The Fourth Industrial Revolution and the Future of Reforestation
(Originally published in Sans Pulp Press Magazine, Vol1)
When all is said and done, the winds of change will whip across the way and wipe out even the most ancient of willows. Or so that damn poet says…
The vocation of tree planting — as hard as it may be to swallow — is not immune to evolution. Much like other industries and spheres of society, reforestation could soon endure the effects of what has been called ‘the 4th Industrial Revolution’ (4IR), characterized by technologies such as the integration of biological and digital systems, the internet of things, and artificial intelligence (1). Far from being bound to the hubs of cosmopolitan civilization, these emerging innovations of our era threaten to disrupt even the most primitive of industries. The resulting advancement will likely have an immeasurably large impact on industry and labour — not to mention the human soul — if it develops unadulterated.
So, how could this affect Tree Planting?
To answer this question it is first essential to understand that the treeplanter’s work is but a small piece of a larger industry. Across the forestry supply chain, from surveying, to harvesting, transportation, and milling, many companies are starting to adopt 4IR technologies for various, complex economic and environmental reasons. As much as some would like to ignore it, our jobs are reliant on and intertwined with the pulp/timber giants that dominate across the country. If there is pressure on them to change, why not us? Many planters enjoy pretending that it's still 1976, with our old buses, baggy clothes, and rockin’ parties. Some planters would prefer to ignore developments outside the bush; we’d rather not hear the memo that the thrill of bush life could one day be no more.
Over the last several years, Canadian governments and the private sector have gradually invested into areas such as biofuel, “mass timber” led by the Daniels faculty at UofT (2), AI forest monitoring, and robotic harvesting in an effort to either reduce carbon emissions, or compete in an increasingly competitive global market. The federal government, for example, created the ‘Investments in Forest Industry Transformation’ (IFIT) program in 2010, with the expressed goal of facilitating the adoption of these new technologies and products (3). These efforts implicitly signal the progression towards greater automation of labour.
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The dispersion of seeds dropped from the air, also known as aerial seeding, was the first competitor to the human planter. For a long time, this method proved ineffective, as seeds often descended haphazardly via plane at high distances, offering little consistent reliability compared to the ‘boots on the ground’ approach. However, as drone technology has improved, so too has the possibilities of reforestation from the sky. Resolute Forest Products (now Domtar), for example, recently began using drones, including the ‘Hylio AG-166’ (a “heavy-duty multicopter”) and ‘WingtraOne’ (equipped with a high-resolution camera) to seed certain cut blocks, machines that possess far superior precision capabilities than the airplanes of the past (4).
Additionally, forestry drones have benefitted from broader advancements. Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR), which is used to examine surface characteristics of the Earth, applied to forestry allows users to gather information on soil quality, shade locations, moisture level, tree heights, vegetation, species, and more without ever needing to step foot in a woodland. With these features combined, you get a machine that - in theory - has the potential to reforest an ecosystem far more efficiently than a human could ever hope for, especially as their mammalian blood is swarmed over by parasitic insects for four days in a row.
Enter Flash Forest, founded in 2019 as a self-titled ‘reforestation automation company’ with the goal of planting 1 billion trees. The company, on a mission to revolutionize methods of the industry, is backed by ‘partners’ as diverse and influential as the Federal government, the Alberta Provincial Government, several First Nation development corporations, West Fraser, Molson, and Telus.
The company's purpose is listed clearly in their ‘Indeed’ bio: “Flash Forest is a reforestation company that uses aerial mapping software, drone technology, pneumatics, automation, ecological science and a lot of passion to reforest post-harvest and post-wildfire areas at a rapid pace. We accelerate the rate of reforestation worldwide. Instead of humans on the ground, we transfer the hard labour to drones at 10 times the speed. Living in the age of technology, we can effectively harness this to restore entire ecosystems, scaling the global quest for carbon neutrality”(5).
Speed, quality, precision - they promise it all. A particular advantage they advertise is monitoring. Unlike tree planting crews who typically ‘pound and peace out,’ Flash Forest promises to periodically check back on reforested areas to ensure progress. Captivated by the potential, the federal government contributed $1.3 million to the company in 2022.
The Minister of Natural Resources at the time made the policy logic very clear: “By using drones, we can plant more swiftly, efficiently and effectively, making it easier to grow our forests, clean our air, support important habitats for wildlife and restore valuable ecosystems”(6).
Are drones really up for the task?
Framed in this way, human labour is an impediment to the type of progress essential in the effort to stave off ecocide. If anything, human tree planters are a burden to the environment, a remnant of the carbon based economy. In Canada — and even more so in countries that have not developed an economy and culture of reforestation — the only solution is automation.
If the efficiency, and necessity, that Flash Forest proposes is true, why did anyone hire companies like Brinkman or Torrent this year? Why have they planted little over 2.9 million trees since 2019, an amount less than many planting companies in 2025?
