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| Science & Technology |
| Canadian scientists want to plant a billion new trees by 2028 using a network of drones that shoot out seed pods that grow 'flash forests' |
| 2020-01-01 |
| Posted by:Skidmark |
| #18 Smart but boring. Can't they sprinkle in a Pawlonia or two? An Elm or a Linden? |
| Posted by: Lex 2020-01-01 19:45 |
| #17 Reading the article — yes, I should have done so first, but who does? — it looks like they’re being smart about it, though it’s still early days. From the article: Subsequent test flights since August have planted over 3,100 trees with their drones, including White Spruce, White Pine, Blue Spruce, Red Maple, White Birch, Sugar Maple, Douglas Fir, and Balsam Fir. From the article linked at the link: “We work closely with botanists and forestry experts, and use multi-spectral mapping UAV technology to select ideal planting sites and provide valuable follow up data on ecosystem health.” “This year we planted eight deciduous and coniferous species local to Southern Ontario,” says Flash Forest. “We can easily fill our pods with seeds of virtually any tree species (except for acorns and a few of the larger exceptions). If interested, we can also plant any flora that’s appropriate for an ecosystem in its successional period.” |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2020-01-01 19:41 |
| #16 As long as they use locally native trees, replanting denuded areas with the same species as formerly were there, they should be ok. But if they use quick growing exotics, they’ll end up with the same problem California has with eucalyptus trees — taking over the landscape, making wildfires worse, and driving a significant reduction of native plant and animal species evolved to each other and the local environment. And if they concentrate on warmer climate trees on the assumption that the climate is already significantly warmer, they’ll waste their entire investment of funding and effort. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2020-01-01 19:12 |
| #15 The US's forests are larger than they were when those awful white despoilers arrived |
| Posted by: Frank G 2020-01-01 15:53 |
| #14 The Genesis Project |
| Posted by: Crusader 2020-01-01 14:53 |
| #13 Yah, what could possibly go wrong here. |
| Posted by: Whiskey Mike 2020-01-01 14:49 |
| #12 13 billion has a nice, suitably |
| Posted by: Lex 2020-01-01 13:07 |
| #11 Betcha the "13 billion" number is pulled from air. |
| Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2020-01-01 12:56 |
| #10 "‘Every year the planet loses 13 billion trees and regains less than half of that,’ " The people living in the houses were those trees were may not appreciate a flash forest on the roof. |
| Posted by: ruprecht 2020-01-01 12:09 |
| #9 Dron for the win! Maybe Wingsuit-Hunter can be accompanied by Eosteins Ghost? The Man o' Mystery had a grand seed-plan too iirc |
| Posted by: Lex 2020-01-01 12:06 |
| #8 Planes? As they say, Where’s the graft in that? |
| Posted by: CrazyFool 2020-01-01 09:35 |
| #7 Fire is happy. |
| Posted by: Spanky Whuter1088 2020-01-01 06:33 |
| #6 Hunter Biden with his dic* in the dirt? Please send me the link. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2020-01-01 04:19 |
| #5 'Coz that guy can plant seed like a mofo !' |
| Posted by: Dron66046 2020-01-01 04:13 |
| #4 Or, they could get Hunter Biden in a wingsuit. First Snark O'The Day for 2020 (Yesterday's Burg was absolutely snark packed) |
| Posted by: Dron66046 2020-01-01 04:12 |
| #3 Yeah, and because technology. And Kickstarter. Skinny jeans and man-buns. Planes are like so 20th century |
| Posted by: Lex 2020-01-01 01:07 |
| #2 Because drones are cool? |
| Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2020-01-01 01:02 |
| #1 Um.. maybe I'm old-fashioned but why wouldn't you just drop the seeds in some kind of sharp vertical packet from a plane a few thousand feet? You could plant orders of magnitude more trees that way, probably more effectively as well. |
| Posted by: Lex 2020-01-01 00:58 |