One Tree Planted Partners with Vets to Drones and Carolina Drone Lab

Veterans in the Forest Program
Tying drone technology to environmental sustainability to improve America’s workforce

Vets to Drones, One Tree Planted, and UNC Chapel Hill’s Carolina Drone Lab are proud to announce the creation of the Veterans in the Forest Program, a partnership to train veterans and provide on-the-job experience in drone-based forest monitoring technology. Using Uncrewed Aerial Systems (UAS; AKA drones) and advanced imaging technology, data will be collected from One Tree Planted reforestation sites across the United States and analyzed by the Carolina Drone Lab to enhance the site’s efficacy while providing development opportunities to veterans entering the workforce.

"I am proud to announce our partnership with One Tree Planted and the Carolina Drone Lab allowing veterans to field the skills learned in the Vets to Drones program while showing the effectiveness UAS technology can have on reforestation and environmentalism.” Chris Lewis, Founder, Vets to Drones

Vets to Drones is a nonprofit organization that helps military and first responder veterans learn how to use UAS technology professionally. Vets to Drones is committed to embedding its students into the monitoring efforts and data collection of One Tree Planted’s reforestation sites across the United States. This opportunity provides unparalleled experience for the field teams involved in these projects. Additionally, it provides critical data for One Tree Planted’s reforestation mission while also bringing analysis and interpretation of the data collected through our partnership with UNC Chapel Hill’s Carolina Drone Lab.

"At One Tree Planted, our goal is to provide transparency and accountability for the planting projects that we support while building the capacity of our partners. The Vets to Drones partnership will help build the technical skills of Veterans, preparing them for the workforce, while providing drone imagery that supports monitoring, verification and reporting for environmental and sustainability goals." says Breece Robertson, Director of Impact Assessment and Monitoring at One Tree Planted

The Carolina Drone Lab’s mission is to use remote sensing technology, primarily drones, to fill data gaps, answer questions about our changing environment, and inform decision making. Expanding the current use of drones and sensors to track, measure, and monitor One Tree Planted projects over time will improve quantification of environmental and societal impacts, as well as inform ways to enhance future projects. Involving the Veterans in the Forest Program in these efforts is paving new pathways for veterans and CARDNL looks forward to bringing their experience in training drone pilots for environmental applications.

"The Carolina Drone Lab is thrilled to partner with One Tree Planted and Vets to Drones. These organizations are doing amazing work and we look forward to contributing to their efforts in reforestation projects and bringing environmental and remote sensing career pathways to veterans.”Susan Cohen, UNC Institute for the Environment and Carolina Drone Lab

About Vets to Drones
The Vets to Drones program is a 501c(3) nonprofit organization that prepares military and first responder veterans to enter the commercial drone industry. Our graduates are Part 107 Certified and tested to the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) criteria. We started this program to introduce the opportunities within the commercial drone industry to the veteran community. Becoming a UAS pilot creates new and exciting career opportunities for veterans looking for more from the commercial sector. We have partners across communities, including UAS industry experts, natural disaster response agencies, humanitarian aid NGOs, and veteran founded businesses. We are proud to work with industry partners to train our veteran students to prepare for the future of flight! To learn more, visit their website.

About One Tree Planted
One Tree Planted is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit on a mission to make it simple for anyone to help the environment by planting trees. Our projects span the globe and are done in partnership with local communities and knowledgeable experts to create an impact for nature, people, and wildlife. Reforestation helps to rebuild forests after fires and floods, provide jobs for social impact, and restore biodiversity. Many projects have overlapping objectives, creating a combination of benefits that contribute to the UN's Sustainable Development Goals.

About the Carolina Drone Lab
The Carolina Drone Lab, housed at the University of North Carolina (UNC) at Chapel Hill, Institute for the Environment, serves as a collaborative space and knowledge hub for the UNC community and beyond. The Lab facilitates innovative use of drones and sensors to solve environmental and societal challenges. The Lab maintains a series of unoccupied aerial vehicles, sensors, geospatial data collection tools, and field gear to support data-driven projects in a wide range of ecosystem types from forests to marshes. CARDNL keeps a schedule of workshops, technical support, and on-demand training opportunities to bring remote sensing technology and drone programs to broad audiences and end-users. To learn more, visit their website.

Plant Trees Where They're Needed Most

As the need for reforestation is global and ever-changing, we feature where trees are most needed now. This project is currently supporting Longleaf Pine Restoration. Learn more

With your help, we will:

Protect wildlife habitat and increase biodiversity
Restore essential watersheds for soil stability and erosion control
Sequester carbon in the biomass of the forests through climate stability

Overview
Impact
What You Get
Tree Species

Longleaf pine forests are among the most biodiverse in North America and provide habitat for numerous threatened and endangered species. Longleaf pine forests are well-adapted to a warming climate as longleaf pine is a resilient species that is fire-dependent, drought-tolerant, and long-lived. Reforestation of longleaf pine ecosystems- to increase, maintain, and enhance the species- has been identified as a priority area within America's Longleaf Range Wide Conservation Plan. 🌲
Our longleaf pine reforestation project will restore habitats, control soil erosion, and sequester carbon in an effort to stabilize the climate in the area. Not only will wildlife benefit from the clean air and water provided by the planted trees, but the surrounding community will, too. This project will work with a variety of landowners whose responsible forest management and stewardship will only further increase the benefits for species residing on the lands. Some of the most notable species that will benefit from habitat restoration include gopher tortoises, red-cockaded woodpeckers, and eastern indigo snakes.
A personalized tree certificate (see gallery) to say thanks for your donation. We'll also send you updates about our Longleaf Pine Restoration project, so you can track the impact your trees are having on the ground!
We always plant a mix of diverse, native species from local nurseries. This project is working to replenish longleaf forests, so the native species grown in the nurseries will mainly be longleaf pine, but also include shortleaf pine and loblolly pine.