Although Flash Forest did not respond for comment when asked about the future of reforestation technology, Natural Resources Canada (NRC) did: “This technology is not a viable replacement for traditional planting crews,” a representative explained.
“Human expertise remains essential to achieving Canada’s ambitious reforestation goals.” They explained that drone-based aerial seeding has a current success rate of about 20 percent, significantly lower than current planting methods which “have an 85–90 percent success rate”. Furthermore, their performance depends heavily on environmental conditions, which “limits the effectiveness of drones in the very slopes and terrains they are meant to access.”
While speaking to the Western Forestry Contractors’ Association (WFCA) in 2023, UBC Forestry Professor John Innes echoed this message, stating that “drones do not work well, generally, if there's a lot of slash on the ground,” he said. “Tree planters are far better in those areas”(7).
One Canadian reforestation company, MiON Forest, has ambitions to carry out the “vision of early aerial reforestation pioneers, like UBC research forester Jack Walters”, utilizing the latest drone technology and ‘Vision AI targeting’. According to Co-Founder Sanghyun Kim, the company has developed the world’s first ‘smart drone system’ that plants actual seedlings (plugs), rather than seed clusters. He claims the “core innovation” of MiON is their ‘AeroPod’, an aerodynamically designed, biodegradable vessel that houses the seedling, engineered to “penetrate the soil upon impact” and “boost root establishment”. Not only can these drones access remote areas that human workers supposedly cannot, but the technology also enables the work to be completed at substantially lower cost. However, Kim says MiON’s drones are incapable of replacing many aspects of reforestation, noting that humans remain “incredibly efficient” in many contexts. He views the technology as “a tool to augment the workforce, not replace it”. Currently, the company focuses on post-mined restoration and land reclamation. “Ultimately, our goal isn't to replace the incredible culture and efficiency of human planters, but to take on the dangerous, degraded terrain where human crews shouldn't have to go for safety”, he said.
{A MiON Drone outside of their Hamilton Headquarters}
The lament of an uncertain future
How long these limitations of technology will persist, remains uncertain. The use of intelligent drones and other 4IR innovations, however, is growing steadily. Flash Forest, for instance, planted approximately 1 million trees in 2024, compared to 1.9 million from 2019-2023 (8).
While certainty and security are scarce, us tree planters ought to do everything we can to operate at a high standard within our respective projects across the country, so as to prove to the larger industry that human labour in reforestation is not necessarily a remnant of a bygone era. If the human element of reforestation is to survive, then it must maintain an advantage over the machines. Otherwise, an occupation and culture that so many have known, loved and worked so hard to create, may become a thing of the past.
The thoughts of Leif Moen, a crew boss and tree runner in Ontario, reflect on what might be lost: “I think the loss of tree planting as we know it would be heartbreaking. It is one of the most beautiful subcultures I have personally witnessed and has positively impacted countless lives in so many ways. In my opinion one of the most unique aspects to tree planting is the balance between work and fun. There are not many opportunities that allow you to work as hard as you possibly can, and indulge in as much fun as you possibly can, and where it is up to you to find out exactly how much of each you can handle and benefit from.”
“[Treeplanting] provides you with a beautiful experiment in work-life balance all wrapped up in one job/experience, while you are surrounded by a community of peers often in similar places in life and discovery. Not to mention it is set in the beautiful environment of the Canadian wilderness. Planting has enriched so many in experience, community, critical fiscal wealth, and self knowledge. It's hard to imagine anything could fill a hole the size of tree planting, but the futures [sic] a mystery, and I know that planting will never truly disappear.”
Luckily for this generation, it seems we still have a few more years… at least.
Sources:
Perhaps most famously expressed by our Prime Minister: Bank of International Settlements, “A Platform for Innovation”, Page 2, https://www.bis.org/review/r190430c.pdf.
See the Daniels School: https://academic.daniels.utoronto.ca/masstimberinstitute/.
Funding for projects began in 2022: Natural Resources Canada, “Investments in Forest Industry Transformation”, https://natural-resources.canada.ca/forest-forestry/forest-programs/investments-forest-industry-transformation-ifit#CapInv.
See the article on Resolute: Paper Money, “Resolute Forest Product adds drones to its Ontario seeding and mapping operations”, https://www.globalpapermoney.com/resolute-forest-product-adds-drones-to-its-ontario-seeding-and-mapping-operations-cms-15779%26cache_id%3D19931?.
See their Indeed profile: https://www.indeed.com/cmp/Flash-Forest-Inc.
Natural Resources Canada, “Tree-Planting Drones to Revitalize Reforestation Efforts in Areas Affected by Wildfires”,
2023 Western Forestry Contractors’ Association Conference, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nN_tinqYbhc&list=LL&index=2.
See their 2024 Report: Flash Forest, “Impact Report: 2024”, Page 13, https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/67d006c32ab4ba62f9fcd61d/6808c22c7e03af417ef7d3c3_FF_IMPACT-REPORT_SK-QC_Small.pdf.
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