Seasons of fire are now longer and the damage is more severe, because fires burn more and spread to drought-stricken land. Since the beginning of this year, 32,247 wildfires have burned more than 3.3 million hectares in the United States, according to the National Interaction Fire Center. The start of the season, and especially the brutal start in New Mexico, will put 2022 on the road to a record fire.
Historically, fires place seeds in the soil and on top of trees, but hotter and stronger fires now occur that burn the trees and destroy the seeds in the soil, so natural regeneration is much less.
DroneSeed is a Seattle-based startup that will begin rebuilding thousands of acres of land affected by wildfires 30 days after the blaze.
“We are a one-stop shop for forest redevelopment,” said Grant Canari, chief executive of Drone’s. “If you’re a land administrator and this could be ethnic groups, this could be family forests, this could be public land, this could be wood companies, and if you’re affected by wildfires, we’re one of your phones. Calls.”
DroneSeed uses seeds as well as seedlings or young plants from its own nursery. He then uses heavy-floating droves to spread it on the burnt ground. The dwarves drop the seeds into the puddles and then take root and begin to grow into seedlings. These packs are made from plant fiber and contain non-toxic ingredients such as pepper to protect rats and other mammals.
DroneSeed states that not all seeds or seedlings will produce trees.
Canary likens its drones to a colony of bees, which can carry thousands of seedlings and scatter them. Each aircraft can fly three-quarters of a hectare. A.D. In October 2020, the company announced that it was the first to obtain a license from the Federal Aviation Administration for this type of deforestation.
“The planes themselves are not available at Best Buy. They are eight feet in diameter,” Canary said. “They’re carrying a 57-pound load. We’ll do it in groups of three to five, and they’re going out there and they’re going to drop the seed ships into the pre-survey areas.”
The old seed model is a key seedling product that has been a major obstacle to forest redevelopment due to supply chain problems. Dronzed recently acquired Silvasade, one of the country’s oldest seed businesses, and is now the largest seed bank in the West, producing millions of seedlings.
The company’s operations are partially funded by companies that purchase carbon offsets. One such customer is Shopify, which buys 50,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide. DroneSeed, in turn, is rebuilding the 300-acre[300 ha]forest in Oregon Beach Creek two years ago.
“By planting those trees and reducing their carbon footprint, our climate advantage is buying carbon offsets,” said Stacey Kauck, head of sustainability at Shopifay. “This will allow us to balance the undetectable emissions from our company, such as electricity use or corporate travel.”
DroneSeed is supported by 776, DBL Partners, Social Capital, Spero Ventures and Techstars. So far, it has raised $ 36 million.
