey through rangeland ecology that has produced results John Wick calls “the most exciting thing I can think of on the planet right now.” The research showed that if compost from green waste â€" everything from household food scraps to dairy manure â€" were applied over just 5 percent of the state’s grazing lands, the soil could capture a year’s worth of greenhouse gas emissions from California’s farm and forestry industries. In theory, Silver calculates, if compost made from the state’s green waste were applied to a quarter of the state’s rangeland, the soil could absorb three-quarters of California’s total annual greenhouse gas emissions. Unlike high-tech geo-engineering schemes to pull excess carbon dioxide from the air and stick it in old coal mines or under the ocean, applying compost is a simple way of creating what scientists call a positive feedback loop. Wick says that since he started spreading compost on his ranch, he’s seen an increase in native perennial plants and bird life, and “we now have green grass year round during a drought.” [...] order, weeds and invasive plants began to take over. Initial surveys showed that old dairy ranches had higher soil carbon, but they knew that the greenhouse gases emitted from raw manure would negate any advantage. The good news is that by returning carbon to the soil in a stable form such as compost, soils can be restored, said Rattan Lal, director of the Carbon Management and Sequestration Center at Ohio State University. The project is funded in part by the Rathmann Family Foundation, started by Peggy Wick’s father, George Rathmann, the late founder of Amgen Inc. and a leading figure in the biotech industry. With ample financial resources, the project has stitched together a network of ranchers, government officials, scientists and nonprofits that aims to take the compost concept not just across California, but across the nation and the world. Many see a faster approach through the Natural Resources Conservation Agency, an arm of the U.S. Agriculture Department that was formed after the Dust Bowl of the 1930s to halt soil erosion.