Drone Reforestation at Scale: How Ki Reforestation Is Restoring Burned & Remote Forests in Canada with Trevor Grant

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This episode is brought to you by Ki Reforestation, a Canadian reforestation technology company restoring difficult landscapes using drone seeding, with a seed-agnostic approach and an Indigenous-aligned ecological restoration model. Today, I’m joined by Trevor Grant, Founder & CEO of Ki, to unpack Canada’s growing reforestation deficit and why new tools are needed to rebuild forests after increasingly severe wildfires — especially in steep, remote terrain where traditional crews face safety and access constraints. We dig into Ki’s system, from heavy-lift autonomous drones and real-time environmental sensing to AI-informed seeding prescriptions and the “magic sauce” behind the work: pharmaceutical-grade seed encapsulation designed to improve soil contact and reduce predation and withstand environmental factors.

Trevor also shares where drone seeding is (and isn’t) a fit, early field learnings since 2022, how costs can compare to manual planting, and what Ki is building next through a proposed five-year R&D program with academic, government, industry, and Indigenous partners. Learn more and join Ki on its mission through visiting Ki's website.

“We’re able to tailor density down to the number of seeds dispersed per square meter and adjust prescriptions in real time based on slope, soil, vegetation, and microsite conditions observed during flight.”

0:10 Introduction to Forest Invest 0:20 Sponsor spotlight: Ki Reforestation 1:01 Meet Trevor Grant, Founder and CEO of Ki Reforestation 1:12 Trevor’s favourite tree and why it stands out 2:21 The origin story behind Ki Reforestation 3:32 Canada’s wildfire crisis and the reforestation deficit 4:36 Restoring forests after wildfire: timing, access, and safety 5:27 How Ki’s drone seeding technology works 7:20 Heavy-lift drones, species mixes, and microsite planting 10:00 Seed encapsulation: the core innovation behind the model 12:53 Can drone seeding compete with manual tree planting? 17:08 Ki’s use cases: harvesting, wildfire recovery, and mine-site rehabilitation 19:44 Where aerial direct seeding is not the right fit 20:56 What Ki knows so far, and what still needs to be proven 22:11 Field trials, early results, and lessons learned since 2022 24:03 Indigenous partnerships and holistic restoration approaches 25:18 Customers, collaborators, and the 5-year research programme 28:39 What governments should ask before choosing an aerial reforestation company 31:08 Addressing scepticism and proving where the technology works 33:00 Seed sourcing, supply bottlenecks, and planning timelines 37:09 Government interest, funding gaps, and public-sector support 38:55 Carbon markets, additionality, and who should benefit 41:19 Why Ki is taking a slower, research-first approach 42:18 What excites Trevor most about Ki’s current stage 43:33 The future of Ki beyond Canada 45:33 Where to learn more and get involved

Founding Director and Host: Shauna Matkovich - The ForestLink Producer and Editor: Magdalena Laas - Unscripted Creatives

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