Planting Trees

Can Drones Help Plant Trees?

A recent start-up thinks drones are the answer to a world that, over the centuries, has lost a large percentage of its tree cover.

After mapping the terrain it flies over, a drone with a cargo hold full of sprouts would fire them, one-by-one, into the soil below, creating a planting pattern that best suited a given location.

My initial reaction was, 'hey, good idea'.  Then I got to thinking of all the things that could go wrong: four-legged creatures nibbling bark; two-legged creatures needing firewood.  Little green sprouts and no water for several days.  Infertile, rocky soil.

Probably the most troubling of these is lack of water when it's needed.  If terrain is wet enough, the soil will produce its own volunteer grass and shrubs, followed by trees that are best suited to the climate; the limiting factor here will likely be the presence of animals such as deer, goat, sheep and mice.  If the terrain is relatively dry, though, a human presence is all but mandatory, just to keep the project's seedlings from drying out.

In October of 2011 I posted an article on this blog that described how one could, with an investment in solar energy, turn a barren desert island into a lush paradise for about $3,000 per family homestead.  This would involve several machines, each of which pulled moisture out of the air, and coupled with drip irrigation, could conceivably turn a rocky island green.

Combine a portable drip irrigation system for a few dozen trees each with drone-based planting and you might have a workable system that could be used where trees are most needed: arid climates.

Would be fun to try different approaches and see which worked best in which settings.