Seeding with Helicopters

[Scooter]

I had someone (not a planter) recently ask about the economical and logistical viability of reforesting areas by using helicopters to drop seeds or seedlings. I don't have a lot of experience in this area, although I assumed that it wasn't that economically viable (or maybe survival rates are poor) since it is not a common approach for reforestation in Canada. Anyway, I asked RPF if he had any thoughts, and I got some good feedback from him:

If he's suggesting reforesting land by applying tree seed by helicopter then yes it's prohibitively expensive, not to mention very wasteful. Many of those seeds will end up on non-productive sites (rock, stumps, water bodies, etc) and will not germinate, thus resulting in wasted seed. The amount of seed required to make this successful is significantly more (orders of magnitude greater) than what would be required to produce seedlings for planting to reforest the same landbase. Also, stocking density would not be very uniform and may in fact be too dense or too sparse in places.

I'm not aware of anyone doing this on an operational level for the reasons stated above. I would never recommend a seeding program for those reasons. One would be better off to wait a couple years for natural regeneration followed by a fill in plant if necessary (much cheaper and effective).

I have heard of trials in the past (20+ years ago) that showed varying results, but the costs involved proved to be quite prohibitive compared to regular tree planting, hence it never became a mainstream way of reforesting land.

However, if he is asking about grass seeding for erosion control (or some other environmental factor), then yes, grass seeding using a helicopter is very cost effective and efficient - we do it quite often with great results.

Hope this helps.

Does anybody else have anything to contribute to this subject?

[Nate]

I planted some blocks around Thunder Bay where this had been done. From what I was told, the project had somewhat okay results, but as RPF indicated, it was more of a trial thing, and not economically realistic.

[salbrecher]

Seeding has been shown to cause large increases in mice populations that will eat nearly all the seeds. Thomas Sullivan at UBC has done work on this. This is the abstract from one of his papers.

"Directseeding of cutovers in temperate coniferous forests o f North
america has often been hampered because of seed predation by rodents and
birds. However, the use of alternative foods in direct seeding programs has
been shown to improve the survival of conifer seed. Seed predation by rodents
and birds was greatly reduced when alternative foods were used in experimental
seeding trials with Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii (Mirb. Franco) and
lodgepolepine ( Pinus contorta var . latifolia Engelm.) in British Columbia,
Canada. This technique may further the use of direct seeding as an economical
solution to certain reforestation problems. The methods may be adapted for
both aerial and mechanized ground row-seeding applications on an operational
basis." http://www.for.gov.bc.ca/hfd/pubs/docs/ ... /Rn097.pdf

There is also data to show that high seed years, or mast crops, occur every few years in BC for many species. This causes mice populations to often be at low periods when there are good crop years which ensure that enough seed can survive to germinate. Seeding programs can artificially keep mice populations high so that nearly all the seeds on a block will be eaten, a situation that does not usually occur in "nature"

[burnout]

Hey All This is for the US (N. Rockies) but a stones throw from the border. I have looked at units (blocks) that were seeded by Heli. They were a nightmare, trees everywhere 3-4 ft. tall the diameter of spahgetti. I would have thinned this with a can of gas and a match. I guess this practice was canned for cost & contol (thankfully)
Cheers......B

[jayBOT]

I'm not sure about helicopters but they definitely seed with planes in northwestern Ontario. It would seem to be fairly common. Usually the land allocated for aerial seeding seems to be awesome from the planting perspective and is almost always scarified with rips or brakies when I see it. Its seeded with Jack Pine which (as I understand...) only really germinates on the soil exposed by the scarification. This helps to prevent the "...trees everywhere 3-4 ft. tall the diameter of spahgetti..." that burnout mentioned. Although due to inconsistent density I think thinning is usually required too... Do these heli seeded blocks have site-prep?

Seeding seems almost like a crime. There is nothing worse than then laying out a planters piece by telling them to "stop where it gets really good".

[burnout]

The units here were (are) burned first. The units are usually under 20 acres. getting a machine in to prep it first probably would'nt fly, it would get machine planted more than likely if that was the case.
Lodgepole grow on everthing here (NW US) after fire. I've looked at units here with solid lodgepole that were estimated at 50,000>100,000 TPA (lol) Must be fairly flat in Ontario? I take it the blocks are huge ?
Thanks for the time......Cheers

[Scooter]

TPA? Does this stand for Trees Per Acre?

