In late May, a global forestation company traveled to a fire-scarred landscape in Grand County with new technology that could help restore the forest.

In 2020, the East Troublesome Fire tore through the area north and west of Granby and Grand Lake. Fast forward to today — the land needs help from experts to plant trees where the fire burned catastrophically hot. That’s where Flash Forest comes in.

“I think everyone here knows about the challenges of wildfire and especially restoring forests in a post-wildfire situation where the category of the burn is so high,” said Marc Apduhan, innovation and business development manager for Flash Forest.

---

---

He was speaking at Bud Wilson Fire Station to his fellow team members, as well as staff from Grand County Fire Protection District, Grand County Wildfire Council and Northern Water.

Sky-Hi News joined the group at the station that was constructed in 2023 between Granby and Grand Lake, to learn more about the project and observe a demonstration of the innovative drone technology in action.

---

---

Apduhan stood next to a human-sized Hylio drone, capable of rapidly shooting out seedpods to embed in fire-torn landscapes, such as the hillside a couple miles from the fire station.

He explained Flash Forest staff flies the futuristic drones high above the ground to plant hundreds of thousands of seedpods across a three-acre area. The goal is to have roughly the same number of trees as there were pre-fire, thereby bringing back life and biodiversity to a recovering landscape.

Months of effort and several grant applications brought Flash Forest from its headquarters in Mississauga, Ontario to the site of the East Troublesome Fire for the groundbreaking project.

How did Flash Forest connect with a Grand County nonprofit?  

Grand County Wildfire Council works to educate the community about wildfires, providing a conduit between fire mitigation resources and individuals. Earlier in 2024, the wildfire council and Flash Forest each applied for a reforestation grant opportunity through ConservationX Labs, called the “Fire Grand Challenge.”

ConservationX Labs states the Fire Grand Challenge is a “global call to innovators from around the globe to submit solutions to transform how we manage and live with fire in Western North America.”

If we put our lifelong journey on earth aside, these forests last hundreds of years … We like to say these seedpods in a very decimated area can kickstart mother nature. You hopefully visit it one day 10 years later and you’re like, ‘Okay, there it is.’

Chris Ireland, senior vice president of product for Flash Forest 

The challenge connects large-scale forestation companies with Indigenous and rural communities across North America — ConservationX facilitated the partnership between Flash Forest and the wildfire council.

“We got this $50,000 grant to split, to execute this pilot project,” said Jessica Rahn, the council’s executive director. “… Their technology can make a difference in replanting quickly in soils that are heavily damaged by wildfire and unable to regenerate naturally, reducing the risk of erosion and stream disruption, as well as restoring the forest.”

She added that the council is honored to be a partner for Flash Forest for the seedpod innovation in the burn scar.

“It’s a recognition of the fact that we’re going to live with wildfire,” Rahn said. “They’re going to happen. So how do we regenerate afterwards?”

In addition to the innovative Grand County collaboration, 11 other partners throughout North America also received grants. The grand prize winner, plus second and third-place winners, will receive more grant money as the projects advance. The council is hopeful they and Flash Forest could be in the running.

“If our team is one of the three finalists and we receive additional funds, we are hoping to expand the pilot with Flash Forest to additional testing areas in Grand County to do more replanting within the burn scar,” said Rahn.

For now, they are concentrating on the first phase of the project — monitoring the seedpods that drones have recently planted in the burn scar.

Willow Creek Reservoir area targeted for pilot project

On May 29, the Flash Forest team staged at the Bud Wilson Fire Station for a demonstration of their process. First, they showed the group their drone technology.

The team addresses reforestation through a combination of software, drone planting and traditional methods, where a person with boots on the ground inspects planting areas.

Flash Forest uses a layering software to determine the landscape’s suitability for replanting. These layers include precipitation data, topography and fire severity, explained Apduhan.

After careful review, the team determined the best place to plant was in a hillside near Willow Creek Reservoir. This reservoir built in 1953 by Northern Water helps supply water to the Front Range through in impoundment of Willow Creek between Lake Granby and Colorado Highway 125.

