Our trees are in a state of crisis. Ecological evils like forest fires and deforestation further endanger the remainder green cover beyond redemption. However, a team of Canadian science and engineering graduates have taken it up to plant a billion trees by 2028, with the help of drones!
They’re calling this project, Flash Forest under which they tested their drone technology systems in August and successfully planted 100 trees with a drone. Using heavy-lift drones equipped with a pneumatic (gas-operated) firing device, the device is designed to shoot out pods right into the soil.
These drones don’t just carry seeds themselves, but pods of nutrient-rich soil packed around three pre-germinated seeds, mycorrhizae, fertilizers as well as a secret ingredient that apparently is loved by plants. Each drone is capable of shooting around one pod per second into the ground. After the encouraging results, they have expanded their goals to put their drone network to use to plant a billion new trees by 2028.
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“Every year the planet loses 13 billion trees and regains less than half of that,” the team’s engineering specialist Bryce Jones said in a fundraising video, when he announced the project. He added, “We started Flash Forest with the goal of healing the planet’s lungs and taking that job seriously. Until that job is done well, no other job matters.”
A series of test flights followed the pilot test since August which planted over 3,100 trees with their drones, including White Spruce, White Pine, Blue Spruce, Red Maple, White Birch, Sugar Maple, Douglas Fir, and Balsam Fir. The group claims that their drone system can plant trees ten times faster than what a human worker could do by hand, and for one-fifth the cost. Flash says that they wish to focus on a ‘full ecosystem recovery’ by planting certain kinds of plants that thrive in synergy.
Cover Credit: Flash Forest
