Skyseed-using drones to restore forest ecosystems

ByForest Machine Magazine

23 January, 2025
Skyseed

Skyseed-Forests are already suffering from climate change, which poses enormous challenges for forest owners.
With Skyseed, we are helping to quickly secure and reforest areas – for sustainable CO2 storage, more biodiversity and a world worth living in for us and future generations.

Skyseed -Using Drones for Reforestation

I recently met Dominik Petzold from the company Skyseed and I was inspired by the effectiveness of using drones for reforestation.

Skyseed is a German start-up that specialises in close to nature reforestation after disturbances such as bark beetle infestations, forest fires, mudslides or storms.

Inspired by natural processes, seeds from trees and complimentary herb and shrub species are spread via heavy-lifting drones. The seeds are sourced from certified stands and are coated before seeding, so that hardly any predation of seeds by rodents and birds occurs. The pellet matrix consists of organic materials and keeps the seeds moist for longer, buffering harsh environmental conditions. Hence, germination rate compared to untreated seeds is increased and overall seeding efficiency improved.

Direct seeding guarantees undisturbed root development and site-specific selection, enables higher plant densities and greater species diversity and as a result produces more stable and productive forests than would be possible through planting. The method is also fast and scalable, especially on large open spaces. It takes a drone only 10-15 minutes of flight time to seed tens of thousands of seeds per ha. To achieve largest site suitability and climate resilience, Skyseed selects and applies the most suitable seed mix from well over one hundred species across all successional stages.

The current tree species spectrum includes conifers such as Douglas fir, larch, grand fir and silver fir, and pines as well as deciduous trees such as maple, alder, birch and elm. To make a large-scale forest conversion of pure stands scalable, they are also working on the development of autonomous, ground-based sowing methods. These supplement the species spectrum with trees such as oaks, nutwood and other hardwoods

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Not every area and every species are suitable for surface seeding, which is why prior site assessment and consultation are essential. Skyseed sees itself not only as a service provider, but also as a partner with a long-term commitment to the regeneration of an area. Research is being conducted on the development of novel regeneration methods for extreme locations at risk of degradation, including e.g. unmanaged steep slopes or otherwise inaccessible areas. Drone seeding is also a suitable choice for afforestation or for setting up biologically diverse transitional zones such as forest edges.


The experience gained seeding over 200 hectares of land has enabled a continuous improvement of the product, which is now also being offered in other European countries. For enquiries, please mail contact@skyseed.eco

About the company

Skyseed GmbH is a regenerative tech start-up founded in 2021 with a mission to restore and rebuild ecosystems efficiently and sustainably. The company is at the forefront of innovation in the field of reforestation, particularly in response to challenges posed by climate change and biodiversity loss. Skyseed combines innovative technology with ecological ability to provide scalable solutions for the rapid restoration of damaged forest areas, combining pelleted seeds from the whole spectrum of species (herbs, shrubs and trees).

Skyseed employs 18 people in the fields of ecology, research and pellet production, forestry consulting and sales, drone development and software development, currently raising its Late Seed round. More info at skyseed.eco

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