DroneSeed acquires major forestry seed supplierFriday 27 Aug 2021
DroneSeed announced that it has acquired Silvaseed Company, a 130 year-old titan in the forestry seed collection and seedling supply business. The move expands DroneSeed’s reforestation services beyond aerial drone-based seeding to span seed collection, seedling cultivation in nurseries, and on-the-ground tree planting services. The acquisition comes at a critical time in the forestry industry, with skyrocketing demand for reforestation and many tree nurseries facing significant seed and seedling shortages. “With the compounding crises of climate change, wildfires and forest loss, accelerating the pace and scale of reforestation is essential,” said Grant Canary, CEO of DroneSeed. “By creating the industry’s first vertically-integrated reforestation company, we now offer a ‘one-stop-shop’ of reforestation services for landowners and foresters: starting from seed supply, to aerial enhanced seeding, to seedling cultivation, to traditional replanting, and more. We’re thrilled to build on Silvaseed’s track record and are doubling capacity at Silvaseed to meet intensifying demand.” Tackling the national shortage of tree seed & seedlings is critical to mitigate the exponentially increasing loss of forests due to wildfire and climate change. Forests are naturally regenerating fewer acres as fires impact larger areas, burn hotter, and natural “seed banks” in the soil and treetops get torched. There aren’t enough seeds or nursery capacity to regrow the trees being lost each year—the existing reforestation supply-chain evolved to boost regeneration in a minor percentage of fires, and now climate change fueled wildfire has increased demand many times over and supply of seed and seedlings hasn’t increased. DroneSeed is eager to begin addressing this by building upon Silvaseed’s robust infrastructure and utilizing its aerial tech. Matthew Aghai, DroneSeed’s Senior Director of Biological Research & Development, will serve as interim general manager of Silvaseed with support from industry veteran Arnoud de Villegas. The company will continue seed collection and seedling operations with the Silvaseed name and brand. .jpg) | ||
Copyright 2004-2024 © Innovatek Ltd. All rights reserved. |