Chris Ireland, Flash Forest’s senior vice president of product, explained that Flash Forest specifically targets areas that are severely burned.

“The exciting part about something like this (seedpod planting) is that it’s a net gain,” said Ireland. “We’re not interested in planting where natural regeneration is happening. We want to make a positive net gain, and this is the perfect environment.”

In the area they’ve chosen to plant, only the fire-adaptive aspen species has grown back, but no pines. The area also contains dead trees that still haven’t healed.

Super planter drones to the rescue

While hand planting will always have a place in reforestation, drones can access areas that are unsafe or impossible for humans to work. The drones’ other superpowers are speed and force.

Drones shoot out pods, embedding them into the ground, which gives them a better chance of survival. Flash Forest’s drones can embed about 10,000 seedpods in five minutes, or about 33 a second, according the the company.

Depending on the terrain, the drone can complete four to six planting cycles of seedpods per hour, flying at a clip of about 12 meters per second, “which is really, really fast,” Ireland emphasized.

Up to three drones can be flown together for maximum effect.

By comparison, a hand planter can generally plant about 1,500 trees a day.

Ireland added that the seedpods have a unique biotechnology. First, their protective and spherical shape allows them to embed easily when they land. Second, they are packed with nutrients, fungi and bacteria to help them grow.

They have water retention additives, as well. Flash Forest irrigated some seedpods in the Willow Creek Reservoir plot, and left others to the natural elements, to test how each thrives.

Seedpods give a boost to mother nature’s healing powers  

After the demonstration at the station, the team headed up a windy road, past Willow Creek and its reservoir, to a wide-open area where the effects of the fire still lingered on blackened branches.

Ireland showed the group how many seedpods the drone has planted so far. The team chose a number of circular plots in the three-acre area for the drones to embed seedpods within.

Pink spray paint and wooden posts marked the spot where the gray pods lay nestled in the dirt, waiting to become trees. Flash Forest is shooting for 400 trees to grow within each acre, which would be a 100% success rate.

The team has planted several different tree species to create biodiversity in the area (which is already full of young aspens growing back after East Troublesome) including ponderosa pine, corkbark fir, blue spruce, Engelmann spruce and white sagebrush.

Ireland explained that the team is able to do a test run of some tree species that weren’t in the area pre-fire. This testing is allowed in the U.S., but not Canada. The wildfire council specifically recommended ponderosa over the lodgepole pines that were in the area before the fire. 

According to council staff member Sam Bailey, ponderosa are less vulnerable compared to other species.

“It’s a more fire-resistant tree,” he explained. “We didn’t want to replant ourselves a problem. We’ve got enough lodgepole to deal with.”

Lodgepole were decimated by bark beetle prior to the East Troublesome Fire. Their dead trunks gave fuel to the flames. Ponderosa also do better in warmer climates, and Grand County is growing slightly warmer over the decades. Pockets of ponderosa are now found in other areas in western Grand County.

Bailey is excited to see if this species will thrive in a new area beside Willow Creek. The good news is that Flash Forest guarantees their trees. In the case that seedpods don’t produce enough trees, the team will come back in and replant on their own dime. Either way, the goal is for their work to stand testament long after they are gone.

“If we put our lifelong journey on earth aside, these forests last hundreds of years,” Ireland said. ” … You hopefully visit it one day 10 years later and you’re like, ‘Okay, there it is.'”

Since this is Flash Forest’s first time in the U.S., there are some unknowns ahead as they visit again to monitor for future growth.

Unknowns aside, Ireland expects the seedpods to do the job nature intended. When trees return, they will prevent soil erosion and debris from flowing into Willow Creek’s water supply. Additionally, once the seedlings grow, they’ll contribute to the bioverse in a myriad of ways.

“You’ll get everything, from birds to bees. You’ll get all the wildlife coming in and their excrement will kind of replant,” he said. “And you end up with the ecosystem regenerating. We like to say these seedpods in a very decimated area can kickstart mother nature.”  

As Ireland spoke to the group, gray clouds rolled in, bringing much-needed rain. A good sign that the seedpods are already on their journey to return the forest to its former, pre-Troublesome glory.

This story is from SkyHiNews.com.