A vast territory located on the Rupert River plateau, north of Chibougamau and Chapais, has become the perfect playground for the Ontario company Flash Forest. Its drones will reforest nearly a hundred hectares of forest that were ravaged by flames during the catastrophic summer of 2023.
In Northern Quebec, where the Assinica wildlife reserve managed by the Cree Nation of Oujé-Bougoumou is located, nearly 404,000 hectares of land designated for forestry management were affected by fires last year, representing 11.6% of the region. Some areas may even be unable to regenerate naturally due to the severity of the fires.
Concerned about these vast expanses of forest left to their own devices – and aware of the numerous obstacles slowing down the reforestation of burned forests – forestry engineer William Métivier reached out to Flash Forest to find a solution to reforest this land quickly and affordably.
Already active in the western part of the country, the young company had never before launched a project in Quebec. However, since mid-June, its drones have begun to fly over the canopy covering the mountainous territory of Assinica, leaving behind small seed pods ready to take root in the soil. In recent days, 29 hectares have been seeded in the boreal forest, which is home to a herd of woodland caribou.
It is hoped that a total of 125,000 trees can be grown, reforesting 85 to 100 hectares of forest, according to William Métivier, whose company acts as an intermediary for Flash Forest in Quebec. The capsules that will be sown are made up of 70% black spruce and 30% jack pine, tree species that have been determined through on-site analyses. The Assinica forest also consists of hardwoods, including birch, maple, poplar, and elm, which may be part of future operations, as noted by Flash Forest.
Unlike most reforested species in Quebec, these trees will not be harvested. Flash Forest will provide monitoring for the next three years, but Forair aims to study the project’s long-term evolution, observing how the trees have grown and whether they have successfully taken root in the soil.
The reforestation by drones aims to streamline the logistics of reforestation efforts, which can be lengthy and costly. By eliminating the need to create roads for heavy machinery and equipment, drones can plant more trees more quickly, without having to wait for seedlings to grow in a nursery for two or three years.
Flash Forest, with the capacity to produce up to a million capsules per day, estimates that it can plant 50,000 trees daily. In comparison, a planter has an average productivity of 1,500 to 2,000 seedlings per day. This increased efficiency is crucial as reforestation efforts are falling behind in the province, and there is a shortage of labor to plant the necessary trees to compensate for forest fire losses.
The use of drones for reforestation not only allows access to hard-to-reach areas but also mitigates the risk to planters, especially in post-fire environments where trees may fall at any moment. However, there are challenges to drone reforestation, such as low seed survival rates, precision issues, financial constraints, and weather conditions. To address these challenges, Flash Forest has intentionally planned for more capsules in its Quebec project, hoping to demonstrate the success of the reforestation effort over time.