Start-ups | DroneSeed

It’s raining seeds

In today’s post we’ll dive into DroneSeed, a reforestation company in Seattle, WA. DroneSeed, now known as Mast Reforestation (but your authors believe they got the name right the first time), is becoming a full-service, one-stop-shop for reforestation after acquiring two seed companies to overcome upstream supply chain constraints. 

Background & Problem 

Wildfires are burning our forests faster than nature or humans can replace them. Last year, according to the National Interagency Fire Center, wildfires destroyed 7.6 million acres across the United States. Forest fires are not inherently bad. The Yellowstone fire in 1988 affected one-third of the park, and left behind new growth from seeds naturally released from the unburned tops of trees and regrowth where the root systems weren't damaged. However, today’s wildfires are stronger and hotter, so there is little natural regeneration. Instead of clearing out dead biomass and starting new growth, the ones today leave nothing behind but ash, destroying soil and seed sources, creating a situation nature cannot overcome without help. 

Reforestation efforts spread seeds and plant new trees in areas where trees used to live. The most common reforestation method is humans manually selecting locations, carrying seedlings to sites, and planting the trees. While this method works it is not scalable. There are two headwinds: (1) it is increasingly more difficult to find labor and (2) there are not enough raw materials, both seeds and seedlings, to meet demand. We are losing forests faster than nature can regenerate it or humans can replant it. Better tools and methods are needed to reforest faster, which is the niche DroneSeed captures.  

Technology 

DroneSeed is using drones to reseed forests damaged by wildfires. After a wildfire has passed through an area, DroneSeed surveys the area, collects data and creates a 3D map using a drone equipped with LiDAR sensors. The information is processed and used to identify unsuitable planting locations and, with other inputs depending on end-customer and location, create a planting route plan. Finally, a swarm of three to five drones is deployed to automatically reseed, sending their proprietary seed pucks into the planned locations.    

There are three components that set DroneSeed apart:

1. Seed supply: DroneSeed has acquired two seed companies, Silvaseed Company and Cal Forest Nurseries, to accelerate seed and seedling production and ensure they have access to raw materials for reforestation. 

2. Seed pucks: Prepackaged seed bundles that have been loaded with nutrients to support early growth and deter rodents. These seed pucks can be customized to the location. More testing is required to understand efficacy, but early pilots have shown these seed pucks are more effective than spreading seeds.   

3. Drones: Specially designed and retrofitted drones that carry and fire off the seed pucks, capable of planting three-quarters of an acre per flight. These drones operate in a swarm of three to five drones controlled by a single pilot. The FAA has granted DroneSeed permission to operate these drones beyond visual line of sight, allowing DroneSeed to reach and reforest areas faster.

Products & Commercialization

DroneSeed is operating a “reforestation-as-a-service” business. Its core business is selling seeds, seedlings, and its reforestation services to timber companies, governments, agencies, and private landowners. They have changed reforestation by opening up areas for replanting that are not accessible by human planters and accelerated the timeline that these areas can be replanted in. 

However, the primary commercialization component that makes this business work is selling carbon credits. Carbon offsets fund a significant portion of the upfront cost for seeds, drones, flight time, and other expenses. Their carbon offset program uses a forward-looking offset model, allowing buyers to pay for carbon removal that will happen in the future to offset their current emissions (more on this in a future post). These credits are independently verified by a certified carbon registry through site visits to make sure the forests are growing as expected. 

Challenges

There is no shortage of challenges in this space, but DroneSeed has worked to start mitigating each one.

1. Seed and Seedling Availability: Seed and seedling production have been a significant barrier to reforestation. DroneSeed acquired Silvaseed Company and Cal Forest Nurseries to grow millions of seedlings to shorten the wait time as well as increase the diversity of seeds, which allows them to better customize the seed pucks to a given location.   

2. Government Cooperation: The Federal Aviation Administration regulates commercial drone use. In October 2020, DroneSeed received approval from the FAA to operate their drone swarms beyond line of sight. This saves DroneSeed time and resources, allowing them to do more work using the same number of drones and pilots. 

3. Labor Shortage: Drone pilots are difficult to hire. By operating their drones in swarms of three to five drones they are able to cover more area with a single pilot. 

4. Identifying Planting Locations: Finding the right site for a seed or seedling is vital to the success of the tree. Previous reforestation automation has failed because humans are just better at finding the perfect spot to plant seedlings. DroneSeed has trained their machine learning model to identify uninhabitable locations (such as roads, rocks, dense vegetation). Time is the limiting factor here, but as DroneSeed is able to collect more data and continue to train the model they will get better at identifying the perfect sites. 

5. Negative Carbon Credit Perception: Not all carbon credits are equal. As the carbon credit market is scrutinized after top certifiers, such as Verra, are revealed to have certified empty credits the carbon credit buyers will be looking for more proof that they are getting the emissions offsets they are paying for. While DroneSeed tries to make sure the offsets they are providing are both measurable and permanent, additional oversight is needed beyond today’s standards. 

Join us Thursday for the start of our mini-series on green commodities. We’ll begin with DexMat, a Texas based company that is redefining the metal and mining industry.

If you enjoy this, check out our piece on fixing the climate tech capital stack.

The Green ETF