Recovering from a wildfire can be financially burdensome. For instance, the recent wildfires in Los Angeles resulted in up to $164 billion in losses to property and capital. Additionally, the restoration of affected forests is costly, with several thousand acres costing millions, as noted by Grant Canary, the co-founder and CEO of Mast Reforestation, in an interview with TechCrunch.
“For landowners, if it takes 60 to 80 years for new trees to mature, any investment manager would advise putting your money into something more immediate,” said Canary.
The principal expense during reforestation is the management of dead, charred trees. Typically, these trees are cut down, stacked, and incinerated on-site. “That’s the most economical solution,” remarked Canary.
Canary explained that Mast has found a method to finance reforestation efforts immediately, alleviating the need for landowners to wait for decades to harvest timber or claim carbon credits. Instead of incinerating the debris, Mast will gather and inter the trees to prevent decay—thereby enabling the sale of generated carbon credits.
Recently, Mast secured $25 million to advance this innovative business model, a detail shared exclusively with TechCrunch. The funding round saw leadership from Pulse Fund and Social Capital, alongside participation from Seven Seven Six. The inaugural project for the startup will occur in a Montana region impacted by the Poverty Flats Fire in 2021.
Interring biomass not only curtails the release of additional soot into the atmosphere, but without sufficient preparation of the site, it may still emit methane and carbon dioxide.
In most soils, decaying wood is consumed by microbes, leading to the release of methane and carbon dioxide.
Mast proposes a novel solution. The startup plans to bury the trees in areas with clay-rich soil, restricting airflow and moisture, which in turn inhibits microbial activity. The burial sites will reach depths of up to 30 feet and cover areas as large as three acres. After depositing the dead trees, Mast will seal the site with clay and other natural materials, akin to landfill construction.
Once the process is complete, Mast will install monitoring systems at the burial sites to ensure the wood remains intact. Moreover, the company has established the Northwest Permanence Foundation to oversee the site for the next century, which corresponds to the minimum duration for carbon credits obtained. Should issues arise, the foundation is prepared to enact repairs to prevent decomposition.
By locking away carbon in the interred trees, Mast stands to sell up to 30,000 metric tons of carbon credits, the revenue from which will fund the reforestation of 900 acres.
Canary launched Mast roughly ten years ago as DroneSeed, which, as the name implied, utilized drones for reseeding areas ravaged by wildfires.
However, he soon recognized that a cost-effective method to disperse seeds was just part of a larger puzzle; the company needed a reliable seed source, and generally, reforestation is more successful with seedlings cultivated in nurseries, rather than seeds spread by drones. Consequently, DroneSeed acquired two additional businesses, Silvaseed and Cal Forest Nurseries, subsequently rebranding as Mast Reforestation.
Conversely, the startup is building its biomass burial initiative from the ground up.
It is gathering data and developing technology to identify optimal sites for biomass burial on fire-damaged landscapes. As Canary articulated, the intention is to leverage this data platform in conjunction with carbon credit sales to expedite reforestation in wildfire-affected regions across the western United States.
“Reforestation projects typically require three to five years,” he explained. “We can achieve this in six to twelve months.”
Compiled by Techarena.au.
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