Forest planting Drones

Forest planting Drones

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The basic technology of forestry changed quite a bit when it comes to cutting down trees and removing it from the forest. They moved from axes, to chainsaws to machines cutting down trees. These changes sped up deforestation quite considerably.

The replanting technology however stayed the same, and involved hard manual labor to plant the new trees. This typically is still done by a shovel.

Old technology doing good work REALLY SLOW indicated below (LOL)

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This is due to the fact that the terrain is typically to difficult for machines to reach due to rough terrain and steep inclines.

Currently clear cutting of forests strips the world of approximately 26 billion trees a year, and we desperately needed a way to speed up replanting of forests.

Along comes the drone!! The normal way of doing this are about to change drastically.

First a 3D map of the terrain is created by satellite mapping or by making use of drones. These 3D maps can be used to determine the best places to plant seeds, to ensure a good survival rate.

After the maps has been compiled drones are used to spray unwanted plants and grass with poison to remove them. This can be done with a lot more precision than for instance using helicopters, which waste a lot of poison and create unwanted pollution through waste. Single plants can be singled out for spraying with the drones, thus containing waste and pollution, which could affect plants that was not targeted for removal.

The planting drones are loaded with approximately 500 biodegradable cartridges, which contains the pre-germinated seeds in a nutrient rich hydro-gel. This gel helps the seed to absorb water and feeds the new seedlings. The cartridges are shot into the ground by compressed air. On contact with the ground the cartridge breaks and in the process plants the seed.

Currently a human can plant approximately 800 seeds a day, where the drone does the same number in an hour. As can be seen this speeds up the process considerably and also reduces cost drastically.

After planting the growth of the trees can also be monitored by the drones.

The survival rate of the seeds are at about 80% which is a good rate. With this technology we can hopefully move from a barren earth to lush green forests.

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Video of drone working

The above article shows how technology can change the way we used to do things for the good and have a good impact on nature. This should make all treehuggers very happy.

And you thought drones are only toys to spy on your neighbors. The possibilities for this technology is almost limitless. I might do some more posts on the use of drones in the future.

Thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed the post.