REVIVING FORESTS AFTER WILDFIRES

ENVIRONMENT As a biology student at the University of Victoria, Bryce Jones took a summer job planting trees in B.C. and Alberta. Now an entrepreneur, he's found a faster way to get the job done. In 2019, Jones co-founded the Toronto-based Flash Forest, which uses drones to help replant forests after wildfires.

- Patricia Karounos

The tech is more needed than ever, as climate change's longer summers and rising temperatures dry forests out. Canada's 2023 wildfire season was the most destructive on record. As of September, there were more than 6,000 recorded fires-a 21 per cent increase from the average over the last 10 years.

Staff on the ground equip the drones with the start-up's proprietary seed pods, containing locally-sourced tree seed, minerals, nutrients and helpful bacteria and fungi. From the air, the pods are ejected over burned-out sites, so they can plant a biodiverse range of trees in target areas, including in remote spots.

The start-up has already planted 1.5 million trees and aims to hit 5.5 million by mid-2024 and 1 billion worldwide by 2030. (The company plans to expand into the United States this spring.)

People often feel that there is little they can do to fight climate change, Jones says, "but you have more power than you think. We need to take this into our own hands."

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