Drones used to sow tree seeds in scheme to restore lost South West rainforests

The scheme is part of efforts to triple Atlantic temperate rainforest in Devon and Cornwall by mid century.

Tens of thousands of native tree seeds have been sown by drone as part of efforts to triple the amount of rare rainforest in south-west England.

The Woodland Trust has led the project to sow 75,000 seeds of trees native to Atlantic temperate rainforest, including pedunculate oak, alder, wild cherry, downy birch and hazel, on the hills around Bodmin, Cornwall.

The scheme uses the high-tech drones, which are able to carry 58kg (128lbs) of seeds and hover just a few metres above the ground, to reach places that are inaccessible or difficult to plant by humans.

Trees on a woodland bank with moss and ferns covering the ground — Temperate rainforest habitat used to cover swathes of Britain, the island of Ireland and the Isle of Man (Alamy/PA)

Native trees festooned in lichen, mosses and ferns provide habitat for a wide array of creatures, including hazel dormice, rare blue ground beetles and other insects, and birds such as redstart and pied flycatcher.

These rainforests once swathed western coasts of Britain, the island of Ireland and the Isle of Man, but have shrunk from about a fifth of land to just 1%, cut down for timber and to make space for agriculture.

They now are found only in fragments that face threats including climate change and invasive species.

Several different species of lichen on a branch of a tree — Britain’s rainforests are a key habitat for species of lichen (Emily Beament/PA)

The seeds were mixed with wood pellets and sawdust when sown, to give an even spread, but the trust said the technology is advancing so that will not be required in future trials.

It is hoped the approach will achieve a 25% success rate in the number of seeds becoming trees, inspiring investment into refining the effectiveness of drones and the supply of native tree seeds.

A large drone on the ground is being filled by a man in red waterproofs using a large yellow bucket — Drones are being used to reach places that are inaccessible to people (HereNowFilms/PA)

Sam Manning, who is leading the project for the Woodland Trust, said: “Restoring and expanding our temperate rainforests are vital in solving the climate and biodiversity crises.

“A key part of that is developing new innovative methods of woodland creation which are faster, cheaper and reach currently inaccessible sites which are unsafe for human tree planters, or where the soils are too thin for planting with spades.”

He said drones were potentially much faster and cheaper at dispersing seeds than volunteers, and the technology seeds 11 hectares of land in eight hours.

A tree branch covered in moss with ferns growing out of it, and a river and woodlands behind — Only a small proportion of wildlife-rich rainforest remains in the South West (Emily Beament/PA)

“Drones can help solve these issues by removing the safety and accessibility limitations of humans.”

Merlin Hanbury-Tenison, author of a new book on rainforests, Our Oaken Bones, owns some of the land where the seeding has taken place.

He said: “Up to a fifth of the British Isles was once a rainforest landscape but this has been reduced to less than 1% of its original range due to deforestation across the uplands.

“If we’re to reverse this destruction then we will need to leverage innovative technology-enabled solutions wherever possible.”

He said he could not think of a “better example” of using technology than the drone-seeding project by the Woodland Trust.