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https://reasonstobecheerful.world/drone-tree-planting-reforesting-after-wildfires/>
"Cameron and Bryce Jones were just 13 and 14 years old when they witnessed the
Okanagan Mountain Park fire devastate their home city of Kelowna, British
Columbia, in 2003. “The grounds behind my house were unrecognizable,” Bryce
Jones recalls of the aftermath. “Previously an expansive and pristine forest, a
place to wander and explore, was converted into a charred grassland, with
virtually no living trees, but instead burned snags, where you could see
kilometers into the distance the bare and exposed landscape. Twenty years later
the forest still hasn’t returned.”
That destruction fueled an ambitious goal for the brothers: Plant one billion
trees in Canada and across the world by 2028. With the help of technology,
they’re well on their way to achieving that goal. Their startup Flash Forest
deploys drones to shoot “seed pods” onto fire-damaged land to grow biodiverse,
tree-rich landscapes.
With drones, the Flash Forest team can rapidly plant post-wildfire, where in
many cases it’s too dangerous to send human planters. They also target mid- to
high-severity fires, where entire forests have burned and natural regeneration
is less likely to occur. “These forests struggle to regenerate naturally and
need assistance to re-establish after a fire,” Jones says. “Unfortunately due
to climate change we’re seeing more and more high-severity fires across the
world.”
For Flash Forest plantings, a team brings drones to a forest site and pilots
them above the tree canopy, 130 to 200 feet in the air. The drone deployers are
automated, shooting seed pods at a strong enough velocity that they embed into
the soil. Drones deploy five pods per second, covering a lot of ground in a
matter of minutes."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
