Flash Forest planted 686,147 trees across Canada's burn scars in 2025

Flash Forest planted 686,147 trees across five Canadian sites in 2025, covering 429 hectares of wildfire-damaged forest, according to the company's latest impact report. The Canadian company, founded in 2019 by Bryce Jones, Cameron Jones and Angelique Ahlstrom, uses customized drones to fire biodegradable seed pods directly into burned soil — including remote terrain that planting crews can't easily reach on foot.

The work responds to Quebec's devastating 2023 wildfire season, when roughly 4.5 million hectares of forest burned across the province. Flash Forest has since expanded its planting operations across Canada. The aerial approach seeds large areas quickly while keeping heavy planting equipment off the forest floor.

How do the seed pods work?

Each pod contains nutrients, moisture-retaining additives and mycorrhizal fungi — soil fungi that help developing roots absorb nutrients. The drones propel the capsules into the ground, where seeds germinate without first spending years in a nursery. The pods are manufactured to consistent dimensions so they pass through the drones' automated feeding mechanisms.

Direct seeding also avoids the transplant shock that can affect nursery-grown saplings. Even so, germination still depends on conditions at each site, and the company doesn't claim otherwise.

Where do millions of seeds come from?

The seed supply behind the automation is manual and brutal. Northern Quebec faced a shortage of native seeds after the 2023 fires, so Flash Forest worked with the Oujé-Bougoumou Cree First Nation and local partners to collect jack pine cones straight from the trees. Teams traveled by snowmobile and climbed through forests at temperatures as low as -30°C.

The winter operation yielded approximately 8.5 million jack pine seeds. They were incorporated into planting pods within five months of collection.

The partnership targets land the fires damaged ecologically as well as economically. The 2023 wildfires destroyed wildlife habitats and affected traditional hunting grounds. Benny Blacksmith of the Oujé-Bougoumou Cree First Nation describes the fires' toll on wildlife, recalling how even small animals disappeared from affected areas, disrupting the food sources of larger species. He sees aerial planting as a way to restore habitats without further disturbing the land. The community hopes to see native species such as white birch and black spruce return.

What happens after the drones leave?

Planting is the fast part. Flash Forest surveys each site to assess existing vegetation, then returns to monitor seedling growth. Experimental plots compare the engineered pods against untreated seeds and areas left to regenerate naturally.

The monitoring matters because results vary. Some Quebec sites have already seen delayed germination following warmer temperatures and reduced rainfall, with further surveys planned for fall 2026.

Fire is itself part of the boreal forest's natural cycle — jack pine cones open in response to heat and release seeds onto exposed ground. But increasingly severe fires and changing climate conditions can interrupt that recovery. Flash Forest's drones insert new seeds where natural regeneration is struggling, planting each pod in seconds.

Whether those seeds establish, and what kind of forest eventually grows around them, will only become apparent over the years ahead.

Project info:

• Project: Flash Forest automated reforestation
• Company: Flash Forest, founded 2019
• Founders: Bryce Jones, Cameron Jones, Angelique Ahlstrom
• Location: Canada
• Partners: Oujé-Bougoumou Cree First Nation