I'm assuming this is similar to SPH (stems per hectare) in Canada, although you'd have to multiply by 2.2 because a hectare is larger than an acre.

[steel8909]

Passed kilometers of creamy land a few times. Got my hopes up til my crew boss said it was reserved for aerial seeding :p

[newforest]

yeah, tpa = trees per acre, a US expression

I hear about this idea every so often. I think it is always dreamed up by people in a city who think there is no other way to 'reforest' the earth after those dastardly loggers and miners rape it. I have also heard of trials of putting plugs in a bio-degradable plastic cone with a point on it that can be dropped from the air. I'm pretty sure that failed too.

I do think that mechanical scarification for seeding of Jack Pine has worked and is one the few species I know of where it is considered a valid regeneration strategy. There is a bird, the Kirtland Warbler, that thrives in overly dense Jack Pine stands and in fact will generally only nest in stands of a certain density above what is actually good for pulp production. This drives a lot of Jack Pine planting in the USA however I think the species will be limited more by habitat in it's winter home (Bermuda) than whatever we can do in it's summer range (includes Ontario).

In the midwest US, there has been some interest in 'direct seeding' projects. These entail machine planting of large quantities of heavy seed hardwood species (Oak, Hickory, Black Cherry, Walnut, probably some others) in a weed-scalped trench. This technique actually works, except for one catch. Few people have the patience to add three years to the time it takes to see visible results from a tree planting project. Timber Investors have no interest in techniques that increase rotation time. In fact, decreasing rotation time pays off even when that time is generated through higher up-front capital out-lays (site prep, container stock, 'hot' planting, competition control, cutting edge genetics, etc.). Similarly, government regulators of wetland or reclamation projects care mostly about quick visual results of planting projects and also don't want to hear about the idea of growing a forest from seed (natural or planted by humans somehow), even if it would work well and be economical. That would be letting the companies they regulate 'get away' with something because it is cheaper than planting.


Anyhow I think what the world needs is less 'automated' work solutions such as this one. Obviously anyone reading this will agree that trees can be planted just fine by human beings. Personally, I think one of the causes of the current global recession is that we are automating our way out of full employment. Handing it all off to robots or other mechanized solutions may be a good boost to productivity and profits in the short run, but in the long run I think we will have to start hunting up things for people to do to keep an economy moving. But now I'm drifting too far from the shore on this topic.

[jayBOT]

The units here were (are) burned first. The units are usually under 20 acres. getting a machine in to prep it first probably would'nt fly, it would get machine planted more than likely if that was the case.
Lodgepole grow on everthing here (NW US) after fire. I've looked at units here with solid lodgepole that were estimated at 50,000>100,000 TPA (lol) Must be fairly flat in Ontario? I take it the blocks are huge ?
Thanks for the time......Cheers

I have never seen mechanical planting in Ontario. Well not out side of a farm field anyway. Way to many swamps, rocks, roots, slash, and tons of elevation changes. As newforest mentioned I have encountered some mechanical seeding of Jack Pine, although I cant comment on the success rate. As it was explained to me by my client forester its essentially bracke scarification except a hooper drops two seeds in every patch. I imagine this helps with the density issues of aerial seeding but I imagine it has the potential to create a lot of "doublers" which may need to be thinned later..

[SwampDonkey]

I've seen fire killed jack pine forest in New Brunswick get scarified and spruce planted. Only trouble is, the goof ball managing it had no clue about the silvics of either jack pine or black spruce. Those sites were so darn thick with jack pine natural seedlings (released from the cones) that you couldn't tell it was plantation unless you seen the scarification. How on earth forestry companies can hire such goofs is beyond me. ::)

[Tupperfan]

Passed kilometers of creamy land a few times. Got my hopes up til my crew boss said it was reserved for aerial seeding :p

Had the same experience. Creamiest block ever seen, no swamps, no rocks. Apparently, the conditions were too good for planters. Supervisor loved telling us we'd pass by the best land we'd ever see on our way to our blocks (which, mind you, was quite good too). He was right. I planted great shit, but that was just perfect.

But from what I've heard, and I'm definitely not an expert, yes, lots of the seeds are lost for many reasons, and so the land must be amazing for most clients to consider it.

[newforest]

sites were so darn thick with jack pine natural seedlings

my home state is continually planting Red Pine inside of heavy natural Jack Pine. a complete waste of time and money done by lazy government employees, it's disgusting.