Drones that can help plant trees.

Unbelievable - Drones Can Now Be Used to Replant Our Forests

Yes, you read it right. Drones are used to help replant trees in forests.

Most of us thought that drones can only be used for taking pictures and surveillance videos used in events, even by the military.  But it's more helpful than we could ever imagine.

The drone technology works in stages.

A UK based startup is hoping to kick-start efforts against deforestation by leveraging drone technology. BioCarbon Engineering, whose CEO Lauren Fletcher spent 20 years as a NASA engineer, is pledging to plant 1 billion trees using industrial technology - wow.

After their intensive development and planning phase, they will start in September with the help of a non-profit Worldwide International Foundation. This organization has been leading planting efforts in Myanmar, where they've already planted, by hand, 1,850 acres (750 hectares) of mangrove trees.

They can fire the seeds at roughly one every second for a total of 100,000 each day.

With the help of these drones, which can plant up to 100,000 trees a day, they'll be able to plant more - an additional 1 million trees over 620 acres (250 hectares) in a fraction of the time - amazing!

So how does it work?

First, the drones will fly overhead to create 3D maps of the selected are to be reforested. These maps are analyzed to create a seeding pattern suited to the terrain. “We can modify what to plant, and where, so you have the highest chance of survival,” shares Irina Fedorenko, co-founder of BioCarbon Engineering. “If you do aerial spreading—you just spread seeds wherever—maybe they hit a rock, maybe they hit a swamp, and they're not going to survive. But we can basically control for that.”

The project would later be expanded to meet Worldview’s goal of planting a billion trees.

Next, the drones will make their second pass over the terrain, this time firing out seed-pods at a speed that will allow for ground penetration. Each drone carries a mix of seed pods and follows the flight pattern to shoot in incredible precision. \\\\

The drones are organized in fleets of 6 drones each possible to reach up to 100,000 plants a day. Each fleet will first use GPS and computer vision techniques. This will free up labor to care for seedlings and monitor their growth.

“Planting trees on its own is not actually that hard,” Fedorenko says. “The crucial part of the ecosystem restoration project is not actually planting trees, it's the post-planting monitoring and management.”

BioCarbon Engineering Drone Reforestation

After their work in Myanmar, the company is hoping to bring the technology to South Africa and the Amazon jungle, where rampant deforestation has destroyed precious ecosystems.

Good job. Hopefully, it can be used worldwide for the rehabilitation of our forests for the benefit of all living things. 

“Someone's sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago.”

- Warren Buffett