The charred remains of Douglas fir and Lodgepole pine forests once sent their seeds fluttering through the air — often in the belly or beak of a bird — but not like this.
In their short history, aerial drones have transformed our skies — in some cases delivering stunning images or medicine, in others, reigning terror on soldiers and civilians alike. Many experts see reforestation as one of the best and most cost-effective solutions to fight both the climate crisis and a catastrophic loss in biodiversity — so much so that last year more than 140 countries agreed to halt and ultimately reverse the destruction of forests by 2030.
It was around that time when John Innes, a forestry researcher at the University of British Columbia, says he first advised on an aerial planting project in Oman. Even in a logged forest, the ground is rarely clear. The stumps and slash piles left behind create a shield over the soil, turning away any would-be seed from the sky before it can take root.
To automate tree planting, it would need to come from the sky, Jones quickly realized. That’s because on the ground, snags, rocks and uneven terrain would make land-based robots impractical. The size of a large marble, the pods contain one seed each and enough nutrients, predator deterrents and microfungi to help the trees germinate and grow through their first summer. In pilot projects at UBC's research forest and elsewhere, they started planting earlier in the season to take advantage of spring soil moisture content.
The company’s software then calculates where and at what density trees should be planted, and traces the most efficient flight paths for the swarm of drones. To replant those burned forests often requires sending crews to huge and often remote tracts of land. The hard work is best done fast before undergrowth creeps in. And that requires people.
Last week, Canada’s Ministry of Natural Resources said it would back Flash Forest with a more than $1.3-million grant. Within two years, the government has tasked the company to plant more than a million trees. Last year, the Tŝideldel and Tl’etinqox First Nations contracted DroneSeed in a pilot rehabilitation project to plant 50,000 seedlings on the Chilcotin Plateau, where forests were devastated by wildfires in 2017.
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