Aerial reforestation by drone: Flash Forest Kickstarter wants to plant a billion trees by 2028

2019-12-26T14:13:00-05:00

[...] a team of Canadian science and engineering graduates is pitching a dream to plant a billion trees by 2028 using drones. The project is dubbed Flash Forest and combines the use of drones with specially-designed pods and an accelerated seed germination process. According to Flash Forest, its technology can plant trees 10 times faster than a single worker and at a cost that is 80 percent cheaper than traditional tree planting methods.

On their Kickstarter page, the team behind the Toronto-based Flash Forest project explains what happens before and after heavy-lift drones pneumatically fire their custom-designed seed pods into the ground: "Before we plant our pods, we pre-germinate the seeds inside using our own 'secret sauce.' This ensures that the seeds have already sprouted before they’re even in the ground and that they have a strong rooting system when they grow. Not only that, but after we plant them we follow up with our spraying drone to remove competition and provide nitrogen and other nutrients for the best chance of success. We continuously monitor our seedlings with the mapping drone to make sure they’re healthy."

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Aerial reforestation by drone: Flash Forest Kickstarter wants to plant a billion trees by 2028